With the notable exceptions of 2022 and 2024, the Los Angeles Rams have been a top 12 offense for every year of head coach Sean McVay's career. From Cooper Kupp to Puka Nacua, Todd Gurley to Kyren Williams (a downgrade, to be sure), the Rams have continued to operate near the top of the NFL as an offense for nearly a decade.
Not coincidentally, 'The McVay Effect' is both apt and well-documented: as McVay's success has led to a mass changing of the guard throughout the NFL's coaching landscape. Mike Sando of The Athletic noted that since the McVay/Shanahan hiring wave, 20 coaches have found their way onto benches, contrasted to just 11 over the two decades prior. And true to form, a good number of those names are considered part of the newly sprouted McVay coaching tree: Zac Taylor, Matt LaFleur, Kevin O'Connell, and Liam Coen.
The McVay 'Effect' and 'Coaching Tree' both come with connotations of successful NFL offenses. But to hear 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, there is more to their coaching success than improvisational schemes and less formal formation work. When discussing his strategy for dealing with Liam Coen's Jaguars, Saleh had the following to say:
"Liam and his staff, a couple guys coming from Minnesota, they've got a -- legally -- a really advanced signal-stealing-type system where they always find a way to put themselves in an advantageous situation. They do a great job of it. They formation you to just try to find any nugget they can. So we've got to be great with our signals and we've gotta be great with our communication to combat some of the tells that we might give on the field."
With more largely-available film to analyze than in years past, it is at least significant to note that McVay and his ilk might have taken to analyzing opposing benches and hand signals, the football-legal equivalent to counting cards. And he did emphasize that the practice is completely legal -- but McVay's tree is uncommonly good at it.
But is sign-reading really beneficial to the McVay coaching tree?
Right at the top, of course, you do have Sean McVay himself, whose Rams are generally considered a top-tier team. The same can be said of Matt LaFleur and Kevin O'Connell. The Packers have been brilliant on at least one side of the ball since LaFleur took over in 2019, and the Vikings' offense has been near the top of the league since O'Connell was hired in 2022. Zac Taylor's Bengals have also similarly been successful. And while Liam Coen's career as a head coach has just begun, he was the offensive coordinator behind the Buccaneers' top five scoring and yardage offense in 2024.
However, on the flip side, Zac Taylor went 2-14 in the one season he's been without Joe Burrow, and all of the 'signal stealing' he could have done has not helped to keep Burrow upright consistently since. His own protégé, Brian Callahan, went 3-14 in 2024 as the head coach of the Tennessee Titans, and has also given up play calling duties as of Week 3.
So how correct is Saleh in his assessment of the 'signal stealing' he has hypothesized is a staple of the McVay coaching tree? At the end of the day, it is tough to judge. However, it is significant to talk about, and if Liam Coen can get into his head enough for the idea to be addressed, Saleh's future matchups against the Jaguars, Vikings, and Rams, at least, will be ones to watch.