Rams To Add Jimmy Lake To Staff

Sean McVay will give Jimmy Lake an opportunity, more than a year after Washington fired him as head coach. The Rams will add the former Pac-12 HC to their staff, Tom Pelissero of NFL.com tweets.

Washington fired Lake before his second season as HC ended, doing so after suspending him for an incident in which he appeared to strike a player on the sidelines. With another complaint against Lake coming out during his suspension, Washington moved on in November 2021. But Lake had visited the Rams as a guest of Raheem Morris in the past, per Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic, who notes he has been on the team’s radar for about a month (Twitter link).

Lake, 46, was with Washington for eight seasons, rising from Huskies defensive backs coach to defensive coordinator to head coach in that span. Morris appears set to hire Lake to his defensive staff, though Pelissero notes it is uncertain what the role will be.

Morris and Lake were both on Jon Gruden‘s Buccaneers staff in the 2000s, with McVay also starting his career by spending a season under Gruden. Lake also worked as defensive backs coach under Morris in Tampa from 2010-11; he spent the next decade at the college level. The Rams moved on from defensive backs coach Jonathan Cooley last month; Cooley is now with the Panthers.

Washington fired Lake after the above-referenced incident, which occurred just after one of his players argued with an Oregon player during a 2021 game. The Seattle Times also reported Lake faced an allegation of being physical with a player during halftime of a 2019 game. Lake has been in coaching since 1999. He only ended up leading the Huskies for 13 games, going 7-6.

The Rams are also promoting Zak Kromer to be their assistant offensive line coach, Rodrigue tweets. The son of former Rams O-line coach Aaron Kromer, Zak has been with the Rams for the past six seasons. Aaron Kromer remains with the Bills, who lost their assistant O-line coach — Ryan Wendell — to the Rams; Wendell is now Los Angeles’ O-line coach.