Rams coaching staff review, part 3

The Rams' coordinators for 2009:

* Offense: Pat Shurmur. The late Fritz Shurmur's nephew was hired away from Philadelphia, where he was QB coach. Not a bad record there, where he helped develop Donovan McNabb and also coached up Chad Lewis into a Pro Bowl TE. And as I also mentioned in my previous post on Shurmur, it looks like the Andy Reid coaching tree is going to plant the West Coast offense here in River City. All the more reason to draft Michael Crabtree, guys. RamView grade: B+.

* Defense: Ken Flajole. Flajole comes to the Rams from Carolina, where he was LB coach and developed young players like Will Witherspoon, Dan Morgan, Thomas Davis and Jon Beason into stars. He also ran an aggressive, ball-hawking secondary in Seattle. All of which I've mentioned previously. RamView grade: A-.

* Special teams: Finally, the Rams' special teams coach has been named, and he is Tom McMahon. I'll speculate on why Al Roberts ended up not being worth keeping as special teams coach, despite RamView's endorsement, in a bit in another post. McMahon was Atlanta's special teams assistant the last two years, and even though that's his only pro experience, that's almost all I need to hear. NFL.com puzzlingly does not offer defensive stats on special teams, but I know the Falcons just set the all-time record for fewest punt return yards allowed in a season. They were also 10th in kickoff return yardage and ranked 10th overall in Rick Gosselin's year-end special teams ratings. But back to that punt return stat. Combine that with the fact that Donnie Jones is coming off the 2nd-best season EVER by a punter and was already the Rams' one potent weapon. Put him on a unit that can really cover punts, and he's a lethal weapon in the all-important field position battle. Jones might lose a couple yards a punt, but good coverage will make it all back by pinning opponents deeper more often. Seriously, how often were Rams opponents backed up on their goal line last season? It didn't happen that often. McMahon's biggest test will be if he can become the first Rams special teams coach in eight years to put together a decent blocking scheme on kickoff returns, but RamView is enthusiastic about his hiring for the time being. RamView grade: B+.

For the most part, Steve Spagnuolo has done an excellent job bringing in successful coaches from successful programs, if you will. There's no Larry Marmies here, meaning, everybody's got some level of pro success. Sure, there's an amount of crony hiring going on, though certainly nothing that'd top Billy Devaney hiring old buddy Spagnuolo to be head coach in the first place. And even so, even the cronies who have been hired are at least experienced and successful cronies where they've been. The one exception may be TE coach Frank Leonard, not that I can name any other TE coach in the NFL, or the Rams' last one, for that matter.

In particular, Spagnuolo has hired well-qualified, experienced hands to run the offense, the side of the ball he doesn't specialize in, and is likely to take a hands-off approach there, while I expect him to work closely with the defensive coaches to put his stamp on the Rams defense. The stamp that has made the Giant defense a feared force in the league.

I have to say I like how this new era for the St. Louis Rams is taking shape so far.