Rams hire Sean McVay as head coach, not Teryl Austin

The opportunities for Teryl Austin, defensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions, to earn a head coaching job appear to be dwindling yet again. Two teams have reportedly expressed interest in hiring Austin: the Los Angeles Rams and the San Diego Los Angeles Chargers.

On Thursday, however, the Rams announced they have hired former Washington offensive coordinator Sean McVay as their new head coach. McVay is now the youngest head coach in NFL history at just 30 years old.

There are now only two NFL coaching vacancies remaining: the Chargers and the San Francisco 49ers.

Back on Tuesday, Austin interviewed for the Chargers job. There hasn’t been any indication on how the meeting went, but the Chargers released a formal rundown of Austin as an official candidate for the job. But Austin has a lot of competition with him. So far, the Chargers have interviewed six different candidates, including Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia, former Falcons head coach Mike Smith and former Bills offensive coordinator Anthony Lynn, who many believe is the current front-runner for the job.

This has been the third year in a row that Austin has had interviews to become a head coach. Earlier in the week, Jim Caldwell expressed hope that this would be the year that Austin would finally get the promotion he has earned. “I’m certainly hoping that he gets that opportunity,” Caldwell said. “I think obviously that he deserves an opportunity.”

But after sporting the league’s worst defense by DVOA in 2016, Austin may have had a hard time selling himself a head coach material. He may have to wait yet another year to get that shot.