Rams, McVay to explore contract extension during offseason...

[www.cbssports.com]

Despite not yet completing only his second season as a head coach, Sean McVay's assistants and associates featured prominently in this hiring cycle, a fact not lost on the Rams. Sources said the team and the rock-star head coach will discuss a contract extension this offseason.

It may seem a bit early to some, but given McVay's immediate impact -- not just on the Rams and their budding young quarterback, Jared Goff, but on the entire coaching industry -- both sides will explore the matter in the coming months, I'm told. McVay signed a five-year contract in 2017, becoming the youngest head coach in the game at the time, and has brought the moribund franchise to the playoffs in two straight years, with them in the NFC Championship Game today for the first time since 2001.

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McVay has become in many ways the face of the franchise, with his success, demeanor, leadership and communication skills making him an immediate hit in the fickle Los Angeles market. He has boosted the team's standing and its bottom line, with attendance up at the L.A. Coliseum and the Rams becoming much more of a national brand since he replaced Jeff Fisher.

His rapid rise through the coaching ranks has created a template other teams are eager to copy -- of course, it remains to be seen if any of his former assistants come close to making the kind of impact McVay has -- and with a new stadium set to open in 2020, it could make sense for all parties to add term to his contract before the start of the season.

In the last 12 months the coaching world has seen a dramatic spike in salary, with Jon Gruden landing a record 10-year, $100 million contract with the Raiders a year ago, and Pete Carroll recently signing an extension with the Seahawks worth $11 million a season.

Only a few years ago the Raiders tore up Jack Del Rio's deal and rewarded him after getting the team back into the playoffs (then ultimately let him go a year later to give Gruden his record deal), so while it may be somewhat unusual for a coach to merit an extension so soon, it is hardly without precedent, which is what McVay's accomplishments already, before turning 33 years old (his birthday is Thursday), certainly are.