You know how some teams have an entire offensive line that’s great, or that there are players that progressively get better year after year? That’s what position group coaches are for. The runningbacks coaches coach the runningbacks, offensive line coaches coach the offensive line. You get it. They’re important people. In this league, these coaches are going to be mega extra super important in getting players who maybe haven’t played in a minute or players who need coaching to play at a competitive level.
Runningbacks Coach: Art Valero
Valero’s been a position group coach for 10 years. I love that. He’s worked with 4 different teams in the NFL and he’s been a tight ends coach, an offensive line coach, and a runningbacks coach. In 2002 he was the tight ends coach for the Buccaneers who won the Superbowl. He’s got pedigree which is dope, and he’s got success which is sick.
He was the Rams’ runningbacks coach in 2008. Yeah, that team was truly abysmal with a 2-14 record, but it wasn’t because of him. Steven Jackson rushed for over 1000 yards that season, and that's not an easy thing to do when your team is 2-14.
I like Art Valero.
Wide Receivers Coach: Ricky Proehl
This is a cool hire. Ricky was a PIVOTAL part of The Greatest Show on Turf in 1999. It was his touchdown catch against the Buccaneers in the NFC Championship game that put the Rams up 11-6. Ricky Proehl may not exactly be a household name, but he’s pretty well known.
He also won a Superbowl with the Peyton Manning Colts, so that’s good as well.
He was the wide receivers coach for the Carolina Panthers from 2013-2016. They won the NFC championship in 2015, but that was largely due to VERY high-level quarterback play rather than high-level wide receiver play. Still, high-level experience and success are great, and a solid St. Louis tie-in is awesome too.
Tight Ends/Special Teams Coach: Tory Woodbury
This one seems like they have a former tight ends coach as a Head Coach with Anthony Becht and they wanted to hire someone who could do Special Teams too.
He was a player in the NFL for a couple of years and had a pretty unremarkable career. His coaching career has been a little bit more of a journey. He’s been an offensive position coach and offensive coordinator for 8 years at a couple of colleges. The more impressive/relevant pieces of his résumé are that he was a Special Teams assistant coach for the LA Rams in 2020 and he was the tight ends/Special Teams coordinator for Morgan State University.
That’s good because he has experience doing this specific combination of jobs at once.
Otherwise… meh. Not really as good of a hire as the other guys we talked about.
Offensive Line Coach: Pat Perles
If I were hiring an offensive line coach, the first question I would ask is, “Are you a football guy?”
Pat Perles would take offense to the question, then he would shake my hand, break it, and I would go to physical therapy, but I would still have severe chronic pain from the reset bones for the rest of my life.
Pat Perles is without a doubt, a football guy. He has surrounded himself in football for like, 30+ years, and he’s had a whole lot of experience coaching the offensive and defensive line.
Is he going to be good at being an offensive line coach in the XFL? Eh.
He was the offensive line coach for the Tampa Bay Bandits in the USFL last year and they went 4-6. We know that the offensive line is largely responsible for the running game’s production and the Bandits were around 30 yards below the league’s average rushing yards per game.
I’m gonna award this hire a “great experience, okay success”.