WOODLAND HILLS, California – Every NFL season has its own chapter, full of different narratives. Some are good, some are bad, and some are somewhat in between.
For the Los Angeles Rams, the 2024 NFL season represents a new journey for the team and head coach Sean McVay, a path they hope winds up in New Orleans for the Super Bowl.
Getting there is the tough part. But this Rams team may have all the ingredients to make a third Super Bowl trip under McVay. Despite having one of the most dominant players ever to play the game calling it quits and another top defensive playmaker being traded away, McVay and the Rams have moved on.
The train ride does not stop. There is still a season to be played and more on-field battles to conquer. Reigning superior against an opponent means having the right mental mindset.
After going through a minicamp and enduring training camp, the Rams’ attitude going into the 2024 NFL season appears to be on point.
Sure, it’s early. Without having played a down of the regular season, it’s hard to gauge who or what player has the right mental makeup to carry through an entire season. But McVay, who has been coaching the team since 2017, has a pretty good idea.
“Here’s what I think,” McVay said a few days out from the Rams playing the Detroit Lions in the team’s season-opener. “I think there’s been a lot of things that we’ve really talked about, the mental and the physical toughness. I think ultimately you really find out once you go on these journeys.”
This journey that McVay and the Rams will embark on this season means going through it without eight-time All-Pro defensive tackle Aaron Donald, who retired in the offseason.
It means embarking on a journey without Ernest Jones, the team’s star linebacker who was traded to the Tennessee Titans this summer.
It means starting the season without key pieces to the offense and defense due to injuries or other scenarios. With all that going on, the Rams still have a solid group of players that McVay is enthusiastic about.
“I’m really excited about this group, but we’re going to really find out what people are made of when we experience obstacles and some sort of adversity,” McVay remarked.
He continued, “I want to see us act, interact and respond the way that I believe that our guys are capable of doing and that’s being your best, regardless of the circumstances. I want to see consistent progression. I want to see love and the opportunities that this league presents, in regards to what our opening game presents.”
Last season was a pleasant surprise for the Rams and McVay. The team had undergone a purge from a forgettable 2022 campaign in which the Rams finished the season with a post-Super Bowl hangover mark of 5-12.
McVay and the Rams went into the 2023 season armed with the cache of having 14 draft picks. Expectations were muted. No one knew quite sure what to expect from the Rams.
It turned out to be a masterful coaching job by McVay as he took his rebuilt roster full of newbies and draft picks into the postseason.
McVay and the Rams advanced to the Wild Card playoff game where their season abruptly ended with a 24-23 defeat to the Detroit Lions. And now, fast forward to the 2024 NFL season-opener for McVay and the Rams.
McVay and the Rams got the Lions for the first game of the regular season. This is not a sprint, however, for McVay and his ballclub. Playing 17 regular season games equates to something in the ballpark of running a marathon.
By then, McVay will certainly know what kind of team he has.
“I do think that we’ve really been intentional about trying to identify our kinds of guys that you want to onboard, whether that’s free agency [or] the draft,” McVay said. “I think we’ve got leaders in house that influence and affect positive change with those kinds of guys.
“That’s the type of people that we want to add to our coaching staff. I think the more that you get like that, you become the company you keep while still having individual personalities that make up the whole special. That’s what I’m hoping this group is,” he went on to say.
Lead photo caption: Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay paces the sidelines during a 2024 preseason game against the Dallas Cowboys at SoFI Stadium in Inglewood, Photo by Mark Hammond/News4usonline California
Dennis has covered and written about politics, crime, race, sports, and entertainment. Dennis currently covers the NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA, and Olympic sports. Dennis is the editor of News4usonline.com and serves as the publisher of the Compton Bulletin newspaper. He earned a journalism degree from Howard University. Email Dennis at dfreeman@news4usonline.com