Super Bowl champion head coach Sean McVay has informed the Los Angeles Rams he will return for the 2023 season, the team announced on Friday.
McVay had been pondering his future following the conclusion of a difficult 2022 campaign that ended with Sunday's overtime loss to the Seattle Seahawks.
The 2017 NFL Coach of the Year confirmed he was weighing up his options when speaking at Monday's end-of-the-season press conference.
The Rams dropped nine of their final 11 games to finish 5-12, the highest loss total in a season for any team defending a Super Bowl title, amid a mounting swarm of injuries to several key players that included quarterback Matthew Stafford, 2021 NFL Offensive Player of the Year Cooper Kupp and three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year Aaron Donald.
"I think what I liked to do is be able to take the appropriate time," McVay said on Monday. "I've never gone through anything like this, but you want to make sure that you're considerate of the people that are affected.
"That's the most important thing and you want to be able to have the consistent conversations and dialogues that have existed with the people that I love and really care about.
"But that doesn't mean it takes away the empathy, the level of responsibility that I do feel for the people that would be affected as it relates to my decision moving forward, and so those are the things that you don’t take lightly.
"You want to be able to make sure that you're intentional about taking the appropriate time, while also making a decision in a manner that's considerate of those people that would be affected."
McVay, who at age 36 became the youngest head coach in NFL history to win a Super Bowl with the Rams' victory over the Cincinnati Bengals last February, has four years remaining on a new contract he received prior to the start of this past season.
The Rams reached the playoffs four times in McVay's first five seasons in charge and won 55 regular-season games over that span, tying him with Pittsburgh's Mike Tomlin for the third-most victories of any coach through his first five seasons in NFL history.
McVay is also the youngest head coach to lead a team to a Super Bowl after guiding the Rams to the title game during the 2018 season at the age of 33.
The Rams have compiled a 60-38 record with three NFC West titles during McVay's tenure, as well as a 7-3 mark in postseason play.