NFL coaches spend hours upon hours watching film. They study draft prospects, they analyze their own players, they watch opponents.
But Sean McVay is different. He watches film of himself directing a team meeting. He breaks down the way he talks to his players, wondering whether he’s doing a good job delivering messages he wants to convey.
It’s just the latest anecdote that shows how hard McVay works at not only being a good coach, but a great leader. Andrew Whitworth shared the story of the first time he found McVay watching film of himself in his office after everyone had already gone home.
“One of the most impressive things I always tell people just to know who Sean McVay is, is after the first three or four months I was with him with the Rams, we were out here at our facility,” Whitworth began on the “3 & Out” podcast. “I’m coming in, a lot of times I’m trying to get to know people in the building, and he’s kind of giving me – ‘Hey man, I would love to talk ball with you anytime while you’re here in the offseason and get a feel for things, whether it be culture, leadership, being in front of the room.’ I’m like, ‘All right, great.’ And so we started meeting and I go in one afternoon, probably two weeks after OTAs and he’s sitting in his office at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, everybody’s long gone, and he’s watching film of himself speaking to us as a team. So he has literally videoed all of our team meetings and he’s evaluating and grading himself on his ability to communicate his message on what was correct or incorrect about something he may or may not have said. I thought that was so rare that this guy’s humble enough to be like, ‘I’m not just gonna say that everything I say is great, or think that everything I do is wonderful. I’m gonna evaluate myself and how I speak and whether my messaging, if I was sitting in that room, would I listen to this guy?’”
Whitworth was so impressed by the awareness McVay showed, being willing to spend time watching and analyzing himself in a team meeting. It’s hard to imagine McVay being bad at holding meetings and getting the most out of his players, but the fact that he goes this far to be the best coach he can be is remarkable.
“To have that kind of awareness to realize how important every time he stood in front of his men, because what a rare opportunity that is as an NFL head coach,” Whitworth continued. “You better treasure it because those moments are where you’re gonna spread your message. … Those are the moments that are gonna decide the success level of your team because guys are gonna buy in or not.”
McVay has said he won’t be a “lifer” when it comes to coaching, and he doesn’t plan to do this until he’s 60 or 70 like many other coaches. But for the time that he does coach, he’s going to put everything into it.