Rams interview Singletary, Walton

Cleveland Plain-Dealer

Even the week after the Super Bowl in February, Jeff Fisher is keeping things hopping at Rams Park, interviewing two more candidates for defensive coordinator.

Friday's interview was with Hall-of-Fame LB and former 49ers head coach Mike Singletary, who, much to my surprise, has no NFL experience as a defensive coordinator. He was the Vikings' linebackers coach last season, a position he also held in Baltimore from 2003-04 and in San Francisco from 2005-08. So besides coaching Chad Greenway while he had a career year, Singletary has also coached Ray Lewis and Patrick Willis. Yeah, that record doesn't suck. Adalius Thomas, Peter Boulware and Terrell Suggs all also made Pro Bowls for Baltimore with Singletary on staff.

I'd imagine there's a lot of enthusiasm out there at the idea of re-uniting Fisher and the intensity of Samurai Mike from the greatest defense of all time. Singletary would be an impressive hire as a linebackers coach, except the Rams already have a pretty good one in Frank Bush. And it's a little surprising to hear a team that just dumped Blake Williams for volatility and failure to get along with players to be going after Singletary, isn't it? He's pretty much been a volcano waiting to go off as a sideline presence. As head coach in San Francisco, he didn't get along with his QB, kicked Vernon Davis out of a game and dropped trou in front of his players during a halftime speech. But, of course, all of that looks like it worked. Alex Smith got mentally tougher, Davis grew up, and the halftime incident didn't prevent the then-interim HC Singletary from getting the full-time job with the 49ers in 2009.

Seems like Rams Nation would never have to worry about the defense coming out flat for a game under coach Singletary. They'd be a physical, tone-setting group the likes of which we have yet to see here in the St. Louis era. If you can convince me Singletary has the temperament for the job, I'll happily sign on, but I think that's a valid concern.

DetroitLions.com

On Monday, Fisher interviewed Lions secondary coach Tim Walton, who had been considered for a job on the Rams' staff last year. The Lions were 14th in the league in pass defense in 2012, right ahead of the Rams. Walton's secondary charges, though, picked off only 11 passes, 6 behind the Rams and only good for 23rd in the league. Walton was also the Lions' "third-down package" coordinator, and Detroit did finish in the top 10 in 3rd down conversion percentage (36%). The Rams were a little back of that at 38%.

Walton has been Detroit's secondary coach since 2009. Some of their pass defense stats in those years:
2012: 14th total passing (223.1), 24th completion % (63.6) - Rams were even worse, 30th/66.2 - 18th yards per reception (7.0), 23rd in INTs (11), 20th in TDs (26).
2011: 20th total passing (239.4), 21st completion % (62.3), 8th yards per reception (6.8), 5th in INTs (22), 21st in TDs (26).
2010: 16th total passing (218.6), 25th completion % (63.7), 27th yards per reception (7.3), 19th in INTs (14), 18th in TDs (23).
2009: 32nd total passing (265.6), 32nd completion % (68.1), 32nd yards per reception (8.1), 30th in INTs (9, still 1 better than the last-place Rams), 32nd in TDs (35).

That's the extent of Walton's NFL coaching career. He hasn't coached a player yet who's made the Pro Bowl, but Louis Delmas isn't half-bad, and he's played for Walton his whole career. The Lion secondary showed noticeable improvement under Walton from 2009 to 2011, though with plenty of room for more improvement, and if memory serves, they were pretty banged up in 2012. He does have a couple of years' college experience as a DC - Memphis in 2008, Miami, Florida in 2007, where he coached Kenny Phillips, Colin McCarthy and Calais Campbell. In 4 years at The U, where he was also secondary coach, Walton also coached Brandon Merriweather, Laron Landry, Kelly Jennings and Antrel Rolle. The Hurricanes were the NCAA's #1 pass defense in 2004, and 9th in 2005. He also coached Corey Webster as LSU's secondary coach in 2003. LSU's pass defense that year was 18th in the country, #2 in the SEC.

RamView would be pretty enthused if the Rams were hiring Tim Walton as a secondary coach. He's got a solid record, especially at developing safeties, which the Rams will need to do here pretty quickly. The Rams already have a solid secondary coach in Chuck Cecil, though. There's enough of a seed to see that Walton could show some promise as a defensive play-caller, but he's a little better networked than he is accomplished at it. I'd see him as a somewhat risky hire. Probably means Fisher/Snead will love him. Then again, I think Walton's a somewhat-safer hire than Singletary, which probably means Fisher/Snead will love Singletary even more.

Of the candidates Fisher has interviewed so far, I like Walton the best. He seems like the coach with the most "upside". But I don't think they can go really wrong with Singletary, either.

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