National Football League

McDaniels hired as Rams assistant coach

Published Jan. 18, 2011 12:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

The St. Louis Rams have hired former Denver Broncos head coach Josh McDaniels as their new offensive coordinator, the team announced Tuesday evening. He replaces Pat Shurmur, who became the Cleveland Browns head coach last week.

Earlier in the day, FOXSports.com's Jay Glazer noted that talks with the Rams and McDaniels were falling apart.

“Happy to announce that Josh will be a part of our staff. I've always recognized that he is one of the top offensive minds in NFL,” Rams head coach Steve Spagnuolo said.

The Rams have been using the West Coast scheme on offense the past two seasons, but McDaniels’ scheme is different.

2010 first-round pick QB Sam Bradford, who had an excellent rookie campaign, will have to go through an entire new learning process with the change in offensive schemes.

But McDaniels has done an excellent job of helping develop veteran QBs Tom Brady and Kyle Orton over the years.

McDaniels also drew interest from the Minnesota Vikings, San Francisco 49ers, Miami Dolphins and reportedly the Seattle Seahawks.

In fact, a source with knowledge of the situation told FOXSports.com McDaniels was very highly thought of by the 49ers and would have been the team's next choice to be head coach had Jim Harbaugh not accepted the job.