First Mike Holmgren poached a member of the St. Louis Rams coaching staff, hiring offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur to be the head coach in Cleveland. Now, Nick Saban's threatening to raid the Rams cupboard of coaches. Running backs coach Sylvester Croom is a candidate for Saban's Alabama coaching staff, filling a vacancy created when receivers coach and recruiting coordinator Curt Cignetti took another job.
It's not clear what Croom's role would be, but with his lengthy coaching resume that includes 18 years in the NFL and plenty of stops in the SEC, including one as Mississippi State's head coach, the first African-American head coach in SEC history. He was SEC Coach of the Year in 2007. Obviously, he knows his stuff.
Croom has been with the Rams for two seasons. And how might Croom's departure impact the Rams?
Steven Jackson is fairly well established. However, this is a year where the Rams are widely expected to draft a running back to pair with Jackson. A rookie running back couldn't do much better than having Croom as his coach. Still, these things tend to be fraught with overstatement.
The Rams have a quarterbacks coaching vacancy right now, left by Dick Curl's retirement. How that role will be filled is still being determined. There's the possibility that new OC Josh McDaniels could roll it into his job or hire his brother Ben McDaniels, who did that job in Denver.