Matthew Stafford, Kamren Kinchens and a pair of stud wide receivers were key to the Los Angeles Rams leaving Gillette Stadium with a win over the New England Patriots on Sunday.
Rams head coach Sean McVay also made sure he recognized several past members of the Patriots that helped LA come out on top against their former team.
The Rams posted McVay’s locker room speech on social media, and he handed out game balls to Ryan Wendell, Nick Caley, Jimmy Garoppolo and Jerry Schuplinski, who is in his first season as a senior assistant with the Rams and won three Super Bowl titles with the Patriots serving in various coaching roles.
“Want to be able to recognize a couple guys,” McVay said. “Got a couple guys on the coaching staff, one player, where they’ve spent some time here and these guys are sure damn instrumental to us.”
Garoppolo didn’t play in his return to Foxboro. He’s in the latter stages of his NFL career and serves as Stafford’s backup. Wendell, who played seven seasons with the Patriots from 2009-2015, is in his second year as the Rams offensive line coach. It’s a position the Patriots interviewed Wendell for in January 2023 but decided not to hire him.
Story continues below advertisement
McVay was most fired up to shout-out Caley. The Patriots reportedly wanted to give their offensive coordinator job to Caley, who spent eight seasons on the New England coaching staff and were willing to give him around $3 million per year.
Caley turned down that chance, though, and McVay responded by giving him a promotion to the team’s pass game coordinator to go along with his tight ends coaching responsibilities.
“This guy has as much passion as anybody, man. We’re sure damn glad he’s with us,” McVay said of Caley.
Featured image via Eric Canha/Imagn Images
