After losing Mike LaFleur to the Arizona Cardinals, Sean McVay said the Los Angeles Rams would conduct a thorough search for his replacement as offensive coordinator. He wasn’t lying when he said that because the Rams were the last team in the NFL to hire an OC this offseason.
In the end, they landed on the most logical candidate from the start: Nate Scheelhaase. But he’s not their only offensive coordinator. Quarterbacks coach Dave Ragone has added co-offensive coordinator to his job title, too.
A tandem of Scheelhaase and Ragone makes perfect sense. Scheelhaase is 35 and a fast riser who’s destined to be a head coach at some point in the near future. He had several head coaching interviews this offseason despite never being an offensive coordinator in the NFL.
Ragone, on the other hand, is a more experienced assistant coach. Still only 46, he’s coached in the NFL since 2011 when he got his start working with the Titans’ wide receivers. Since then, he’s been a quarterbacks coach for three different teams: Titans (2013), Bears (2016-2019), and Rams (2024-present).
Not to mention, he was the Falcons’ offensive coordinator from 2021-2023, so he’s held this job before. That experience will certainly help Scheelhaase – and in turn, McVay – in his new role as a first-time coordinator.
McVay has never been one to take the conventional approach, and he’s thinking outside the box with this new OC setup. Since being hired as the Rams’ head coach in 2017, McVay has had seasons in which he had one offensive coordinator, no offensive coordinator and now two.
In 2018, the Rams had no designated OC, just a pass game coordinator (Shane Waldron) and run game coordinator (Aaron Kromer). That year, Los Angeles finished with the No. 2 overall offense and No. 2 scoring offense in the NFL, which helped them reach the Super Bowl.
As long as McVay is running the show, the Rams are capable of finishing with a top-10 offense, no matter who their offensive coordinator is. McVay is trying something new with two offensive coordinators, though it sounds like Scheelhaase will be the primary guy in the role.
Having an experienced offensive mind like Ragone, who has worked with Matthew Stafford for the last two years, will only make things easier for everyone involved.
This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: Rams news: Analysis of LA hiring Nate Scheelhaase as new OC