Were St. Louis Rams close to hiring Rex Ryan?

By Jim Thomas
St. Louis Post-Dispatch


DANA POINT, CALIF. _ Some who know Rex Ryan well believe that St. Louis was his first choice all along during the NFL’s offseason coaching carousel, not the New York Jets.

We’ll never know for sure. Nor will we ever know how serious the Rams were about Ryan before eventually hiring Steve Spagnuolo as their head coach. But the fact that Jets owner Woody Johnson took the time to travel to Baltimore to interview Ryan, helped convince Ryan that the Jets could be a good fit.

“I had a really nice interview with Billy Devaney,” Ryan said, in reference to the Rams’ general manager. “I thought it was a great interview. I felt very comfortable with Billy and Lawrence McCutcheon.”

McCutcheon, a Rams scouting executive, accompanied Devaney to Baltimore to interview Ryan, while Ryan was busy working as defensive coordinator during the Ravens’ playoff run.

“Those are the only two (Rams) that I met with,” Ryan said Tuesday at the AFC coaches’ breakfast. “So how serious they were, I never met with the owner or anything else. . . .But at the end of the day, the best job for me was the New York Jets.

“And I think it was because I was chosen by the owner. I felt that it wasn’t just the general manager choosing me. I felt Woody Johnson chose me as well, and that was important to me.”

Nonetheless, coaching the Rams would have been intriguing.

“It was tough because my brother (Jim) lives in St. Louis,” Ryan said. “I’m a Midwestern guy and all that. But at the end of the day, what was best for me and my family was that I felt the (Jets) owner believed in me. I think that was important.”

Even though Ryan didn’t end up coaching in St. Louis, but he took a St. Louis coach with him to New York by hiring Rams wide receivers coach Henry Ellard to the same position with the Jets. Ryan said he didn’t know Ellard before hiring him.

“I just knew of his reputation,” he said. “You build a reputation, and a lot of that is based on how your players play. What you see on tape. So that’s what excited me about Henry.”

Ravens running backs coach Wilbert Montgomery, who had worked with Ellard in St. Louis, strongly recommended Ellard to Ryan.

“He just had some great things to say about Henry,” Ryan said. “And when Henry came in (for his interview), he didn’t disappoint. Clearly he was an outstanding coach, and it’s going to be a huge thing for us to get Henry.”

Nothing against Ryan but I'm happy with the guy we hired, I think?

Time will tell...........

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Originally Posted by laram0

Nothing against Ryan but I'm happy with the guy we hired, I think?

Time will tell...........

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Agreed. Ryan and Spags are two completely different kinds of coaches. Spags seems to be a little more surgical in his execution, while Ryan is more of a smash type coach. I think both will be very successful coaches in this league for a very long time ....

I think Spags is a better fit here. We've suddenly become very young, and I think Spags will be a genius at getting the most out of players, and will be very efficient at developing younger guys and having them playing in front of their potential ....

I don't know if Ryan has the patience that Spags does. Time will tell I guess ....

Pssssh. We got the best guy. Go Spags!

i like both Spags & Ryan a lot but i think out of all the many hires at the HC role in this off-season,Spags is the jewel in the crown.

I think the Rams were really interested in Ryan but that was when they believed that Spags would be out of reach for them...as Billy D has said in interviews..(the bit about Spags,not Ryan!).

i think their order of who they wanted most was...

1.Spags
2.Ryan
3.Frazier

all IMHO would have been better HC`s for us than what weve had since Vermiel..tho i guess some may argue that they may turn out to be just great Co-ordinators like Martz was but not a great HC.

lets hope the former is the case with Spags atleast.

Steve Spagnuolo Was the Best Cannidate this offseason and we got Him, Period.

Who cares they are obviously in different places right now

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Originally Posted by rams 24/7

Steve Spagnuolo Was the Best Cannidate this offseason and we got Him, Period.

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I'm going to have to pick you up on your grammar here. I'm really sorry, its a pet peeve of mine. You can't add the word "Period" on to a piece of factual information. Usually the phrase is used to reinforce an opinion to pass it off as if it were factual. For example, "Ray Lewis is the NFL's best LB, period." Using it after mentioning the fact that "we got him" doesn't make that fact any more factual.

This sort of thing just grates my gears, its nothing personal.

After the season, I will let you know if we picked the right guy. So far, I think we did! Go RAMS!!!

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Originally Posted by 39thebeast

Who cares they are obviously in different places right now

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Haha I agree, we got Spagnuolo, that's who we wanted and it's who we got.

Good Luck to Ryan!

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Originally Posted by Bar-bq

I'm going to have to pick you up on your grammar here. I'm really sorry, its a pet peeve of mine. You can't add the word "Period" on to a piece of factual information. Usually the phrase is used to reinforce an opinion to pass it off as if it were factual. For example, "Ray Lewis is the NFL's best LB, period." Using it after mentioning the fact that "we got him" doesn't make that fact any more factual.

This sort of thing just grates my gears, its nothing personal.

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Easy there Bar-bq. No matter if it irks you or not, we aren't on this board for grammatical accuracy.

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Originally Posted by txramsfan

Easy there Bar-bq. No matter if it irks you or not, we aren't on this board for grammatical accuracy.

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It doesn't matter what you say Tx! Bar-bq is absolutely right period !!! ;)