Fruit of McVay coaching tree is young coaches who relate to younger players

In early December 2019, a 63-year-old Mike Zimmer was 8-4, two weeks from a 10-4 start and feeling his oats as flagbearer for old-school defensive minds in a league being overtaken by creative young offensive minds like Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco, Matt LaFleur in Green Bay and, of course, Sean McVay in Los Angeles.

"Every year, there's some kind of offensive trend, right?" Zimmer told the Star Tribune at the time. "Now, it's all college football stuff, the rocket with the flash and everybody going this way and that way and this way. Honestly, that gets my juices flowing because I want to prove to people that I can figure this stuff out. And the other thing is I want to prove to people I can put an end to it."

Zimmer would last another 37 games as Vikings coach after that 10-4 start. He would go 16-21 and become the first Vikings coach to surrender 400 points in back-to-back seasons. He would lose three straight division titles to LaFleur, get bounced from the 2019 playoffs by Shanahan and ultimately be fired and replaced by 36-year-old Rams offensive coordinator Kevin O'Connell, who heads into Super Bowl LVI as possibly the next brilliant branch to sprout from McVay's coaching tree.

Now seventh in NFL head coaching seniority, the 36-year-old McVay is coaching in his second Super Bowl in five seasons as Rams head coach. He's facing one of his disciples, Cincinnati's Zac Taylor, who has the Bengals in their first Super Bowl since 1988 just three years after he was McVay's quarterbacks coach in Super Bowl LIII.

Tapping the McVay coaching tree was a sharp philosophical turn for Vikings owners Zygi and Mark Wilf. It meant the Jersey guys who grew up Giants fans had to take an axe to their beloved Bill Parcells tree, let go of the 65-year-old Zimmer and follow the hated Packers' lead three years after Green Bay hired LaFleur away from McVay.

Ask and ye shall receive?

So what exactly are the Vikings hoping to get from McVay's Super Bowl-caliber coaching tree?

Achievement-wise, McVay is 61-29 (.678) with one NFL Coach of the Year award and the two Super Bowls. LaFleur has been to two NFC title games and is the first coach in history to start his career with three straight 13-win seasons. Taylor started 6-25-1 but is 3-0 in the playoffs en route to this Super Bowl. And 39-year-old Brandon Staley, McVay's defensive coordinator for one season in 2020, went 9-8 in his first season as head coach of the Chargers.

As far as intangibles, based on interviews with a number of players and coaches involved in Super Bowl LVI, it sounds like the Purple could be getting exactly what some of the players were asking for when interviewed after Zimmer and General Manager Rick Spielman were fired.

The best example of a wish list came from linebacker Eric Kendricks. He asked for "a culture where communication is put at the forefront," that players "have a voice," and that coaches "listen up and take … feelings into account." He then drove home his thinly veiled point by concluding, "I don't think a fear-based organization is the way to go."

Taylor was asked this week what a limb on the McVay tree learns and takes with him when he moves on to a head coaching position.

"I think Sean's relationship with his players is really special," Taylor said. "It's not just scheme-based. He really wants to get to know those guys and see their personalities shine through."

Taylor said the Bengals have two team rules he picked up from McVay: "Be on time and protect the team."

"What protect the team really means is we want you to be yourself," Taylor said. "This is a different age of professional athlete and college athlete. Social media allows you to project yourself and build your brand and all that. And I want our players to embrace that. I don't want to take that away from them. I get that from Sean."

In return, Taylor asks the players to be responsible. So far, he said, they have embraced that trust.

Bengals cornerback and former Viking Trae Waynes said on the Elite Team Athletics podcast recently that Taylor's personal touch with his players is part of what attracted him to Cincinnati.

"I would never expect Zim to text me or even talk to me outside of football," Waynes said. "When we were moving here from Minnesota and all those riots were going on, coach Taylor was texting me like, 'Hey, you have any family and friends in Minnesota, and are they OK?' … I'm like Zim would never do [that].

"I'm not knocking him. That's his style and whatever. Cool. It's a business. But that's part of what drew me here because of how much they were relating to the players and how much you could see they cared. I think a lot of guys appreciate that and it brings a level of respect. If you look at a lot of the coaches having success in today's league, a lot of them are young. I think you're starting to see a new trend in the league."

O'Connell sounds ready to bring that kinder, gentler McVay culture to Minnesota.

"It's something I've really, really tried to embrace and absorb because it's something I'd really like to try to recreate," O'Connell said. "I think what it does is allows the best of each and every person in the building to come out. … My hope in building a culture elsewhere is really centered on so many of the things I've learned in these two years with Sean."

Master communicators

There was a point during the 2021 season when Zimmer and quarterback Kirk Cousins disagreed publicly about the cause for an uptick in Cousins' down-the-field efficiency. Zimmer said it was Cousins finally deciding to take more risks. Cousins pushed back when asked in an interview with the Star Tribune if it was his "methodical brain" that sometimes gets in the way of trusting his talented arm's ability to push the ball down the field.

"No, but maybe coaches do sometimes [get in the way]," he said. "They have you so systematized. [If] a coach says, 'Hey, just go play,' then you just go play. But [if] that the coach says, 'Hey, take a seven-step drop here, one hitch, make sure on your second hitch you're getting here. Make sure versus quarters you're going here versus zone blitz you're going here …' So you have to factor all that in, too."

McVay sounded last week like he believes in more of a player-coach partnership.

"We're always challenging ourselves for having a 'why' for why we're doing things, and then ultimately we're giving the players some autonomy and ownership," McVay said. "I think that's one of the things we've got going. There's a shared ownership.

"I've always seen where sometimes coaches and players are considered separate entities. We try to be as connected with our guys as anything. And we've got the right kind of guys who see the game through the right kind of lens and deserve that respect and ownership when they want to speak up. Ultimately, it's the players who make it all come to life."

Getting that point across shouldn't be a problem, said Rams offensive lineman David Edwards. Asked what trait he thinks best describes the McVay coaching tree, he said, "Master communicators. These guys are elite at having no gray area in what to do and what's expected."

Schemes go back to Shanahan tree

McVay laughs when his "tree" is mentioned. He calls his disciples who have moved on former co-workers.

He's also aware of how coaching trees can overlap and intertwine. A good chunk of who he is, after all, comes from being part of the gigantic Mike Shanahan coaching tree. From 2010-13, McVay (tight ends), Kyle Shanahan (offensive coordinator) and LaFleur (quarterbacks) all worked under and learned from Mike Shanahan in Washington.

They all adopted Shanahan's wide-zone run concepts and the play-action passing while adding wrinkles and adjustments over the years.

O'Connell was Jay Gruden's quarterbacks coach in Washington in 2017-18. He worked closely with Cousins in 2017 when he went 7-9 while throwing for 4,000 yards, 27 touchdowns and five interceptions.

O'Connell has spent the last three years as an offensive coordinator, but his play-calling experience was limited to the 12 games in 2019 that came after Gruden was fired. He wasn't a heavy proponent of play-action in those 12 games and is believed to favor switching up blocking schemes.

"I have no doubt that he is going to have a lot of success in Minnesota," said Rams receivers coach Eric Yarber. "He relates to people, first and foremost. He's willing to serve, which is what great leaders do – they serve first so people will follow them.

"He has tremendous knowledge, and he has talent in Minnesota. He's going to bring a fun style of offense, and he's going to have great energy. People are going to enjoy being around him. It's not going to be drudgery coming to work."

Sounds like a limb right off the McVay tree, eh Sean?

"I'm too young to be having a coaching tree," McVay said with a laugh.

Sorry, Sean, but you do. And one of your tree's young offensive-minded limbs is about land smack dab in the seat that once belonged to an old-school defensive mind that vowed to figure out these new-school offenses and "put an end to it."