No point in sweating which of the young coaching hires were best. I do think the Rams did well, and mainly because I like the fit of McVay's depth of knowledge and energy, and am an enormous fan of the Phillips DC hire. But I also think Shanny has some rare game planning acumen and knowledge, so there's just no telling how this is going to play out for these two franchises.
I think they're both good young coaches who are probably going to be around in this league as head coaches for a long time, and not necessarily with their current teams. And the reason for that of course is the GM position. Niners took a flyer on a young, untested guy as GM that I have to think is risky. Rams stayed the course with a guy who has been hit and miss, and who let the better corner go in FA a year ago.
What scares me is that for all the flak York gets, he at least tried to bring in quality GM leadership, whereas the Rams did not. I'm pretty sure a guy like Ballard or Caserio would have interviewed with Stan. For whatever reason they seem to think Les is the right guy, and who knows maybe he is, but it concerns me that they didn't at least bring in some guys to interview at that level.
All that aside I do think the biggest move a GM can make is his HC hire. And for both franchises the hires were good. So I suppose it's possible they both work out and we see McVay and Shanahan dueling in this division for some time. Again though it's gonna come down to how well they are supported by their respective front offices.
