I'm not sure it's about modern players, as much as it is the modern playbook.
Either way, what McVay has always stressed is that he wants teachers as coaches. That's a different thing than the guys who demand, and discipline, and yell at you when you don't do things right, and call it coaching (which in years gone by, it may well have been).

You regularly hear the Rams players talk about how their position coach doesn't just teach them what to do, it's why you do it the way you're being taught. I actually think there's more respect communicated when you coach that way, and it is especially helpful for those develop players that didn't get top notch coaching in college, but they have all the physical tools.