Today it was reported by Paul Kuharsky via twitter.com that the Los Angeles Rams were hiring John Streicher, the Tennessee Titans Coordinator of Football Development as their new Coordinator of Football Strategy.
According to the intrepid reporting of The Athletics, Jourdan Rodrigue, via twitter.com the role is ‘still taking shape.’
John Streicher’s Role On The Titans
The former Titans head coach, Mike Vrabel, originally hired Streicher as assistant to the head coach. He remained in that role until he was hired by the Rams. He took on the additional role of coordinator of football development in 2020.
He was described in an article in the Tennessean as “Vrabel’s righthand man in this role.”
A quote given to Peter King of NBC Sport illuminates Streicher’s role on the coaching staff a bit more when Vrabel describes a 4th down decision.
“Stretch [Vrabel’s nickname for Streicher] has been valuable for me and our staff. He advises me on replay, timeouts, the clock. In this case, even when the field-goal team was on the field for us, I thought we should go for the win. The odds of making a 50-yard field goal are probably slightly better than making a fourth-and-two at that point in the game against that defense.”
When Mike Vrabel was forced to miss the Titans preseason finale against the Chicago Bears in 2021, Vrabel put Streicher in sole control of game management, playtime management, and communication among coaches. In that game, Streicher challenged the pass-completion ruling, and the play was reversed setting up a punt on 4th and 8.
John Streicher’s Role on the Los Angeles Rams
Sean McVay has been roundly criticized for his clock management, use of timeouts, red zone play calling, and lack of aggressiveness on 4th downs. Hiring Streicher seems to be a step in the right direction in those respects.
4th Down Aggressiveness
In terms of aggressiveness, on paper, the McVay era is very similar to the Vrabel era. They both average 17 4th down attempts per season, but in success rate the Titans pick up 7 percent more 4th down attempts.
Given the skill sets of McVay and Vrabel, one should assume that the offensive genius should have better success. In recent years, that has been true. In 2023, the Rams had the third-best 4th down conversion percentage in the league, but they went for it 24th most in the league.
In that inefficiency lies the reason for adding a guy like John Streicher.
Red Zone Urgency
Another inefficiency that too often beat the Rams was scoring touchdowns in the red zone. McVay has scored touchdowns on an average of 58 percent on all trips into the red zone over his career. Vrable has averaged 63 percent. Again the same question arises, whats getting in Sean McVay’s way in these situations? Mostly Sean McVay’s conservative and uninspired play calling in high-leverage situations. NFL teams average only 3 red zone trips per game. Had McVay scored red zone TDs at the rate of the Titans, he would have scored an extra 21 touchdowns, exactly three more in 2023.
The Rams lost five games in 2023 by seven points or less including their playoff game against the Detroit Lions.
The Rams have finished with a top 10 offense five of McVay’s seven years, but have only been in the top 10 of red zone scoring twice.
Much like the Brandon Staley hire was about teaching McVay a defense that his high-powered offense was getting shredded by, hiring Streicher is attempting to solve for when the Los Angeles Rams and McVay are beating themselves.
