After concluding the 2022 season with an overtime loss to the Seahawks, Rams coach Sean McVay legitimized speculation that he may walk away from the team. The following day, he made his deliberations regarding a potential resignation even more clear.
Now, the Rams have announced that McVay has decided to stay put.
“Sean McVay informed the team he is excited to return next season,” the team announced.
It’s a surprise that he’s staying, given that he was so open and blatant about the possibility of leaving. On Sunday, Jay Glazer of Fox Sports said that “there’s more people inside the building, when you talk to them, they’d be more surprised if he came back than if he left.”
Some think McVay pondered leaving so that he could take a job in TV. The best TV jobs aren’t available this year; he could have had the Amazon analyst job that went to Kirk Herbstreit or possibly the ESPN/ABC slot that went to Troy Aikman, if McVay had been ready to go in 2022.
The thinking this time around is that McVay envisions the Rams as being in the midst of a full-blown rebuild. And they definitely seem to be. But McVay “is excited to return” to a team that may not create much excitement in 2023, frankly.
Then there’s the fact that McVay’s recent candor regarding possibility leaving will become an annual thing. Why wouldn’t it be? Rarely if ever has a coaching given so much credence to the possibility of leaving. The questions will loom until he finally does, year after year after year until the last year has come and gone.