It's drama season in the NFL. Bad calls, questionable plays, game changing passes, and even the weather will highlight postseason play. Firings, sniping, rumor and innuendo will provide more than enough drama for fans of teams finished with the season.
I'll take my intrigue any way I can get it.
It sounds like, reading between the lines in the mass media's Rams postmortem, that there will be some coaching changes around Rams park. Other teams, have already started making these changes. The Rams are waiting for Scott Linehan to sort through existential crisis before making any moves. Fitting. Why hurry?
The one I'll be watching is whether or not Haslett leaves. If he does, I suspect it will be for a head coaching gig for another NFL team or a primo college job. Still, I think another season building on his work over the last two with the Rams defense would be in order before he can reach the next rung (again) on the career ladder. But then again, what do I know about any career ladder...
What about offensive coordinator Greg Olson? He'd be my pick to go, but he and Linehan are old buddies, and the buddy system seems to plague the career ladder wherever you work. Special teams might be the second most obvious place to make some changes (after the offense), but Al Roberts came to St. Louis this season with a pretty high regard for what he does. Rams special teams have been a black hole for so long, consistency and stability might be the only course of action.
Could offensive line coach Paul Boudreau, in his second year with the Rams, take some blame for two seasons of high sack totals and a ebola-like outbreak of injuries on the O-line? Should he?
I guess we'll have to wait and see. After Shaw and Linehan have their pow wow in LA sometime in the next couple of weeks, dominoes should start falling.
In the meantime, we should probably go ahead and ask all Rams fans to stop speculating/wishing for a Mad Mike Martz return to the offensive coordinator slot that made him famous. There's just no way that's happening. While we're on the subject of Mad Mike, it sounds like his ouster in Detroit was a mutual and semi-amicable arrangement. Pride of Detroit points to disagreement between MM and other members of the coaching staff about, surprise, his play calling and neglect for the running game.
Martz is considered a candidate for the offensive coordinator job in San Francisco. I know Rams fans have all kinds of thoughts on Martz and his strengths and weaknesses, so be sure to enlighten 49ers fans over in Fooch's diary.
A huge thanks to jroman and everyone for getting a great discussion going about the draft yesterday. Dealing with medical emergencies in the family is a tough thing, and we're able to do so mostly because of the strength of the groups we're a part of. I'll be getting back to schedule now, but by all means use those diaries: the more activity and discussion we have, the better the TST community becomes.
Speaking of the draft, I saw that Boise State junior OT Ryan Clady has declared his intention to be available for the draft. He's considered the second best OT prospect in the draft, behind Jake Long, and should be scooped up before the end fo the first round. Anybody know anything else about him? I did see that Dan Dierdorf's take on Jake Long was that he's a career right tackle in the NFL, lacking the athleticism for the left side. Make me wonder if Clady has a little more to offer in terms of athletic ability given the playing style used by Boise State. Again, I hate to suppose too much about college players because I just don't watch that much college football.