Rams coaching staff review, part 2

Your 2009 St. Louis Rams offensive position coaches:

* Quarterbacks: RamView has already reviewed new QB coach Dick Curl and made copious fun of his name. RamView grade: C+.

* Running backs: Sylvester Croom has joined the Rams as running backs coach. He just stepped down as head coach at Mississippi State. Prior to that job, you'd hear a lot of talk that he was one of the NFL's best assistant coaches, a great running back coach and a prime candidate for an NFL head coaching job. He coached Barry Sanders at Detroit, Ahman Green at Green Bay and I'm pretty sure Jerious Norwood played for him at State. I believe Croom represents an absolutely outstanding hire by Steve Spagnuolo. He'll make Steven Jackson better and is just the guy to develop a good backup for Jackson as well. I pity the rest of the NFL. The Rams have Sylvester Croom, and after bowing out at MSU, he has something to prove. The rest of the league better watch out. RamView grade: A+.

* Wide receivers: RamView has also previously reviewed new WR coach Charlie Baggett, and I'm enthusiastic that he's a good coach to work with the Rams' young receiving corps, which will include Michael Crabtree if I get my way in the 2009 draft. RamView grade: A-.

* Offensive line: Steve Spagnuolo has retained Brian Loney from Scott Linehan's staff as offensive line coach. The Ram line was a disaster early in the season, and apparently nobody is ever going to get Alex Barron to move on the right snap count, but the line protected Marc Bulger very well the last quarter of the season and was getting Steven Jackson some room to run as well. Let's hope Loney gets the Ram line moving upward from there. He'll be assisted by another holdover from Linehan's staff, Art Vandelay, though Vandelay hasn't coached o-line in the NFL and didn't produce much of anybody as a long-time college o-line coach. And oh, yeah, it's Valero. RamView grade: B.

* Tight ends: Though it hasn't been officially announced, it appears Frank Leonard will be assigned the job of making Joe Klopfenstein an NFL superstar. His only experience coaching TEs in his 25-year career, though, was the last two years at Kansas State. No all-pros from there recently that I'm aware of. He's considered to have a keen eye for talent because he was a scout for New England, and honestly, I don't know why he'd be at this position instead of having a role in the scouting department. I hardly believe two years at Kansas State qualifies one to be an NFL TEs coach. Art Vandelay would be better suited for this job; he's done it before in the NFL with solid results. Leonard's main qualification appears to be that he coached with Steve Spagnuolo at UConn nearly 20 years ago. His other qualifications are fine, but adding it all up, I don't get NFL TEs coach out of it. RamView grade: D+, because I really can't figure this one out. And oh, yeah, it's Valero.

TEs aside, a really funny thing I'm finding in my highly-amateurish grading of the Rams' new coaching staff is that I generally like the offensive coaches a lot more than the defensive coaches. That has me expecting that Spagnuolo is going to put his stamp on the Ram defense and let the Rams' offensive coaches coach.

Should be an effective setup.

On the way: part 3, the Rams' coordinators.