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Gene Frenette: Rams special-teams coach, former Jaguar assistant Joe DeCamillis enjoys Super Bowl ride
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- Gene Frenette: Rams special-teams coach, former Jaguar assistant Joe DeCamillis enjoys Super Bowl ride
In the NFL's emotional vortex, few active coaches have been through more highs and lows than Joe DeCamillis. He practically has a doctorate degree in riding that football roller-coaster.
The Los Angeles Rams ' special-teams coordinator is tied for the fifth-longest coaching tenure in the league at 33 seasons, behind only New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick (47 seasons), Detroit Lions senior defensive assistant Dom Capers (36 seasons), recently fired Denver Broncos head coach Vic Fangio (35 seasons) and departed Las Vegas Raiders ' linebackers coach Richard Smith (34 seasons).
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At no time in his NFL career has DeCamillis, 56, experienced quite the polar opposite extremes of losing and winning as the past two seasons. He went from 1-15, dropping the last 15 games while employed in 2020 as the Jaguars' special-teams coordinator, to reaching his fourth Super Bowl in the same capacity this year with the Rams.
"When you tell my story, it's a wild ride, that's for sure," DeCamillis said last week in a phone interview with the Times-Union, two days after the Rams won the NFC Championship, 20-17, over the San Francisco 49ers .
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For DeCamillis, appearing in Sunday's Super Bowl LVI matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals at the Rams' So-Fi Stadium serves as another reminder of why the NFL is so addicting for many of its coaches.
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Beyond the lucrative paycheck and pension benefits, the allure of trying to ascend the NFL mountaintop never gets old for grinders like DeCamillis. He began chasing his dream shortly before his 24th birthday when his father-in-law, then Denver Broncos head coach Dan Reeves, gave him his first job as an administrative assistant to the head coach and general manager at a modest salary of $15,000.
It was a fancy title for someone who basically charted plays and helped out the strength and conditioning staff. But once DeCamillis got a small sampling of the NFL life, and going to the Super Bowl that first season when Denver got blown out 55-10 by the San Francisco 49ers, he was hooked.
"I love football and the process of getting ready for a game," said DeCamillis. "I love being able to line up and beat an opponent across from you. It's an awesome feeling. That's something you don't get in other professions. You don't see a score."
Loved Duval, hated losing
During the 2020 season, the Jaguars weren't lining up and beating many opponents. After a 27-20 victory over the Indianapolis Colts in the season opener, they lost every game the remainder of the season, including nine by double digits.
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"I don't ever want to have to go through that again," DeCamillis said.
While the Jaguars' special-teams unit was the lone bright spot — finishing tied for 13th in NFL veteran writer Rick Gosselin's annual rankings — DeCamillis' four-year coaching stint during his second stop in Jacksonville (he also coordinated special-teams in 2007-08) ended with him experiencing a cross-section of emotions.
Rams' head coach Sean McVay actually wanted to hire DeCamillis before the 2020 season, but since he was still under contract, former Jaguars head coach Doug Marrone exercised his right to block the transaction because it would have been a lateral move.
While that irked DeCamillis at the time, it wasn't as bad as losing more games than he ever experienced in his career. Despite kicker Josh Lambo being lost for the season due to a nagging hip injury after four games, his special-teams unit overall managed to hold things together.
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"My last year [with the Jaguars] was one of my most fun years I've been a part of because those players were unbelievable, worked hard and did everything I asked them to do," said DeCamillis. "I believe we were the strongest part of that team and we were happy for that, but it wasn't enough to get wins. I hated that part of it.
"But Jacksonville is a great place to live and we [wife, Dana] enjoyed living there. On the football side, the last couple years were really tough because you felt it was an uphill battle every week. Coming out here [to the Rams] and having a chance to be in every game and win is something you crave as a coach."
DeCamillis was brought in to revitalize a Rams' special teams unit that went into decline the three previous years. His unit showed gradual improvement as the season went on. Kicker Matt Gay was their most consistent performer, hitting 32 of 34 field goal attempts and 48 of 49 PATs. He hit field goals of 40 and 30 yards in the last seven minutes of the NFC Championship, allowing the Rams to erase a 17-14 deficit.
The Rams finished a strong fourth in special teams DVOA (Defense Adjusted Value Over Average), according to Football Outsiders, and ended up 16th in Gosselin's special teams rankings after being 30th in 2020.
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Rams' general manager Les Snead credits DeCamillis for revitalizing a unit that had long been one of the team's biggest shortcomings.
"He's a highly competent tactician," Snead said of DeCamillis via text. "He demanded improvement weekly and engineered a process to achieve it."
While the Rams' return teams were nothing special, DeCamillis did get a timely highlight from Brandon Powell, who took the opening kickoff back 65 yards against the Jaguars in Week 13 that jump-started a 37-7 win at So-Fi Stadium.
"The players knew there was a little bit extra [motivation] for me that game because I had been with the Jaguars the last four years," said DeCamillis. "When we broke that return, some of the players were saying, 'There you go, coach.' "
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Going to L.A., working under one of the NFL's bright, young minds in McVay, has been uplifting and also an eye-opener. The Rams have home-grown stars in defensive tackle Aaron Donald and receiver Cooper Kupp, but a big reason for their second Super Bowl trip in four years was acquiring stars like cornerback Jalen Ramsey (Jaguars) and pass-rusher Von Miller (Broncos), both of whom are now reunited with DeCamillis, along with quarterback Matthew Stafford (Detroit Lions).
"This is one of the best environments I've been around," said DeCamillis. "It's a culture that's based on team. It's we, not me. The people they've brought in like [receiver] Odell Beckham have fit in. Sean [McVay] has done a great job of making it a winning culture where players are accountable to each other.
"There's a steadiness to it. There was no panic when we lost three games in a row. We beat the Jaguars and are 8-1 since then."
Grief-stricken postseason
The closing weeks of the regular season were emotional as DeCamillis knew the end was coming for Reeves, his father-in-law and beloved football mentor.
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He passed away at age 77 on January 1 of complications from dementia. DeCamillis flew down to Georgia for the funeral service on January 14, missing one practice before returning to coach in the Rams' 34-11 NFC wild-card victory over the Arizona Cardinals.
"The thing I'll miss is talking to him on the phone about ball," said DeCamillis. "One of the first things I did after the Super Bowl we won in Denver [beating Carolina Panthers 24-10 in 2015] was talk to Dan on the field during the celebration. I'm going to miss that."
For 15 of his 33 NFL seasons, DeCamillis was on the same sideline with his father-in-law – four years in Denver (1989-92), four with the New York Giants (1993-96) and seven years with the Atlanta Falcons (1997-2003).
The bond between them was so tight, DeCamillis referred to Reeves as his "second father" for a Times-Union Father's Day story in 2019. Though the family connection certainly helped Reeves get his foot in the NFL door, his father-in-law was adamant that the former University of Wyoming wrestler had validated the hire a long time ago.
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"Nobody looked at him when I was coach and said he had a job because he was the coach's son-in-law," Reeves said in 2019. "He earned it."
As the Rams navigated their way to the Super Bowl, it has been impossible for memories of Reeves to not go through DeCamillis' mind after playoff wins over Arizona, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and San Francisco.
"It's been a pretty rough month and a half," said DeCamillis. "[Reeves] fought hard. It was a very sad situation. Hopefully, we have an angel looking out for us [in the Super Bowl]. Maybe it'll help us out a little bit."
"One down to get it right"
Nobody is more acutely aware than DeCamillis of how one special-teams lowlight/highlight can either extend a playoff run or end a team's season.
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He's seen that from both sides, once with the Broncos during their Super Bowl win over Carolina and once with the Jaguars in the 2017 fourth quarter AFC Championship collapse against the New England Patriots.
Broncos receiver Jordan Norwood, who didn't have a lengthy punt return all season, came through for Denver in that Super Bowl by squeezing through two defenders for a 61-yard return to set up a field goal that gave the Broncos a 13-7 halftime lead. It remains the longest punt return in SB history.
"We punted [eight] times in that Super Bowl and won the game because our defense and special teams were so good," said DeCamillis.
Two years later, with the Jaguars five minutes away from their first Super Bowl appearance, the same punter (Brad Nortman) involved in Norwood's return failed to get proper hang time on a 41-yard punt to the Patriots' Danny Amendola at midfield. The punt was returned 20 yards to the Jaguars' 30, which set up Tom Brady's game-winning TD pass from 4 yards out to Amendola.
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While many Jaguars fans were enraged at the outcome because it was the "Myles Jack-wasn't-down" game, DeCamillis' biggest lament is the Amendola punt return.
He puts it rather succinctly: "The worst [special teams] play I've ever been a part of."
Given what has transpired this postseason — with several games being decided by special-teams execution (field goals) on the last play or blunders like the Green Bay Packers allowing a blocked-punt touchdown in a 13-10 NFC divisional loss to San Francisco — it reinforces DeCamillis' message to his unit this week that a Super Bowl can be decided in a matter of seconds.
"The thing we always talk about is the one-down philosophy," said DeCamillis. "On special teams, you don't have second and third down to get it right. We only have one down to get it right."
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He has invested the last 30 years of his coaching life exclusively on special teams. It's an NFL journey that has included 27 playoff games (18-9 record) and now DeCamillis' fourth Super Bowl trip, none more disappointing than losing 34-19 to the Broncos in quarterback John Elway's final game when he was on Reeves' 1998 staff with the Atlanta Falcons.
DeCamillis has his Broncos' Super Bowl ring stored away in a safe deposit box, but he intends to pull it out Saturday night at the Rams' final team meeting to serve as inspiration for his players. The Colorado native also keeps a replica of the Lombardi trophy in his office as a reminder of why he continues to chase the ultimate NFL dream.
"I'm appreciative of being in the game his long, but because I've been part of a Super Bowl winner, you want to help guys like Aaron Donald, Matthew Stafford, Cooper Kupp and Jalen Ramsey get their first one," said DeCamillis. "If you can pass that on and help them get a ring, that's pretty cool."
Considering he was on a 1-15 team just one year ago, DeCamillis getting another chance to win on football's biggest stage -- and right there in Hollywood – is quite a chapter in his wild, exhilarating NFL ride.
gfrenette@jacksonville.com: (904) 359-4540
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Rams' coach Joe DeCamillis enjoys Super Bowl ride after 1-15 with Jaguars
