Luckily for him, he shouldn’t have to look far (or long) to find LaFleur’s replacement. Your first choice is incredibly obvious: Nate Scheelhaase.
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The 35-year-old Rams passing game coordinator interviewed for multiple head coaching jobs this offseason despite never having been an offensive coordinator in the NFL. At one point, he even seemed like the favorite for the Cleveland Browns job before they hired Todd Monken.
Scheelhaase’s head coaching interviews this year came after he met with the Buccaneers and Jaguars about their offensive coordinator vacancies. After being passed over, the Rams promoted Scheelhaase to passing game coordinator in just his second season with the team.
It’s time for him to be promoted again.
This is the most logical choice for McVay. Scheelhaase is familiar with McVay’s offense and system, and has worked in it for the past two years. He’s already being sought for head coaching positions, so it’s clear that teams around the league are already looking at him; It’s only a matter of time before the Rams lose him.
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Given his current position as passing game coordinator, the Rams cannot prevent Scheelhaase from interviewing for offensive coordinator positions. If LaFleur wants to pry Scheelhaase out of Los Angeles and take him to his new staff in Arizona, the Rams can’t stop that from happening unless McVay promotes him to OC.
It’s also a necessary next step for the 35-year-old assistant. He will apparently become a head coach at some point, but his lack of experience as a coordinator will likely hurt his chances during this hiring cycle. One year with McVay as his OC almost guarantees that he will land a head coaching job in the very near future.
McVay is no stranger to looking for coordinator candidates outside the Rams building, but in this case, he should stay internal and work with one of the hottest young coaches in the game.
This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: Rams’ top pick for offensive coordinator should be Nate Scheelhaase