offensive

Sean McVay’s refashioned Rams coaching staff is taking shape.

Nate Scheelhaase will be promoted to offensive coordinator and Dave Ragone will serve as co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, a person with knowledge of the situation said, Friday. The person requested anonymity because the moves have not been announced.

Scheelhaase, 35, replaces Mike LaFleur, who was hired as head coach by the Arizona Cardinals.

McVay will remain the Rams’ play-caller.

Scheelhaase joined the Rams staff as an offensive assistant in 2024. He served as passing game coordinator last season and was interviewed by several teams for head coach positions.

Ragone, 48, has been the Rams quarterbacks coach since 2024. He was the Atlanta Falcons’ offensive coordinator before joining the Rams’ staff.

For nearly all of his 11 seasons, Rob Havenstein was a Rams mainstay at right tackle.

He started two Super Bowls, winning one, and provided sage wisdom and experience for younger players in what would be his final season in 2025.

On Tuesday, Havenstein, 33, announced he was retiring.

“What a ride it’s been!” Havenstein wrote in a post on Instagram. “I can look back on my career and smile knowing I have given everything I had and more to the game I love.

“In saying that, I am officially retiring from the NFL.”

Havenstein, the longest-tenured Rams player on the roster last season, thanked his teammates and coaches, the Rams organization and his parents and wife for their support.

The 6-foot-8 Havenstein, grew up in Maryland and was a second-round pick by the Rams out of Wisconsin in 2015.

He started 13 games as a rookie, and then moved with the team from St. Louis to Los Angeles.

Havenstein started 148 regular-season games and 13 playoff games, including the Rams’ victory over the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium to cap the 2021 season.

Due to injuries, Havenstein was limited to 14 games in 2023, 11 in 2024 and seven this past season.

Yet the four-time captain was a constant presence, and helped Warren McClendon Jr. develop into a consistent starter.

After the season, coach Sean McVay described Havenstein and tight end Tyler Higbee, who also completed the final year of his contract, as “all-time Rams.” McVay said the team would give the players time to digest the season and decide what might be next.

For Havenstein, that is retirement.

“As this chapter ends,” he wrote, “I couldn’t be more grateful, hopeful, and excited to see what comes next!”

Rams coach Sean McVay goes through it nearly every year.

The Rams have a successful season and other NFL teams raid his coaching staff.

Mike LaFleur, the Rams’ offensive coordinator for the last three seasons, is the latest to parlay his time with McVay into an NFL head coaching opportunity.

The Arizona Cardinals on Sunday hired LaFleur as head coach.

LaFleur, 38, is the seventh former McVay assistant to land an NFL head coach job.

LaFleur’s brother Matt, was the Rams’ offensive coordinator in McVay’s first season in 2017 and then called plays for the Tennessee Titans in 2018 before he was hired by the Green Bay Packers.

The LaFleurs are the second tandem of head-coaching brothers currently in the NFL along with Jim (Chargers) and John Harbaugh (New York Giants).

Rams assistants who made the jump directly to head coach were Zac Taylor of the Cincinnati Bengals, Brandon Staley (Chargers), Kevin O’Connell (Minnesota Vikings), Raheem Morris (Atlanta Falcons) and Liam Coen (Jacksonville Jaguars).

This will be Mike LaFleur’s first job as a head coach at any level. LaFleur, like McVay, began his coaching career working under Kyle Shanahan.

LaFleur coached with the Cleveland Browns, Atlanta Falcons and San Francisco 49ers before he became offensive coordinator and play-caller for the New York Jets in 2021.

LaFleur was let go after the 2022 season and joined McVay’s staff in 2023. McVay is the Rams’ play-caller.

With the Cardinals, LaFleur inherits a team that finished at the bottom of the NFC West in 2025 with a 3-14 record — well behind the Seahawks, Rams and 49ers at the top of the division.

LaFleur’s Rams exit could create an opportunity for passing game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase to move into the offensive coordinator role. Scheelhaase has interviewed for multiple head coaching positions.

The Chargers hired former Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel as their new offensive coordinator Monday as they look to maximize quarterback Justin Herbert‘s talents in the wake of another one-and-done playoff exit.

Fired by the Dolphins on Jan. 8 after a 7-10 season, McDaniel went 35-33 over four seasons in South Beach. His hiring comes less than two weeks after Herbert fell to 0-3 in the playoffs following a 16-3 AFC wild-card loss to the New England Patriots, resulting in offensive coordinator Greg Roman’s firing.

With defensive coordinator Jesse Minter leaving to become coach of the Baltimore Ravens, Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh will have two new coordinators in 2026.

Considered one of the NFL’s leading offensive innovators when he was hired by the Dolphins after a one-year stint as offensive coordinator in San Francisco, McDaniel guided Miami to back-to-back playoff berths in 2022 and ’23. In McDaniel’s first season, quarterback Tua Tagovailoa passed for 3,548 yards and 25 touchdowns in 13 games. He then passed for a league-leading 4,624 yards with 29 touchdowns in 2023 at the front of the league’s top offense (401 net yards per game).

The Dolphins, however, were winless in the playoffs under McDaniel. And Tagovailoa’s injury-limited 2024 season, coupled with his deteriorating performances this season, factored into McDaniel’s firing.

Still, McDaniel’s reputation as an offensive guru made him a prime candidate not just for coordinator positions, but for head coaching vacancies too. He reportedly interviewed for head coaching jobs with the Atlanta Falcons, Baltimore Ravens, Las Vegas Raiders and Tennessee Titans before deciding to join Harbaugh’s staff. He also reportedly withdrew from consideration for the Cleveland Browns’ head coaching job and canceled an interview for the Buffalo Bills head coaching vacancy before formalizing his deal with the Chargers.

Harbaugh said last week he wanted “a head coach of the offense,” someone who “teaches, installs and puts the players in the best position to be successful.”

Much of that wish list will center on McDaniel establishing a run game to complement Herbert — something that never fully materialized under Roman and Harbaugh.

The Chargers clearly prioritized the rush last offseason when they signed Najee Harris and drafted Omarion Hampton in the first round. But season-ending injuries to Rashawn Slater, Joe Alt and Harris, coupled with Hampton being undermined by ankle injuries, thwarted meaningful year-over-year gains (122 yards per game in 2025; 111 in 2024).

With the offensive line set to return to full strength and general manager Joe Hortiz saying he’s willing to spend some of the team’s estimated $103 million in salary-cap space, the Chargers are well-positioned for another postseason run in 2026.

Whether McDaniel can help Herbert end his playoff winless streak remains to be seen.