INDIANAPOLIS -- St. Louis team
officials believe that new coach Jeff Fisher has assembled the makings
of an excellent staff, but that one of the less-hyped additions could
perhaps be the biggest key to the progress of quarterback Sam Bradford
in his third season in 2012.
Veteran offensive line coach Paul Boudreau perhaps doesn't have the name
value of the Rams' new coordinators, Gregg Williams on defense or Brian
Schottenheimer on the offensive side, or even assistant head coach Dave
McGinnis. But the consensus around the league, in speaking generally to
NFL executives and coaches this week, is that Boudreau will provide
toughness and discipline to a mostly rag-tag unit short of both
attributes.
Boudreau, who was dismissed by Atlanta after four seasons with the club
in a major staff makeover by Falcons coach Mike Smith, will rely on
right guard Harvey Dahl, one of his former charges with the Falcons, to
be a leader in instilling physicality in the blockers. This will mark
the second tour of duty for Boudreau in St. Louis, who previously worked
two seasons (2006-07) for the Rams.
Boudreau's hiring has yet to be officially announced in St. Louis - in
fact, only Williams, Schottenheimer and McGinnis have so far been
acknowledged as part of Fisher's staff - but he has already been in team
headquarters reviewing tape.
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Rams linebacker James Laurinaitis looked on intently, listening as Jeff
Fisher was introduced as the sixth head coach in the team's 18 seasons
(including 2012) in St. Louis.
So did quarterback Sam Bradford, who is still "not quite" healthy yet from the high ankle sprain that sabotaged his 2011 season.
Watching those two players and then hearing them talk after Fisher was
finished with his remarks, it was easy to see they can't wait to begin
putting the misery of last season totally behind them and starting to
prepare for a 2012 year that they are convinced can only bring better
things.
Even if, as is the case for Bradford, it will likely be a third offense in three years he will be learning.
Bradford seems as if he is trying to convince himself that doing it twice already will make the third time easier.
"Would I like to be in the same offense that I started in my rookie year
going into year three? Yeah, but that's not the case," Bradford said.
"I think going through the past two years will make this transition
easier. I know what it's like. I know what it was like to learn an
offense as a rookie, then last year having to learn (Josh) McDaniels'
offense. I think both those experiences will make this easier and I'm
looking forward to it."
Mostly, though, Bradford likes what he is hearing from Fisher. Bradford
met with the new coach on Jan. 8, four days before Fisher chose the Rams
and then Tuesday morning, shortly before the press conference.
As for the first meeting, Bradford was asked if he tried to sell Fisher on coming to St. Louis.
He said, "No. I really just tried to be myself. I wasn't going to be
anything other than who I am. I didn't want to give him a false
impression of who I was. It was just time for us to meet to learn a
little bit more about each other. If that helped along the process and
helped get him here then I'm very happy that I was able to do that."
What was music to Bradford's ears was hearing Fisher preach about the importance of protecting the quarterback.
Fisher emphasized that during the press conference and in his talks with Bradford.
Asked his coaching philosophy, Fisher said, "The philosophy is pretty
simple: we want to do whatever it takes to win football games. We're
going to have a disciplined, tough, physical football team that's going
to first and foremost match up and be able to win games in the division.
We've got quite a challenge ahead of us to be competitive once again in
the division, but it won't take long. It's a team that's going to run
the football and protect the quarterback and play good defense and get
the ball back."
When Bradford was asked about being excited to play for a coach where
the priority is protecting the quarterback, he said, "Absolutely. That's
something that he made a point of when I talked to him last week.
That's something actually I talked to him about in his office this
morning. We were just talking about a couple things and he said whoever
he brings in here as the offensive coordinator that will be definitely a
top priority. So anytime you can hear that and be reassured of that, it
makes my job a lot easier."
The Rams have also hired Brian Schottenheimer as offensive coordinator.
Mostly, everyone is enthused to be heading toward a normal offseason after last year's lockout.
"This year was difficult," Fisher said, when asked his impressions of
Bradford. "I think you have to look back at his success and his
production in his first year. (Last season was) difficult for a lot of
reasons, the lockout and lack of time together in the offense, but I
think he has the chance to be a top quarterback in the National Football
League very, very soon."
Said Bradford, "Last year was not something I hope I ever go through
again. It wasn't fun. Especially this year having a new coach, having to
learn a new offense, I'm very grateful that we will have a full
offseason spent with that offense."
Noted Laurinaitis, "I'm excited for us to hire a defensive coordinator
so as soon as he gets in here I have something to do. I can study a
defense and get started. I'm getting bored already."
While it will be a "full" offseason, it will be shorter than years past.
New rules in the CBA have delayed the start of offseason programs from
mid-March to April and the overall schedule has been reduced in length
to no more than nine weeks.
Because the Rams have a new coach, their conditioning program can start
April 2 while other teams can't begin until two weeks later. In
addition, OTAs, which have started in mid-May in previous years, have
been slashed from 14 days of on-field work to 10.
Fisher acknowledged that "it will be a challenge," but concluded, "We'll have plenty of time."
What will be difficult for guys like Laurinaitis is that there can be no
organized coaching or even meetings with players and coaches prior to
April 2.
When that was mentioned to him, Laurinaitis just broke into a smile, got
that twinkle in his eye, and said, "You know me. I'll figure something
out."
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The experience of Jeff Fisher was a big factor in the Rams considering him their first choice to be the new head coach.
Club executive Kevin Demoff said, "I think someone who has been a head
coach in the NFL as long as he has has seen everything. There are not a
lot of situations that surprise him, and if you are looking for someone
with experience, you are looking at someone who has taken a team to the
Super Bowl, who has dealt with a disappointing year and who has built a
consistent winner. When you look at Jeff's record, his teams were always
competitive, they were always in the playoff hunt at the end, and
that's something we would like to bring to St. Louis, a winning
consistency.
"(The Titans) had some really good years at the same times we did, but
they never went through the disappointing times. And they had some
difficulties, they had a salary-cap purge, they lost some guys and they
went through a period where they had some struggles at the quarterback
position, and all through it, they managed to redefine themselves a
number of times. That's a great quality in a head coach to be able to
win in a number of different ways."
There have been some questions about the fact that Fisher's winning percentage in 16-plus seasons was .538.
By contrast, in the 17 seasons the Rams have been in St. Louis, their
winning percentage is .429. Their 15-65 record since 2007 is a .188
percentage.
The Rams hired Dave McGinnis, who coached with Jeff Fisher at
Tennessee, as assistant head coach. McGinnis has been a head coach at
Arizona.
