The Los Angeles Rams and head coach Sean McVay made the decision heading into Week 17 to move on from special teams coordinator Chase Blackburn. It’s a move that was long overdue and needed to be made.
The Rams have lost four games this year and three of them can be pinned on special teams. Special teams cost the Rams 10 points in the biggest game of the season against the Seattle Seahawks and it came back to bite them.
In the interim, the Rams will turn to Ben Kotwica who has 10 years of special teams coordinator experience, and also brought in Matt Harper to assist. Under Kotwica in 2023 and 2024, the Denver Broncos ranked ninth and fourth in special teams DVOA. Meanwhile, Harper helped coach the 31st, 25th, 15th, and 26th-ranked special teams units with the San Francisco 49ers.
Throughout the McVay era, the Rams have consistently had issues with special teams. While Blackburn may fall on the special teams sword, there is more of an underlying problem here. The common denominator has been McVay, Les Snead, and how much priority they have put on special teams.
This has been a consistent theme for the Rams under McVay.
In McVay’s first season, Fassel led a top-five special teams unit. Since then, you start to see a decline and the Rams have consistently been a bottom-10 special teams unit. The Rams opted not to bring back Greg Zuerlein following a poor 2019. Zuerlein went from kicking at a 72.7 percent rate to 82.9 percent after leaving the Rams with Fassel for the Dallas Cowboys. After a kicking carousel, the Rams settled on Matt Gay. When the time came to pay Gay, the Rams opted to move on. Again, following a kicking carousel, the Rams drafted Joshua Karty who has since been released.
The Rams moved on from Johnny Hekker following 2021 and struggled to find a replacement the next season. While they settled on Ethan Evans, he hasn’t produced the same level of stability that the Rams had with Hekker for almost a decade.
Between Ethan Evans, Jake McQuaide, and Harrison Mevis, the Rams have $1.81 million invested in special teams. That ranks 32nd in the NFL and they are the only team under $2 million invested. Among the 12 players with over 100 special teams snaps, seven of them are undrafted free agents.
That’s not to say that the Rams need to spend a third round pick on a player that can play special teams. However, these also aren’t players with a lot of special teams experience at the collegiate level.
There simply hasn’t been the investment in players that excel on special teams. Nick Scott excelled on special teams at Penn State and was taken in the seventh round. There used to be more of a focus by the Rams front office to invest in special teams players. The Rams are now just taking bottom of the roster players and making them play special teams. It’s likely not a coincidence that Scott was drafted in Fassel’s final season.
This isn’t to say that the Rams shouldn’t have fired Blackburn. However, in a situation in which multiple things can be true, the problem is also likely deeper. There’s a reason that this has been a consistent issue under McVay no matter who the coordinator is. One of McVay’s best traits is his ability to identify talented coaches. However, the special teams side is where he’s consistently fallen short. It’s hard to believe that McVay is consistently hiring bad coaches in one area.
The issue here seems to lie deeper. It’s a lack of emphasis on the special teams operation as a whole from both a coaching and front office perspective. Until McVay changes his approach and outlook on special teams, it’s unlikely that anything significantly improves.
