LOS ANGELES – For the first seven weeks of the 2024 season, a young Rams defense met more valleys than peaks.
Head coach Sean McVay's trust in defensive coordinator Chris Shula never wavered.
In fact, it was a simple message from McVay that firmly reinforced that belief and gave Shula the confidence to get the group on track over the second half of the season.
"We had a big talk. We were struggling going into the bye (week) last year and it was like, 'Just be yourself. What'd you do at John Carroll (University)?' when I was defensive coordinator my first year at John Carroll. 'What exactly would you do?'" Shula recalled during training camp.
"That resonated with me. I know he's got my back. He's always believed in me. That's a big feeling when you feel safety like that as a coach, when you're not out walking on eggshells if you make a call or do this defense or you make a mistake, it allows you to be a lot freer, and we want our players to play like that too."
Both coaches and players embodied that on the field. As Shula grew more comfortable in that role, so too did the defense in theirs. The pass rush in particular turned it up another level, and the secondary capitalized on that pressure to create timely takeaways.
That difference has been felt going into Year 2 in the role for him as the Rams prepare for Sunday's regular season opener against the Texans at SoFi Stadium.
"It's like another lap around the track," Shula said. "You've gone through the experiences before. It's honestly everything… It's your process of how you're going to get ready for practice, what you need to get ready for, you understand. It's really being a year with these guys too, understanding all the bullets that you need to get through a season or to get through a few weeks, and understanding who your players are, trying to work those, play to the strength of those players and what you want to emphasize. Really starting from that but it's really just the process, it's a lot cleaner. You know you've had a lap around it, so whether it's good experience or bad experience. As long as you've learned from it, you're growing and gladly that's what we've done."
One of the earliest signs of how that confidence carried over to the unit as a whole came not long after that conversation between Shula and McVay.
In Week 7 against the Vikings, Shula chose to give safety Quentin Lake the green dot as the defense's on-field primary communicator between Shula and the group. While the two have regular small talk when crossing paths between meetings or while on the practice field together, Lake called that decision "the pivotal moment" for him.
"I was lucky enough that he trusted me to be able to do that and take that role on," Lake said. "But I think that was another thing where he was – you can kind of see the confidence in his players, and then, really, in the group as a whole. And then you saw what we did Thursday night, ended up putting up a good defensive performance. Offense, they did an amazing job, too, putting up 30 points. But I think that's kind of where there was a little bit of a shift, and then you saw us kind of find our defensive identity, continue to roll, and then had a pretty good couple of games down the last stretch of the season."
Many things proved instructive to this approach, like building enough inventory to learn ways to tailor the defense to players' strengths. One of Shula's biggest takeaways was the importance of mental toughness to the job.
"That feels like forever ago and it feels like yesterday at the same time," Shula said this week. "You just have to be mentally tough. We always talk about it to the players how during the NFL season, you're one day away from being humbled. I've learned to always have that in the back of your mind, doing the best that you can and just knowing that there are going to be some peaks and valleys throughout the season and being able to push through it. I definitely feel a lot more settled and ready to go. Not that I didn't necessarily feel that way last year, but I think when you look back and you just know how you feel now. I think it's a lot more because of the players that we got and I feel good going in with those guys."
Similar to the majority of the young 2024 defense, Shula grew as it did. Experience is a natural teacher in the evolution of any coach's process, and watching both himself and the group evolve has been "fun."
"Just how you evolve, whether it's the preparation throughout the week, or what these guys can do, and same thing, these guys are figuring out what they can do on the field. It's been fun," Shula said. "It feels like we've been growing together as a unit."
"We're a defense really that has been able to build off of last year, and we're starting in a way that's more advanced," defensive end Kobie Turner said. "Obviously when you start off the season, a lot of times it's some of the more simpler things. Obviously, the first week comes down to your basic fundamentals – tackling, killing blocks. But we also have a really good understanding of the defense. And so Shula coming back in the second year, being able to have an understanding of how we interact as well and how we play (is the biggest difference from Year 1 to Year 2)."
Trust is a two-way street. Empowered by McVay, Shula carried it through to his defensive players, and it made a noticeable difference in their performance. McVay's trust allowed Shula to coach freely, and in turn allowed players to do the same.
"He trusts us," said outside linebacker Jared Verse, when asked about Shula's increased comfort and confidence going into Year 2 as defensive coordinator. "He trusts D-line to get after it. He trusts that even if we rushed three guys, it's a little bit more time back there and the secondary is going to lock it up. He trusts everybody on the defense from the number one player to whoever we got on the last spot. He trusts everybody."
