Most Atlanta Falcons fans purged the Arthur Smith era from their memory bank, and it's hard to blame them. Going 7-10 in three straight seasons while an offensive-minded head coach ran the world's most gimmicky offense makes us lucky to have Kevin Stefanski and Tommy Rees at the helm.
While Smith has been forced to return to the college ranks since NFL interest washed up, his ex-offensive coordinator, Dave Ragone, is doing pretty okay for himself. When the Falcons hired Zac Robinson to be their OC in 2024 when they hired Raheem Morris, Sean McVay hired him as the new quarterbacks coach for the Los Angeles Rams.
However, Ragone's title just changed with the Rams. Now that Mike LaFleur left to take the Arizona Cardinals head coaching job, the Rams were the final team with an opening at offensive coordinator, which they filled by promoting the rising Nathan Scheelhaase, but McVay made Ragone the co-OC.
Rams promote ex-Falcons OC Dave Ragone to co-offensive coordinator to mentor Nate Scheelhaase
McVay is calling plays for the Rams regardless, but this is an interesting offensive makeup. This feels like Scheelhaase was only promoted as to not risk losing him, and they also brought in ex-Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury. Basically, McVay is trying to assemble the offensive coaching Avengers.
When the Rams brought in LaFleur as OC, he had prior play-calling experience, so even though it was with the Jets, that's still plenty valuable. Scheelhaase doesn't have that same luxury, so even though he's been a fast riser, it's clear that they're trying to provide him with an experienced support system.
Scheelhaase is only 35 and likely has a head coaching job in his future, so he has a lot of great people to learn from. McVay, previously LaFleur, Ragone, and Kingsbury is a lot, so even though the 46-year-old has the least name value of all of the coaches on this list, he's still incredibly valuable to the Rams.
He has been the QBs coach for the last two seasons in the City of Angels, which saw Matthew Stafford be named NFL MVP in 2025. And this was after he worked with a consistently horrible Falcons' offense with Smith, but like I said before, OC experience counts regardless of the start point.
Ragone has a strong background, as he coached Mitch Trubisky as the QBs coach in Chicago. Him being named co-OC feels like a mentorship thing, but it also looks like he'll receive another shot as an OC in the near future, which he deserves after a nightmare stint with the DIrty Birds a few years back.