{"id":425271,"date":"2026-01-23T15:59:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T15:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/425271\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T15:59:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T15:59:09","slug":"sean-mcvay-vs-mike-macdonald-is-the-next-phase-in-the-nfls-scheme-wars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/425271\/","title":{"rendered":"Sean McVay vs. Mike Macdonald Is the Next Phase in the NFL\u2019s Scheme Wars"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NFC championship game between the Rams and Seahawks features the league\u2019s best offensive and defensive play callers, who have designed their schemes to defeat each other<\/p>\n

The Seahawks and Rams have been the top two teams in the NFL for most of this season, and it\u2019s only right that we\u2019ll be treated to a rubber match between these division rivals in the NFC championship game on Sunday. They split two extremely close games in the regular season\u2014Los Angeles held a narrow scoring edge, 58-57, in those meetings. The two teams are the perfect contrast of strengths; the Rams finished the regular season ranked first in scoring offense and the Seahawks did the same on defense.<\/p>\n

But this isn\u2019t just a matchup of the best squads in the league. It\u2019s a battle for the schemelord crown. Rams head coach Sean McVay, the offensive mastermind, and defensive-minded Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald are two of the youngest head coaches in the league and they are revolutionizing their respective sides of the ball. It\u2019s not just a result of the standard push-and-pull between offense and defense. Each coach has created a scheme and style of play that has pushed the other to evolve.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To understand the schemes that\u2019ll decide who will prevail and make it to the Super Bowl, we have to understand how their teams were built and how they\u2019ve adjusted their schemes, which will help us predict what we ultimately will see on the field.<\/p>\n

In 2017, McVay arrived in Los Angeles after leading one of the league\u2019s most efficient and balanced offenses in Washington, but the offense he devised with former Washington head coach Jay Gruden was still rooted in an old-school approach that relied on the common tactic of using heavy personnel groupings to control the line of scrimmage in the run game, and lighter ones on passing downs. With the Rams, in full control of his own offense for the first time, McVay built a roster that allowed him to take the runs and play-action passes he liked to call most out of those heavy personnel groupings and run them out of three-receiver sets. He was able to do that because of free agent signings like Robert Woods, Sammy Watkins, and Brandin Cooks at receiver\u2014and the addition of draft picks like Cooper Kupp and Josh Reynolds, who could both catch and block. Today, YouTube is full of reels<\/a> of the Rams offenses from McVay\u2019s first two seasons in L.A. that totally flummoxed the league\u2019s defenses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

McVay\u2019s three-receiver sets forced L.A.\u2019s opponents to put five or more defensive backs on the field, and kept defenses from using their best run stoppers. The Rams led the league in rushing attempts against sub defenses with five or more defensive backs on the field and ranked top-10 in almost every rushing efficiency metric in 2017-2018. It was revolutionary; it seemed like McVay was a generation ahead of nearly all his offensive peers. The 2018 Rams had 412 attempts against those nickel or dime defenses with five or more defensive backs, which was the most in the league since at least 2000 until both McVay\u2019s Rams (as well as the Bills) eclipsed that mark in 2023. Defenses were left with both a math problem and a coverage problem: They needed more defensive backs on the field to contend with the multiple receivers, but in order to prepare for the real threat of the run with players who don\u2019t typically defend it, coverage schemes became more predictable. The result was receivers getting open with ease, and Jared Goff routinely had big windows to attack. For a while, it was unstoppable. Los Angeles ranked in the top 10 by the old-school metric passer rating, and efficiency metrics like success rate and EPA per dropback over that two-year span.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Rams-Seahawks Part 3, Drake Maye vs. Jarrett Stidham, Bills Press Conference Debacle, and Boomers Don\u2019t Drink Water<\/p>\n

Rams-Seahawks Part 3, Drake Maye vs. Jarrett Stidham, Bills Press Conference Debacle, and Boomers Don\u2019t Drink Water<\/p>\n

Rams-Seahawks, Maye vs. Stidham, Bills Press Conference, and More<\/p>\n

Rams-Seahawks, Maye vs. Stidham, and More<\/p>\n

<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Rams-Seahawks Part 3, Drake Maye vs. Jarrett Stidham, Bills Press Conference Debacle, and Boomers Don\u2019t Drink Water<\/p>\n

Rams-Seahawks Part 3, Drake Maye vs. Jarrett Stidham, Bills Press Conference Debacle, and Boomers Don\u2019t Drink Water<\/p>\n

Rams-Seahawks, Maye vs. Stidham, Bills Press Conference, and More<\/p>\n

Rams-Seahawks, Maye vs. Stidham, and More<\/p>\n

<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Rams-Seahawks Part 3, Drake Maye vs. Jarrett Stidham, Bills Press Conference Debacle, and Boomers Don\u2019t Drink Water<\/p>\n

Rams-Seahawks Part 3, Drake Maye vs. Jarrett Stidham, Bills Press Conference Debacle, and Boomers Don\u2019t Drink Water<\/p>\n

Rams-Seahawks, Maye vs. Stidham, Bills Press Conference, and More<\/p>\n

Rams-Seahawks, Maye vs. Stidham, and More<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Of course, their domination didn\u2019t last forever<\/a>. Defensive coordinators\u00a0 adjusted as they got more experience against McVay and other offensive play callers from his coaching tree; smaller defenders grew more comfortable stopping the run, and defenses got better at stopping the passes that McVay layered off of that once brutally efficient run game. Goff was traded after the 2020 season, and the next year, the Rams won a Super Bowl with a new iteration of the offense. The Rams still heavily relied on three-receiver sets, but the offense ran through quarterback Matthew Stafford and a dropback passing game.<\/p>\n

And now, as Stafford has aged, McVay has made another adjustment to his scheme\u2014one that now melds his innovations of 2017-2018 with some of the old-school approaches he once used in Washington.<\/p>\n

McVay flipped his approach on its head, getting back into heavier personnel sets\u2014often with three tight ends, forcing defenses to choose between prioritizing stopping the run and defending against deep passes. This season, the Rams have used three-receiver sets just 59 percent of the time\u2014the lowest usage in the McVay era. But playing multiple tight ends instead created the same kind of run-pass conflict that his three-receiver sets did more than a half decade ago. When the Rams trotted out its heavier personnel packages featuring tight ends Colby Parkinson, Terrance Ferguson and Tyler Higbee, defenses often responded by getting into their\u00a0 base defense with four defensive backs, two safeties and two corners \u2013 the exact kind of defensive looks McVay tried to avoid more than a half-decade ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, the Rams offense is built to destroy heavier defensive personnel, and led the NFL in success rate on runs and in passer rating when defenses have just four defensive backs on the field this season. You can see that in the clip below from the Rams\u2019 win over Detroit earlier this season. Los Angeles has multiple tight ends on the field and Detroit responds by putting five defenders on the line of scrimmage. The Lions rush those five defenders in anticipation of a run, but Los Angeles calls a play-action pass and Stafford delivers the ball into a void in Detroit\u2019s pass coverage. That\u2019s the calling card of McVay\u2019s current offense\u2014as soon as defenses try to match up in the trenches, the ball goes whizzing over linebackers\u2019 heads.<\/p>\n

When watching the 2025 Rams, you\u2019ll still see some of the same runs and play-action passes that made this offense special in 2018\u2014they\u2019re just doing it with bigger bodies. In that way, McVay very much remains a pioneer in the arc of modern offense. But he\u2019s met his schematic match in Macdonald, whose defense appears to have been built specifically to counter McVay\u2019s innovations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The foundation of Macdonald\u2019s defense is rooted in an old-school approach: Pick a personnel package to best match up against the offense\u2019s grouping, stop the run with heavy bodies in the trenches, and pressure the quarterback by dialing up blitzes. Those are core tenants of what the Ravens ran under former defensive coordinators Dean Pees and Wink Martindale as Macdonald climbed the ranks from assistant to eventual play caller in Baltimore. Once in Seattle as the head coach, Macdonald began shaping his own defense to create a unique edge\u2014just as McVay had done at the start of his head coaching career.<\/p>\n

Last season, Macdonald\u2019s first as the Seahawks head coach, Seattle played its base 3-4 defense against two-back or two-tight-end looks 37 percent of the time. They ranked just 25th in the league for snaps out of that package. The Seahawks defense was decent at playing matchup football in Macdonald\u2019s first year\u2014finishing the season right at the league average in defensive success rate (57.5 percent)\u2014but it wasn\u2019t quite complete.<\/p>\n

This season, though, the Seahawks defense has taken a major leap because Macdonald ditched the matchup-based scheme. The Seahawks spend little time rotating personnel packages and simply play Macdonald\u2019s best 11 players. They\u2019re able to do so because after the addition of rookie safety\/slot defender Nick Emmanwori and veteran edge rusher DeMarcus Lawrence, the 2025 Seahawks had players with the perfect combination of skill sets to handle any personnel grouping an offense put on the field. No team in the league spent more time with at least five defensive backs on the field than the Seahawks in the regular season, while their base defense rate dropped from 12.5 percent to just 4.6 percent this season\u2014the lowest mark in the league.\u00a0 With Emmanwori in the slot, Lawrence on an edge, defensive tackles Leonard Williams and Byron Murphy II on the interior, and linebacker Ernest Jones IV in the middle, the Seahawks have a stout run defense. Seattle ranked fourth in success rate against the run in the regular season and allowed the lowest rate of explosive runs in the league.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And because Seattle has players who are able to control the game in between the tackles, Macdonald can use two deep safeties to keep an umbrella over an opponents\u2019 passing game. The Seahawks led the league this season in Cover 2, Cover 4, and Cover 6, all variations of a two-high safety look\u2014and were more than 100 snaps ahead of Jacksonville in second place. Those shells helped Seattle hold opposing quarterbacks to\u00a0 the fourth-lowest average passer rating this season. Its defense is still tied for 10th in success rate against the run when offenses put at least two tight ends or running backs on the field. Simply: Macdonald\u2019s defense refuses to let the offense dictate what players it puts on the field. It\u2019s a fully actualized response to McVay\u2019s innovations that began nearly a decade ago. In many ways, Macdonald\u2019s unit is the epitome of a modern defense. It can handle the physical demands of stopping the run against any sort of offensive set, and his coverage scheme denies easy throws to the middle of the field.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That brings us to the NFC championship game matchup between these two coaches and their loaded rosters. The only two teams we\u2019ve consistently seen push the Rams offense and the Seahawks defense to their schematic limits have been each other, and the NFC championship game shouldn\u2019t be any different. Stafford\u2019s worst game by EPA came against the Seahawks in Week 11\u2014and his second-best game was against the same defense in Week 16. By success rate, Seattle\u2019s worst game against the run came in that Week 16 matchup, and its fourth-best game by yards per pass attempt was in Week 11.<\/p>\n

We should expect that Los Angeles will put several tight ends on the field and challenge Seattle\u2019s defense to handle all its blockers in the run game, while Stafford and McVay will try to pry open windows for receivers Puka Nacua and Davante Adams in the passing game. The Seahawks defensive backs will sit in its two-deep safety shells, daring the Rams to run and jumping on every passing route they can.\u00a0<\/p>\n

You can see that schematic battle playing out in the clip below, as Stafford perfectly places a ball to Nacua between Seattle linebackers and safeties playing Cover 4. It\u2019s the kind of passing concept that is a hallmark of McVay\u2019s offense, but here, the Seahawks closed that throwing window as much as possible. If not for Stafford\u2019s excellent throwing touch, this would have been a pass breakup (or an interception).<\/p>\n

And there will be snaps in which Macdonald and Seattle\u2019s defense have the upper hand. In the clip below, Seattle ran Cover 2 and totally took away Stafford\u2019s throw to Adams. This is an example of Seattle\u2019s coverage and pass rush working in sync, and how the Seahawks have dominated opponents all year long. The physicality of their defensive backs disrupt the Rams\u2019 timing, the split safety shell protects those aggressive defenders underneath. Those two layers over coverage force Stafford to hold the ball just long enough for edge rusher Derick Hall to get to the quarterback.<\/p>\n

For these two teams, the route to Super Bowl LX was always going to be through each other. These are the two best teams, with the league\u2019s two best minds on their respective sides of the ball, and they are fighting not just for a shot at a title, but for the upper hand in the NFL\u2019s never-ending scheme wars.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Diante Lee<\/p>\n

<\/a>Diante Lee joined The Ringer as an NFL writer and podcaster in 2024. Before that, he served as a staff writer at The Athletic, covering the NFL and college football. He currently coaches at the high school level in his hometown of San Diego.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NFC championship game between the Rams and Seahawks features the league\u2019s best offensive and defensive play callers,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-425271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}