Pro Football Weekly just released its ratings of the NFL's offensive coordinators, and guess where the Rams came in.
32nd. PFW ranked EVERYBODY ahead of Pat Shurmur. Everybody includes the offensive coordinators at Buffalo and Tampa, who both fired their previous OC right before the season started. Everybody includes Dan Henning (Miami, 19th), who I think is on his 19th team as an OC. Everybody includes the awful Ron Turner (Chicago, 25th), who's already been fired. Everybody includes the Browns' OC, Brian Daboll (26th); how many times did they fail to throw for even 100 yards? Everybody includes the Neanderthal Tom Cable (29th), who shouldn't even be allowed to coach in this league. Everybody includes Jim Freaking Zorn (23rd), who couldn't coach or play-call his way out of a paper bag this season. The Tampa OC I mentioned earlier, Greg Olson (24th), called plays here for a while, before another guy took over for him. Scott Freaking Linehan. 28th. All ahead of Shurmur. (Jason Garrett of Dallas came in first, followed by Sean Payton and Peyton Manning. OK, supposedly Tom Moore of the Colts.)
I didn't have much of anything good to say about Shurmur in his first season, but between the suspicion that Steve Spagnuolo keeps him on a very short leash and the Rams' utter lack of offensive talent not numbered 39, I doubt any pieces of his coaching style have gotten to come through and shine at all. He's shown some creativity (just not much). He's shown he can string a few good play-calls together at a time (will be nice if he Googles "play-action" this offseason, though; just sayin).
Injuries put a lot of these guys in the same boat. I would tend to rank Turner at the bottom for squandering talent, Cable for that and for being a troglodyte, and Daboll for Cleveland's dreadful offense most of the season. But Shurmur definitely needs to step up and open up his game in 2010.
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Interesting contrast: when the Rams play the Chiefs next year, it'll be Shurmur and Ken Flajole (who I think came in about 28th in PFW's defensive coordinator poll) matching wits with - Charlie Weis and Romeo Crennel, reuniting with Scott Pioli to try to repeat their history-making success in New England. Gotta give the Chiefs huge credit here; this offseason has been a major coup for their organization, a big boost to their coaching staff. Their approach to boosting the coaching staff with pricey name talent, vs. the Rams' staff full of nobodies, will certainly be under the microscope as the Chiefs and Rams try to crawl out from under some awful recent seasons. And dramatically reduces my expectations that the Rams can finally beat a team they haven't beaten since 1994.
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If nothing else went right for Steve Spagnuolo this season, at least he has proof the Giants missed him. They fired his replacement, Bill Sheridan, immediately after his only season as their DC. The G-Men got shellacked for over 40 points both of the season's last two weeks. They fell all the way from 5th (18.4) to 30th (26.7) in the league in points allowed. They slid from 5th (292 ypg) to 13th (325) in total yards. 9th (96) to 14th (111) in rushing. 9th (196) to 15th (214) in passing. From 6th in sacks with 42 to 18th with 32.
Former Ram secondary coach, most recently Buffalo interim HC Perry Fewell, is under serious consideration as the Giants' next DC.
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He won't be the only former Rams coach the Rams will face as an opposing DC next season. If the Rams win only one game again next year, I'm praying for it to be against Washington, who have hired Jim Haslett as their new DC and for whom the Rams game will be the Super Bowl. The chance Haslett gets the comeuppance I hope for? Probably slim to none. Let's face it; he'll look a lot better coaching some actual defensive talent. He'll have an actual pass rush with Albert Haynesworth and Brian Orakpo, he'll have London Fletcher, a pretty talented secondary... quite a few legs up from where he was here. He'll return to the 3-4, where he had his early career success, with the Skins instead of the 4-3 dictated by the personnel he previously had in New Orleans and St. Louis. Plus he knows he won't be able to tank his way to the head coach's job in D.C. Haslett will come blitzing off the bus that week - hell, he might even let his DBs line up within 10 yards of the receivers at the snap! - and the Rams will never know what hit them.
I hate Jim Haslett.
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Another interesting move comes from Seattle, where Pete Carroll of the Rooney-Rule-immune Seahawks (PFW agrees the Rooney Rule is a joke here) is expected to lure offensive line coaching legend Alex Gibbs away from the Texans.
If the Rams teach Ndamukong Suh nothing else in his rookie season, it better be how to avoid dirty cut blocks, which Gibbs has built a career on and which we can expect to see from the Seattle o-line on a regular basis.
I can see the start of the 2010 season now. The Rams lose at Seattle after Suh gets a knee blown out by a dirty block. They get completely outcoached in their home opener against Kansas City and lose to the Chiefs for the 5th straight time. Then the Redskins come here, blitz aggressively every play and smother the Rams with press coverage in a 35-0 blowout.
Maybe I better go home and take some happy pills.
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Edited/corrected to remove incorrect item about Buffalo head coaching search (Brian Schottenheimer did not interview with them).
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