The coaching tree that has sprouted under Rams head coach Sean McVay continues to branch out across the NFL.
The tree under Les Snead, the club’s general manager, is starting to do the same.
And another branch could soon grow with John McKay, the assistant general manager to Snead since 2025, getting a second interview with the Vikings for their general manager opening.
McKay is one of five candidates that the Vikings are bringing in for an in-person interviews. The 36-year-old McKay was one of 10 candidates who met virtually with Minnesota executives about the job. Being asked back for a more formal interview is a clear sign that things could be heating up.
Among the others coming in for in-person interviews are Broncos assistant general manager Reed Burckhardt, Bills assistant general manager Terrance Gray and Seahawks assistant general manager Nolan Teasley.
In addition, the Vikings will talk again with Rob Brzezinski, who has been their interim general manager since Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s dismissal in late January.
McKay, the grandson of legendary USC football coach John McKay and the son of long-time NFL executive Rich McKay, has a strong connection to Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell. The two worked together with the Rams in 2020 and 2021.
McKay also interviewed for the Dolphins general manager vacancy in January. That job ultimately went to Jon-Eric Sullivan.
The emerging executive tree under Snead, who has been the Rams’ general manager since 2012, includes Lions general manager Brad Holmes and Jaguars general manager James Gladstone.
Since taking over in Detroit in 2021, Holmes is largely responsible for turning the Lions into one of the most talented teams in the league. In Gladstone’s one season in Jacksonville, the Jaguars did a complete turnaround while improving from a 4-13 finish in 2024 to a 13-4 record in 2025.
McKay is viewed much like Holmes and Gladstone as a homegrown Rams talent evaluator and executive under Snead. He is a significant part of an operation that continually churns out top-notch rosters.
McKay joined the Rams in 2016 and has steadily climbed the ladder, spending his first four years with the club as a scouting assistant before being promoted to the director of player personnel in 2021. He spent four years in that role before being promoted to assistant general manager when Gladstone took over the Jaguars.