The Ram defense improved last year, making it a surprise that Linehan fired any of the defensive coaches. And with OJ Atogwe emerging as one of the game's best young safeties, there's certainly a case to say that Robinson knows what he's doing. And Robinson's unit fared pretty well when you factor in Fakhir Brown's suspension, Tye Hill's injuries and the necessity to start Lenny Walls. Then again, this secondary always looked a couple of steps late in zone coverage. Brown is irritatingly bad at finding the ball. Ron Bartell has been slow to develop. Jonathan Wade doesn't have a clue how to tackle. And all of these guys are helpless against larger receivers like Larry Fitzgerald and Braylon Edwards. So there's a case against Robinson, too.
And I'll make a prediction who Linehan is going to hire. He's currently the DBs coach at Kansas State
and his name is Greg Burns. He's got some good lines on his resume. For instance, I never have a problem with hiring a Tampa defensive coach. Or a USC coach. Burns coached Troy Polamalu and Darnell Bing at USC. He ought to be able to make good things happen with what figures to be a very young Ram secondary.
Now to drop the other shoe, but it's the main reason he'll be hired here: Burns was secondary coach on the same staff as Linehan on that legendary Louisville team that went 1-1 at the Liberty Bowl, and he ALMOST coached at Idaho the same time Linehan did, missing him by just two years. I'm sure Scott won't hold that against him.
Louisville + Idaho on the same resume? Welcome aboard, coach Burns.
Grade: C (A++ for me if I called it)
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