​It should come as no surprise that a Sean McVay disciple is aiming to transplant the Rams’ high-octane offense to a new team. McVay’s former assistants are widely represented across the league as head coaches and top coordinators, and the fingerprints of his system are easy to spot wherever they land. Arizona’s franchise is the latest to pursue that same blueprint, hoping to harness the success of the McVay offense in a new setting. New Cardinals head coach Mike LaFleur, who spent the past three seasons as Los Angeles’ offensive coordinator under McVay, intends to implement that same approach in his first year at the controls in Arizona.
LaFleur recently told ESPN’s Josh Weinfuss that he has already identified which players on the Cardinals will fill the roles that Puka Nacua and Davante Adams filled for the Rams. Marvin Harrison Jr. is slated to operate as the “X” receiver, effectively taking on the Adams-like duties, while Michael Wilson—who just posted his first 1,000-yard season—will slide into the “Z” role, the same position Nacua held with Los Angeles. It may not be a perfect one-to-one comparison, but Wilson acknowledged that the comparison is helpful for fans who aren’t deeply acquainted with the granular ball details: it’s easy to picture the function you’d be filling, even if the specifics aren’t identical.
Given how productive both Rams receivers were within that scheme last season, it makes sense that LaFleur would aim to replicate that success in Arizona. Nacua led the NFL in receptions and in receiving yards per game, finishing with 1,715 receiving yards (second in the league) and ranking highly in targets and yards per target. Adams, operating primarily as the left-side “X,” caught 60 of 112 targets for 789 yards but also led the league with 14 touchdown receptions, including a league-high 12 red-zone scores. LaFleur’s system is a West Coast-inspired offense that, like McVay’s Rams, emphasizes movement and versatility for receivers, rather than forcing players into rigid, single alignments.
“You can move them inside and outside on a whim, in terms of our formations, our motions, and all that kind of stuff,” LaFleur explained. “You don’t want to put it in a box and say you’re limited by bringing people inside, but you can simply use their skill sets in multiple ways.” For McVay and the Rams, this approach represents another indicator of the offense’s expanding influence across the league, as a former coordinator tries to export the blueprint—and the exact roles that made it successful—to a rival division’s roster.
Whether LaFleur and the Cardinals can replicate that level of success remains to be seen. They don’t have a quarterback on the level of Matthew Stafford, and they are more likely to lean on veteran Jacoby Brissett or rookie Carson Beck to orchestrate the attack. They will also have to contend with a Rams defense that knows the scheme intimately, having faced it repeatedly and studied its nuances. And for the Rams, the continuity under McVay has already built substantial momentum: if the offense continues its current trajectory, sustaining that energy should come relatively naturally.
This topic originally appeared on Rams Wire: Mike LaFleur already knows who will play Nacua and Adams roles in Arizona, with an eye toward better SEO.