SANTA CLARA — The Rams took care of their first order of business, signing coach Sean McVay and general manager Les Snead to contract extensions, the team announced Monday.
McVay, 40, and Snead, 55, were entering the final years of their contracts.
McVay, who was hired in 2017, and Snead, who has been the general manager since 2012, had previously been extended after Super Bowl appearances in the 2018 and 2021 seasons. They had offers on the table before this season but did not sign them.
The Rams have made two Super Bowl appearances and have been in the playoffs seven times in McVay’s nine seasons.
The Rams finished 12-5 this season and advanced to the NFC championship game before losing to the Seattle Seahawks, who play the New England Patriots on Sunday in Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara.
The Rams will now turn their attention to possible extensions for receiver Puka Nacua, defensive lineman Kobie Turner, edge rusher Byron Young and offensive lineman Steve Avila.
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.
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.
An exciting yet excruciating playoff loss to the Seahawks doesn’t diminish the Rams’ accomplishments this season. Their ability in coming back to win so many games that appeared lost showcased their resilience time after time, week after week. Thanks for the memories.
Marty Zweben Palos Verdes Estates
When are the Rams and coach Sean McVay going to stop ignoring special teams? Open the checkbook and hire the best special teams coach available. They also need to draft a shutdown corner or two. You don’t need another receiver.
So Bill Plaschke wants to put the blame on the Rams’ loss in the NFC title game solely on Sean McVay? The defense’s atrocious cornerbacks don’t deserve most of the blame? And Plaschke’s blood-boiling need to make the grand statement way before anything is certain doesn’t prove the Plaschke Curse is alive and well? He not only jinxed them once but twice. They lost to Seattle and lost control of the No. 1 seed immediately after the first prediction they’d go to the Super Bowl and then lost again to Seattle after the second. Will someone please take this guy’s laptop away from him until the Rams actually make the Super Bowl!?!?!
Danny Balber Jr. Pasadena
Bill Plaschke in his column blames the decisions made by coach McVay, which have some merit, for the Rams losing in the NFC championship game. Of course, there is no mention of the prediction made by Plaschke the week before about the Rams winning quite confidently and going on to Super Bowl LX. The Rams and McVay never had a real chance being under the Plaschke curse.
Wayne Muramatsu Cerritos
I can only hope that if I ever decide to enter a sporting competition, Bill Plaschke predicts I will not win it.
Andrew Sacks Riverside
My dad used to tell me to only watch the end of NBA games, because they are always tied going into the last minute. The NFL is now very much like that, as evidenced by most of this season’s playoff games. And I wouldn’t have it any other way! While I’m bummed about the Rams’ finish, here’s to 2025-26, the best NFL season in recent memory.
Rams kick returner Xavier Smith muffs a punt as Seattle’s Dareke Young recovers the ball in the third quarter Sunday in the NFC championship game.
(Jane Gershovich / Getty Images)
Mistake-prone special teams: Blocked kicks led to multiple early-season defeats, and the Rams in November signed Harrison Mevis to replace Joshua Karty and veteran snapper Jake McQuaide to replace Alex Ward.
A punt return for a touchdown by Seattle’s Rashid Shaheed on Dec. 18 ultimately led to McVay firing special teams coordinator Chase Blackburn.
Punter Ethan Evans was mostly solid and Mevis performed well. But punt returner Xavier Smith’s attempt to catch a ball while he was falling down in the NFC championship game resulted in a fumble that led to a pivotal touchdown by the Seahawks.
Too much for Tutu: Don’t blame receiver Tutu Atwell.
The Rams selected the diminutive-but-speedy receiver in the second round of the 2021 draft, but McVay, who is regarded as perhaps the best offensive mind in football, never fully maximized Atwell’s skill set. Atwell became a free agent after the 2024 season, and the Rams gave him a $10-million, one-year contract, ostensibly with promises that they had finally figured it out.
Alas, Atwell caught six passes (about $1.7 million per catch), including an 88-yard winning touchdown against the Indianapolis Colts. He was not active for the divisional-round playoff game against the Chicago Bears or the NFC championship.
No investment in secondary: The Rams were so confident the pass rush would be dominant, they stood pat and made no changes to the secondary. No draft picks. No free agents.
They made a trade deadline deal for cornerback Roger McCreary but otherwise rode with the same group from 2024.
In the NFC championship, Cobie Durant and Darious Williams started at cornerback.
Nacua’s social media mistake: Nacua, perhaps more than any other Rams player, embraces social media opportunities and has become one of the NFL’s most popular personalities.
But while appearing on a livestream a few days before a critical Week 16 game at Seattle, Nacua made critical comments about officials and, unbeknownst to Nacua, made an anti-semetic gesture. Nacua apologized and the NFL and the Rams issued statements. After scoring two touchdowns and amassing 225 yards receiving in the overtime defeat, Nacua posted another critical comment about officials. He was fined $25,000.
Lost home-field advantage: Entering a Week 13 game at Carolina, the Rams were 9-2, had won six games in a row and held the No. 1 seed for the NFC playoffs, which came with home-field advantage for the playoffs.
The Rams lost to the Panthers, the first of three losses in their final six games. They finished with the No. 5 seed.
That meant the Rams probably would have to win three road games to advance to the Super Bowl. They came back for playoff victories at Carolina and Chicago but could not do it at Seattle.
Sean McVay did not waste any time attempting to address the Rams’ problematic special teams going into next season.
The Rams hired Raymond “Bubba” Ventrone as their special teams coordinator, a person with knowledge of the situation said Thursday. The person requested anonymity because the hiring has not been announced.
Ventrone, a former NFL player, was the Cleveland Browns special teams coordinator the last three seasons. He also has been a coordinator for the Indianapolis Colts, and coached for the New England Patriots.
Kicking game miscues cost the Rams in several early-season losses, leading them to sign kicker Harrison Mevis to replace Joshua Karty and veteran snapper Jake McQuaide to replace Alex Ward. McVay fired coordinator Chase Blackburn in December, the day after Seattle’s Rashid Shaheed returned a punt for a touchdown in a Week 16 overtime defeat at Seattle.
Ben Kotwica served as interim special teams coordinator the rest of the season.
The Rams had a punt blocked in a wild-card victory at Carolina.
In the NFC championship game, returner Xavier Smith muffed a punt that was recovered by the Seahawks, who scored on the next play.
Late in the mess that was the Rams’ final game of the season, Sean McVay was seen frustratingly burying his face in his play card.
That couldn’t hide the truth.
The Rams’ 31-27 loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday in the NFC championship game must be draped on the deflated shoulders of the Rams’ resident genius.
As blasphemous as it sounds when referencing one of the greatest coaches in Los Angeles sports history, this one was on McVay.
A day after his 40th birthday, McVay coached like he was no longer the child prodigy, but instead an aging leader who leaves himself open to second-guessing.
McVay has rarely deserved criticism in his nine successful seasons here. But in the wake of an afternoon at Seattle’s deafening Lumen Field that should have propelled the Rams to the Super Bowl, this is one of those times.
A confusing final possession of the first half. Another special teams miscue. A bad decision to pass up a field-goal attempt in the fourth quarter.
It all added up to negatively impact a game the Rams could have won, and should have won.
“I love this team and I wasn’t ready to stop working with them,” McVay said. “This was a special year, it’s hard to fathom that it’s over.”
It shouldn’t be over. The Rams gained 479 yards against the league’s top-rated defense. They only committed four penalties. The offense didn’t have a turnover. Matthew Stafford was brilliant, 374 yards, three touchdowns, countless big throws.
The Rams were great, but during the biggest moments, they got goofy, and basically handed the Super Bowl invitation to the Seahawks on a grass-stained platter.
What was McVay thinking?
Rams coach Sean McVay watches from the sideline during the fourth quarter of a 31-27 loss to the Seahawks in the NFC championship game Sunday.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
Begin with the Rams’ possession at the end of the first half, after they scored a touchdown to take a 13-10 lead and their running game was rolling and they had a chance to capitalize on their momentum.
But instead of continuing to pound the ball and at least run down the clock, they threw twice in three plays, both incompletions, and had to punt after just 39 seconds, thus giving the ball back to the Seahawks with 54 seconds remaining in the half. Sure enough, the Seahawks then went 74 yards in 34 seconds, highlighted by a 42-yard pass from reborn Sam Darnold to Jaxon Smith-Njigba against Kam Curl and ending with a 14-yard touchdown pass to an uncovered Smith-Njigba to give them a 17-13 halftime lead.
The strategy by McVay was so flawed, it was actually criticized by Tom Brady on Fox, and Brady rarely criticizes anybody.
“The finality of all of it, I didn’t really expect this,” McVay said. “We had our chances … a couple of critical errors that ended up costing us. … I’m pretty numb.”
The next mistake occurred at the start of the second half with — surprise, surprise — more special teams struggles. This time it was Xavier Smith muffing a punt and Dareke Young recovering on the Rams’ 17-yard line. On the next play, Darnold hit former UCLA star Jake Bobo for a touchdown pass ahead of Quentin Lake to give the Seahawks a 24-13 lead.
“It was costly,” McVay said. “That was a tough one.”
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Gary Klein breaks down what went wrong for the Rams in their 31-27 loss to the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC championship game at Lumen Field.
Special teams have haunted McVay for a couple of years. They were so bad earlier this season that he dumped the coordinator. It didn’t matter. They still stink. Coaches always talk about the three phases of the game. McVay clearly doesn’t have a handle on this third phase.
Even with all this, the Rams were driving in the fourth quarter with a chance to take the lead or at least make a dent in a four-point deficit when another decision went bad.
The Rams had rolled 84 yards in 14 plays and were facing fourth and four at the Seattle six-yard line. There was 4:59 left in the game. That was plenty of time to kick the field goal, take the points, then lean on the defense to stop mistake-prone Darnold long enough to drive back downfield for the winning field goal.
But, no. McVay decided to go for it, and Stafford ended up throwing a pass to a blanketed Terrance Ferguson, the ball fell incomplete, and the Seahawks held the ball until the last 25 seconds.
Take the points! C’mon man, take the points!
If the Rams were within a field goal of winning, the pressure on the Seahawks would have been enormously heightened and the momentum of the ensuing drive would have felt entirely different and even if the Rams still only got the ball back with 25 seconds left and no timeouts … that’s long enough for a field-goal drive.
Rams coach Sean McVay, right, shakes hands with Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald after the Rams’ 31-27 loss in the NFC championship game Sunday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Granted, winning this game was a tough task. The Rams were trying to become only the sixth team to win three consecutive road playoff games. But they seemed up to the challenge and seemed destined to win … until they didn’t.
“A lot of resolve, a lot of resilience from our group, we just came up short,” McVay said.
The Rams will be back. Stafford has given no indication that he’s retiring, Puka Nacua isn’t going anywhere, the heart of the young defense returns and, of course, McVay is back.
One assumes his numbness will eventually disappear. One trusts it will be replaced by some of that resolve and resilience.
