McVay, Rams have a lot to build on

There are a lot of good things that Sean McVay and the Los Angeles Rams are excited about. The season for McVay and the Rams ended prematurely in a 24-23 road defeat to the Detroit Lions in a Wild Card game. 

That’s not what has McVay all revved up about. The disappointment of falling short of the ultimate goal of playing and winning a Super Bowl is there for McVay and his ballclub to absorb. He’s not dwelling on it, though.

The ultimate positive vibe enforcer, McVay, during his end-of-the-season Zoom press conference with reporters, is already looking ahead to the 2024 NFL season. 

“I’m more excited about the next season and really, we weren’t ready for the year to end. I don’t think anybody anticipated or expected that. I thought our guys were ready to go. It’s really hard to get to those points,” McVay said. “

“I think what you appreciate the more experience you have it’s really difficult to even put yourself in a position to be one of those 14 teams in the tournament. It went wire-to-wire just came up short, but we’ve got a lot of continuity coming back and we’ll have a lot of resources relative to draft capital and even just some flexibility to be able to add some players or resign some that wasn’t afforded to us last year,” McVay added. 

McVay and the Rams surprised a lot of people. Coming off a 5-12 season and armed with a bunch of inexperienced players, the Rams weren’t even supposed to sniff the postseason. 

All that changed after the team’s bye week in Week 10. At 3-6, the Rams peeled off a run in which they won seven of their last eight games to at least get invited to the NFL playoff party with a No. 6 seeding. 

McVay found the character of the team throughout the season, even with the poor start that the Rams had, to be both impressive and stimulating.   

“I think their energy, their vibe, their relentless mental and physical toughness, the stamina at which they just continued to come to work whether we were 3-6 or 7-1 at the end of the season, just the caliber of people,” McVay said. “Like I mentioned to you guys, everything is and always has been and always will be about people. When you’re surrounded by coaches and players you love and that you don’t want to let down, you’re reminded of that really quickly.” 

There’s plenty that McVay and the Rams can build on from this season. Defensively, rookies Kobie Turner and Byron Young proved their value to the team. Turner led the team in sacks with nine. Young, coming off the edge position, tied Aaron Donald with eight sacks on the season.  

“I’m really excited about them,” McVay said of Turner and Young. “I just think two guys that did a great job for us, really coachable, very much in alignment with the things that we hunt up make up wise. I thought Kobie was excellent. He’s mature beyond his years and I thought Byron got better as the season progressed.”

McVay was impressed overall by how the defensive unit came on in the second half of the season. 

“I thought they played consistently well throughout the season,” he remarked. “I thought we played better complimentary football after the bye and I thought our offense really played at a different level. But I thought our defense did a much better job of getting some takeaways.” 

On the other side of the ball, where do you start? Quarterback Matthew Stafford continues to sling the ball all over the field. Second-year man Kyren Williams is the guy at running back after producing a 1,000-yard season (1,144 yards). 

Rookie offensive lineman Steve Avila proved to be solid. And what can you say about first-year receiver Puka Nacua, who broke rookie records left and right? Nacua is a stud. Along with Cooper Kupp, he gives the Rams an explosive wideout duo. 

The Rams are a young team. So the promise of what the ballclub was able to achieve in 2023, only has McVay looking at the future.  

“I’m really excited and motivated and I think I speak for our players and coaches, nobody was ready for the season to end,” McVay said. “But definitely an excitement and a motivation to move forward. These feelings that you have from the other day will carry you to try to be better next year.”