Sean McVay's Rams future reportedly in limbo, coach yet to decide if he will return next season
For the second straight offseason, Sean McVay's future with the Los Angeles Rams is not guaranteed.
The Rams head coach will take time after this weekend's season finale against the Seattle Seahawks to decide if he wants to return for the 2023 season, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter and NFL Network's Ian Rapoport.
Per ESPN, McVay has gone back and forth on the decision and is believed to need to recharge after arguably the most difficult season of his career. In the year since winning Super Bowl LVI, McVay has gotten married, lost his grandfather, watched his wife's home of Ukraine be invaded by Russia and heavily struggled to replicate last season's success.
As things stand now, the Rams are 5-11, don't have their 2023 first-round pick and have a 34-year-old quarterback whose future appears to be in doubt. No team in the NFL has more aggressively mortgaged its future, and even though that effort was successful last year, the bill is still coming due.
McVay addressed speculation on Friday that he could jump to television this offseason, insisting that his focus is on the Rams for now. Saturday's report could indicate that he doesn't need a television job to hang up his whistle.
The Rams went through this with Sean McVay before, under happier circumstances
If all this sounds familiar, it's exactly what happened immediately after McVay and the Rams won their long-awaited ring.
Hours after their Super Bowl LVI victory, the 36-year-old McVay was asked if he would return to the Rams next year. His response: "We'll see." That didn't inspire confidence, especially with Amazon still looking for a color commentator for its upcoming foray into "Thursday Night Football." Months of haziness followed.
McVay would eventually return and sign a contract extension that would keep him in Los Angeles through 2026, but that didn't mean he was staying for good.
Much of the same issues the Rams were facing after the Super Bowl are still present. That might not have been enough to push McVay into stepping down last year, but the same might not be true after a nightmare season like this one.
