Joe Barry Joins Sean McVay On Los Angeles Rams Coaching Staff

Since hiring Sean McVay, the Los Angeles Rams have hired defensive coordinator Wade Phillips, who was one of the Washington Redskins targets, and their former defensive coordinator Joe Barry.

The Los Angeles Rams are quickly putting together a coaching staff that should intrigue the Washington Redskins fan base. Since hiring former Redskins offensive coordinator Sean McVay as their head coach, the Rams have focused on hiring some top assistants.

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On Thursday, they added Wade Phillips to be their defensive coordinator. He was expected to be a target of the Redskins. Then, on Saturday afternoon, it was announced that former Redskins defensive coordinator Joe Barry would be joining the staff. The news broke via NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport:

Hiring Barry as a linebackers coach is a decent move by the Rams. It will also give McVay a familiar face to work with in the building as the 30-year-old begins his head coaching career.

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Barry’s defense in Washington definitely left a lot to be desired, but some have argued that he was not given a fair chance. After all, the defensive personnel was very poor, and the team has only a few quality players. Their secondary is in shambles, aside from Josh Norman, while their defensive front has no talent. Barry’s task of fixing that unit was always going to be difficult, and he could not do it.

Perhaps with better personnel, Barry could have coached a better defense. However, I have some doubts about that solely because of the lack of fundamentals demonstrated by the unit. There was poor tackling for a majority of the season while the coverage schemes were extremely basic. Barry may have just bitten off more than he could chew, and that would explain why the defense played so poorly.

Still, adding Barry as a positional coach looks like a good move. I mean, he was a defensive coordinator after all, so he should be able to handle managing just one positional group. Barry can focus on working with just the Rams linebackers and helping out the defensive staff in whatever way possible. Perhaps with less responsibility, he will be able to do more and really help Phillips and the Rams defense.

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There is little downside to this hire by the Rams. It will be intriguing to see if they attempt to add any other former members of the Redskins coaching staff. Maybe they could even try to lure Wes Phillips, son of Wade, to join the staff as an offensive assistant. Regardless of what happens, the Redskins-Rams game next season will certainly be made more interesting by these moves.