Los Angeles Rams add promising young star to coaching staff whose hire could have major implications for the future
Sean McVay might have struck gold again with his latest coaching hire.
As brilliant of an offensive mind as Sean McVay is, his best trait as a head coach might be his ability to fill out his coaching staff. Every offseason with McVay at the helm, the Los Angeles Rams have their coaching staff picked apart by the rest of the NFL, and without fail, McVay is able to successfully retool and rebuild an elite staff.
He might have struck gold again with his most recent hire. According to CBS Sports’ Matt Zenitz, the Rams have hired Michael Hunter Jr. away from the Tennessee Volunteers to coach their secondary.
What Michael Hunter Jr. brings to the Los Angeles Rams
Hunter was only with the Volunteers for a little more than a month, but has spent the last two seasons as an assistant defensive backs coach with the Ohio State Buckeyes. Naturally, that means I had to reach out to A to Z Sports Ohio State writer Brandon Little for some insights on Hunter.
“Hunter spent two seasons working as a program assistant under cornerbacks coach Tim Walton at Ohio State. The fact that Ohio State was able to keep him in the role for two years before he left was a win in itself. Hunter’s quick rise from holding a temporary cornerbacks job at Tennessee to then leaping to the NFL speaks for itself. Names like Denzel Burke, Davison Igbinosun, Devin Sanchez, and Jordan Hancock are among the Ohio State players that Hunter has helped develop over the last two years. Hunter landed at Ohio State from Oklahoma State where he and Jim Knowles crossed paths. It was also notable that Hunter played under former Ohio State offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson at Indiana. Hunter was regarded as one of the more important program assistants before leaving for Tennessee. His jump to the NFL now shouldn’t be surprising, as he’s another young up-and-comer in the coaching world.”
Hunter has drawn plenty of rave reviews for his work with the Buckeyes, and his success under two of the best defensive minds in Jim Knowles and Matt Patricia speaks to his ability. Lathan Ransom raved about Hunter to Volquest last month.
“You meet a lot of coaches that show up and coach X’s and O’s, but they don’t really build a relationship with their players. I think that not only is he a knowledgeable coach, but he knows what his players need. When I was going out there on Saturdays, it made me play extremely hard for him and Coach G because I knew how much they poured into me that week, so I wanted to go play hard for them.”
What the hire means for the Los Angeles Rams
Aside from the obvious, there are some interesting implications for the Rams here. From a draft perspective, naturally this opens the door for them to be linked to Ohio State defensive backs like Caleb Downs, Davison Igbinosun, and Jermaine Matthews Jr. in the 2026 NFL Draft. All of whom make sense for the Rams.
The Rams have had Aubrey Pleasant working with the cornerbacks for years alongside safeties coach Chris Beake and defensive assistant Jimmy Lake. Now, it seems like Hunter is being hired as the dedicated cornerbacks coach for the Rams, given his work in college. Pleasant has interviewed for the Cleveland Browns’ defensive coordinator job recently. Is this a sign of his impending departure, or a reshuffling of duties after a dismal season? Tough to say as it stands as of the time of this writing.
For the Rams’ defense, it could be a sign of a switch in their preferred coverage types. At Ohio State, Hunter primarily coached a high man-coverage, Cover-1 dominated secondary. The Buckeyes were obviously more multiple than that, but that has been their bread and butter for years. LA broke out C1 at key points throughout the season to great success (see: the first matchup against Seattle), but couldn’t live in it due to personnel, and they relied heavily on Cover 3. Is this a potential sign of them aiming to be more aggressive?
Regardless, McVay has once again hired a promising young star to his coaching staff and continues to prove his acumen as a head coach.
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