Caplan: Sources say Rams to hire Shurmur as OC, Flajole as DC

[bruce4life]

Ellard is a LEGEND and RAM he should have a LIFETIME CONTRACT!!!!!!!

My thought exactly Ellard should always be in Rams colors ....

[HornIt]

Its means nothing unless we get better talent. I am happy with these selections, but i was just as happy with haslett as DC and Saunders as OC and look how that turned out. Without talent, coaching wont mean all that much. Have i mentioned that before?

Meanwhile, i am bummed that we are going to terminate Henry Ellard as wide receivers coach. Maybe he will be retained by spags.

Ramming speed to all

general counsel

I bet you'll be suprised the difference between next year's defense and last year's defense with largely the same personnel.

I don't think they'll be great yet, but I bet they'll be respectable.

The coaching matters.

Also, while I'm a huge fan of Ellard the player, I don't know what it is he's done to deserve that kind of admiration as a WR's coach. The Rams WR's have not played their best football under Ellard. I don't know that he's done a bad job, but I don't know that he's done a good job either.

[Azul e Oro]

I bet you'll be suprised the difference between next year's defense and last year's defense with largely the same personnel.

I don't think they'll be great yet, but I bet they'll be respectable.

The coaching matters.

Also, while I'm a huge fan of Ellard the player, I don't know what it is he's done to deserve that kind of admiration as a WR's coach. The Rams WR's have not played their best football under Ellard. I don't know that he's done a bad job, but I don't know that he's done a good job either.

I agree, HI. In the turmoil of last season and this transition, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that many guys on that D were significantly hampered by injury or recovering from them for all or part of the year; Hill,Carriker,Little,Brown, Spoon,Manning, Johnson,King.

I'm not saying all should or will be here next year but I doubt the "process" that DeSpags are talking about will be as drastic as some want to think.

And that's without even treading into the muddy waters of scheme,teaching skills,and the effect of poor production by the O and STs and their own mess of injuries,etc, on the D.

I've never understood the Ellard coach crush. Holt was good from the start & I don't think Ellard was even there for the SB win year. He has a place in every Ram fans' heart as a player but but it's hard to say if he's worth getting upset over if not retained.Maybe McDonald, Curtis,et al, could tell you more about him but his record as a player should have nothing to do with it.

[txramsfan]

If we go into next year with this defense, it won't change. All the lipstick in the world won't mask this pig of a defense.

[39thebeast]

Love both choices if these 2 are the men. They have done a great job at their positions coaching. Garcia, Beasson, McNabb, Draft, Spoon, Feely, and Dan Morgan (when healthy) sounds like a great group to me.

[THOLTFAN81]

I am 100% on board with whatever Billy D and Spags do at this point,

So i would LOVE both these hirings.

Both have coached Pro-Bowlers at their respective posistions coached.

[HornIt]

It appears that the next OC of the St. Louis Rams is going to be Pat Shurmur. Apparently some Philly radio stations are starting to report it as a done deal and that it should be announced soon.

I think it's going to be cool to have a Shurmur in the Rams family again. I'm counting on him doing as great of a job coordinating the Rams offense as his uncle did coordinating their defense.

System change. Will be interesting to see how the vets like Bulger and Holt respond.

[BEER]

Could this also mean that Mcnabb might be Ram? Who knows...

[RamsFanSam]

Chip said he wanted a winning team, fired Ziggy and hired Devaney. Devaney said he wanted a winning team, and he hired Coach Spaghettioh. Coach Spaghettioh is looking at hiring some really decent people for OC and DC. Now, we need to see what they will do with the players.

Just remember, guys, even though it didin't look like the Rams had any talent last season, look at what has happenned with former Rams with new teams:

Madison Hedgecock
Brandon Chillar
Ryan Pickett
London Fletcher
Corey Ivy
Kevin Curtis
Shaun McDonald
Mike Furrey

Should I keep on going?

My point is this: Coaching CAN make a difference. A marginal player on one team can end up a star on another team, or with the right changes, a star on the same team. Remember a guy named Ron Bartell? For a couple of years, he's been considered below average by a lot of fans. I doubt if ANYONE here can say that about him after this past season. He made a huge turnaround in my eyes, so I expect to see a lot of the Rams play better this next season.

[AlphaRam]

And once again, the incredible talents of Larry Marmie go ignored.

I used to not like Marmie, but we did have winning seasons with him, right?

[Bald_81]

I used to not like Marmie, but we did have winning seasons with him, right?

Used to? How about still do? And we went 8-8 and 6-10 under him, so no we never had a winning season with him.

[txramsfan]

London Fletcher...(mioment of silence) THE WORST MOVE EVER IN THE HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS RAMS WAS LETTING LONDON FLETCHER GO.

[Tony Banks]

And once again, the incredible talents of Larry Marmie go ignored.

Love the Larry Marmie reference.

There's something to be said about assembling a staff of coaches from teams like the Giants, Eagles and Panthers. These are teams that have had consistent success on the strength of good defenses and the ability to run the ball.

I think it goes hand in hand with the above quote, which is a great point. When Linehan got here, our OC was Greg Olsen who did a great job working as QB coach with Joey Harrington in Detroit (sarcasm). I don't think you can underestimate bringing in coaches from winning programs. On the offensive side, look at how involved Westbrook is in Philly. If Shurmur brings any influence from that offense, that's a good thing.

As far as Flajole, can we get a phonetic spelling so I can learn how to pronounce his name?

[Tony Banks]

London Fletcher...(mioment of silence) THE WORST MOVE EVER IN THE HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS RAMS WAS LETTING LONDON FLETCHER GO.

It's hard to make an argument against that, maybe Ike though. Were London Fletcher and Leonard Little free agents at the same time? I thought we only would have been able to sign one or the other, but not both. I don't remember. Either way, the loss still stings, no doubt.

[laram0]

Chip said he wanted a winning team, fired Ziggy and hired Devaney. Devaney said he wanted a winning team, and he hired Coach Spaghettioh. Coach Spaghettioh is looking at hiring some really decent people for OC and DC. Now, we need to see what they will do with the players.

Just remember, guys, even though it didin't look like the Rams had any talent last season, look at what has happenned with former Rams with new teams:

Madison Hedgecock
Brandon Chillar
Ryan Pickett
London Fletcher
Corey Ivy
Kevin Curtis
Shaun McDonald
Mike Furrey

Should I keep on going?

My point is this: Coaching CAN make a difference. A marginal player on one team can end up a star on another team, or with the right changes, a star on the same team. Remember a guy named Ron Bartell? For a couple of years, he's been considered below average by a lot of fans. I doubt if ANYONE here can say that about him after this past season. He made a huge turnaround in my eyes, so I expect to see a lot of the Rams play better this next season.

Great post.

It's time to start passing out the kool-aid!!!!