The Aug. 2, 2016 edition of Sports Illustrated contained a story, written by Andy Benoit, titled: "He's the NFL's Best Head Coaching Candidate. And He's 30."
You know the coach. Sean McVay was a known commodity within NFL circles at that time -- "I loved all the coaches that I played for. I absolutely did. But I would’ve been better if I had worked with Sean for my entire career. I have no doubt about that," said Chris Cooley about his then 24-year-old tight ends coach -- but that piece was McVay's coming out party to the NFL community as a whole.
That 24-year-old tight ends coach is now the 35-year-old head coach of the Los Angeles Rams, and the writer of that piece is now a member of the Rams' front office.
Andy Benoit - who has worked for Sports Illustrated, the New York Times and CBS Sports - has been hired as the assistant to Rams’ head coach Sean McVay/Special Projects. Benoit now will be a regular sounding board and researcher for McVay.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) July 25, 2021
This move has been in the works for a while, but become officially official -- Schefter official -- on Sunday night.
FWIW, his name has been on Rams’ staff masthead for a while. Not questioning Adam’s reporting (perhaps the title/job description hadn’t been settled yet); just noting I noticed this about a month ago https://t.co/T1vff0usUM
— Eric Edholm (@Eric_Edholm) July 25, 2021
Benoit locked his Twitter account after firing off some controversial Colin Kaepernick takes in 2017, but he continued working for SI through November of 2019. At that point he left to become a scouting consultant for an undisclosed number of NFL teams, according to his LinkedIn page. That page says he lives in Boise. While this hiring means Benoit will go exclusive with the Rams, it remains to be seen if he'll move to Los Angeles or contribute remotely.
Benoit's hiring continues the trend of NFL media moving into front offices. John Lynch left the Fox booth to be the 49ers' general manager, and Chris Spielman leapt from Fox to the Lions' front office.
The democratization of technology -- access to all-22 film, analytics that didn't exist 15 years ago -- will only lead to more John Lynches and Andy Benoits in the future.