The Rams just got a helluva coach…After what must have been a pretty successful interview and two days of contract negotiations between the Rams and Josh McDaniels, Michael Lombardi of the NFL Network (and a GM candidate in San Francisco earlier this month) thought that things should be wrapping up today, one way or the other.
But even a 20-year veteran of NFL executive offices might have been surprised by the level of drama and intrigue of the past 12 hours … around the hiring of an offensive coordinator.
- Jay Glazer declared the Rams the favorites, until Chris Mortensen and Adam Schefter said that they weren’t.
jay_glazerSpags is now calling fellow head coaches seeking OC candidates as the McD likelihood dwindling fast
- This led to a feverish few hours as the names of Atlanta QB coach Bill Musgrave and Minnesota OC Darrell Bevell — first mentioned by RamsGab — became official candidates for the Rams job.
- Then the other shoe dropped: Seattle fired offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates after one season on the job, and apparently had good reason…
AdamSchefterSeahawks have been talking with former Broncos HC Josh McDaniels since Monday. Interesting.
(An interesting side note here: Bates coached under Carroll at USC in 2009; before that, he had been Jay Cutler’s QB coach in Denver until McDaniels arrived and fired him, along with almost all of the Broncos’ offensive staff. You can bet Bates hates him some McD.)
- Barely an hour was spent devoted to this interdivision catfight over the NFL’s hottest available bachelor … or was it an hour-long flashback to high school? Either way, it seemed that Paul Allen’s software billions posed the most potent threat to our offer, and pleas went out to the Rams: “Don’t cheap out!“
PaulMurph92If McDaniels goes to Seattle clearly he is all about the money, rams situation much better than seahawks, Spags D will kill him anyway next yr
- This led to all kinds of debate, payroll speculation, and a devil’s bargain: Do you pay your OC more than your head coach, if that’s what it took to get him?
- As it turned out, though, the Rams and McD started the day essentially agreed to terms, and only $200k apart on the salary number — hardly an impossible divide.
But after two hours of radio silence and plenty of teeth-gnashing, the deal was done, and Seattle’s last-ditch effort left them chasing *cough* Jim Zorn… all in all a delerious, glorious day for Rams fans. But for a coach as used to drama and turmoil as McDaniels, who knows? This might be just another Tuesday.
