The Los Angeles Rams’ 2025 season came to a close three weeks ago and it’s been two weeks since former offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur was hired as the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals. Still, the Rams have yet to replace LaFleur and are the last team in the NFL yet to fill that position.
It’s odd at this point that the Rams haven’t hired an offensive coordinator, especially if it was simply going to be an internal promotion. If the Rams were just going to promote from within and name Nate Scheelhaase or Dave Ragone the offensive coordinator, it would have been expected for that to have been announced. There also haven’t been any reports of any outside interviews for the offensive coordinator position. As of now, the only offensive hire has been Kliff Kingsbury and his role seems to be more as a Senior Offense Assistant similar to Jimmy Lake on the defensive side of the ball. Kingsbury replaced Alex Van Pelt who left for the Atlanta Falcons.
It wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility for the Rams to simply not hire an offensive coordinator and for the offense to be more of a collaborative effort. This would be a similar setup to what the Rams had in 2018. In 2018, Jedd Fisch was hired as a Senior Offensive Assistant with Shane Waldron as the pass game coordinator and Aaron Kromer as the run game coordinator. The Rams could realistically mimic this setup in 2026 with Kingsbury as the Senior Offensive Assistant and Scheelhaase as the pass game coordinator.
That doesn’t mean that the Rams still won’t promote Scheelhaase or Ragone. At the same time, if that was the plan, one would think that this would have been done by now. Whether it’s to avoid staff contention or to bring in outside ideas, the Rams typically haven’t hired from within. The Rams didn’t replace Matt LaFleur when he left after 2017. When the Rams did hire an offensive coordinator in 2020, Kevin O’Connell came from Washington. In 2022, Liam Coen was brought in from Kentucky and Mike LaFleur was hired from the New York Jets.
With the Rams offense, it’s always going to run through Sean McVay. McVay is the primary play-caller during games and it’s his system. If the Rams don’t have an offensive coordinator, they are a team best set up to do so. They also have a very experienced offensive coaching staff in which a collaborative effort could work as long as there are defined roles. The hope will also be that it doesn’t take McVay away from other head coach responsibilities.
Scheelhaase was an offensive coordinator at Iowa State before joining the Rams and Dave Ragone was the offensive coordinator for three years with the Atlanta Falcons. Kingsbury obviously has head coach and coordinator experience, most recently with the Washington Commanders.
Again, the Rams could still hire an offensive coordinator and it’s possible that any interviews that they’ve had have been kept a secret. However, that’s usually not how it works, especially as teams have to follow the Rooney Rule with coordinator hires. If the Rams were going to promote Scheelhaase from within, it likely would have been done by now. To public knowledge, they haven’t interviewed anybody externally for the role. This could be heading towards a similar setup to McVay’s early years in which the Rams didn’t have an offensive coordinator.
Up until last year, this was also how Kyle Shanahan and the San Francisco 49ers operated. Just last year, Shanahan promoted Klay Kubiak to be his first offensive coordinator since joining the 49ers.
Given that the Rams’ season ended so late in the coach-hiring process, that may also be the best path forward. If the Rams had interest in Mike McDaniel, he was officially hired by the Los Angeles Chargers the day after the Rams season ended. Zac Robinson joined the Tampa Bay Buccaneers the day before the NFC Championship game. At this point, the Rams would be hiring the best of the rest. Bobby Slowick would have made some sense, but the Rams didn’t seem to show much interest before he joined the Miami Dolphins.
What the Rams do at offensive coordinator in 2026 is still to be determined. Given that they are the last team remaining to not fill the role, they may be heading in the direction of not having one next season.