The Los Angeles Rams’ roster churn accelerated the team’s Super Bowl hangover-induced rebuild and flushed out veterans for younger, cheaper talents. Hitting on late-round picks for two drafts has rendered the Rams dangerous in the NFC. This offseason, however, Los Angeles has been dealing with heavy turnover on its coaching staff, and it’s unclear how significant the downstream effects will be to losing heavy hitters and assistants from all three phases. Head coach Sean McVay, though, has continued to build staffs other teams envy and attempt to poach from. This inspires confidence in his ability to mitigate the losses of defensive coordinator Raheem Morris, quarterbacks coach Zac Robinson, and a flurry of other assistants.
On Monday, he made another hire, helping to fill the shoes of former Rams special teams coach Jeremy Springer. He turned to Kansas State Wildcats special teams quality control coach Chili Davis.
Davis has 11 years of coaching experience under his belt, most recently in his one-season stint with the Wildcats. From 2018–2020, he was an assistant special teams coordinator for New Mexico State before spending a season as the University of Washington’s special teams analyst and 2022 as Florida A&M’s special teams coordinator. Despite his bevy of experience with the oft-forgotten special teamers, Davis has experience on both sides of the ball. According to the Wildcats’ website, Davis was a defensive back at Campbell, where his coaching career began. He spent a season coaching running backs at Louisiana Tech and the next, 2017, as Fordham’s cornerback coach. While Davis may be a fairly anonymous name among NFL circles and among those not paying attention to collegiate special teams, McVay’s tutelage and track record as a staff builder should be trusted as the Rams head into 2024.
