Tough losses didn't end in the regular season for the Rams; over the weekend they lost WR coach Charlie Baggett to the University of Tennessee.
So you can add Rams Nation to the (long) list of people pissed off at Lane Kiffin.
Baggett's loss is a tough one for this team. The WR corps -was- awful last year, and Donnie Avery regressed to a near-Kennison level, but Baggett works great with big receivers, and we saw that. Laurent Robinson became a capable go-to guy almost immediately, then sadly got hurt for the season almost as immediately. Brandon Gibson showed pretty good, and quick, progress here after coming in cold off the Will Witherspoon trade. Baggett's departure seems a significant break in those two's momentum toward becoming NFL-quality starters, and as bad as the Ram passing game was, it's going to be all the harder now to wait for a decent receiving corps to develop.
Isaac Bruce has quickly hit Rams Nation's wishlist for Baggett's replacement. He could be great, if coaching's what he wants to do next. Steve Spagnuolo could also promote offensive quality control coach Andy Sugarman, who worked with receivers for three years in San Francisco. That seems the best bet. RamView doesn't exactly have a coaches' Rolodex, but Google helped me come up with just-released Buffalo WR coach Tyke Tolbert, whom the Bills' website credited for Lee Evans' development. He was also Arizona's WR coach Anquan Boldin's rookie year (2003).
As far as the inevitable Spagnuolo/Giants/Eagles links, Mike Sullivan is the Giants' WR coach; David Culley holds that position for Philly. And as both are doing terrific jobs with young WR corps right now, I'd have to think either one would be nigh impossible to pry away.
Baggett and Culley are about the only WR coaches Pat Shurmur's worked with, going back to 1995 at Michigan State. Further research pending...
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