The Two-Back System Is Coming To St. Louis

Brian Schottenheimer, the St. Louis Rams newly hired offensive coordinator, was introduced to the media on a Tuesday afternoon conference call. Since his departure from the Jets, a job he held for the last six years, Rams fans looked at the hire with some suspicion, wondering what exactly he could do for the league's worst offense. Schottenheimer cleared up a few questions on the call.

One thing fans can expect to see in St. Louis is more of a true two-back system.

"I just think it's a good way to attack people, but there's always been a primary or a featured back and there's guys that compliment that primary back and gives the defense different looks and things like that," Schottenheimer said. "What we've always done is we've had kind of a guy that's truly the starter and then we've had a guy that's a little a bit more of a change of pace back. Again, one of the things that we believe is that you need depth. You need depth a lot of different positions, not just tailbacks, but if you can have guys that bring a different element, then we want to use those guys."

Steven Jackson shouldn't worry; the Rams' all-time leading rusher will still be the lead horse in the Rams ground game. Instead of 25 carries a game for Jackson, however, it sounds like fans can expect to see backs with a different style taking over some of the carries and creating matchups to confound defenses.

The Rams should have plenty of options for running backs in the 2012 NFL Draft. With a number of players like Chris Polk, Lamar Miller, etc. on the bubble between the first two rounds, the Rams could have some very solid options with the first pick in the second round.