Who Will Be The St. Louis Rams’ Next Offensive Coordinator?

With the news that the now former St. Louis Rams offensive coordinator, Brian Schottenheimer, is going to Georgia, the team is now obviously in the search for a new one. Who that may be is the biggest question? Will the Rams keep it in house, will they find somebody else in the NFL, or will they go down into the college ranks?

General manager Les Snead said that head coach Jeff Fisher will most likely be patient in the process, but one thing can be certain. Whoever the Rams’ next offensive coordinator is, it will be someone who believes in the same philosophy that Fisher does. Here are some possible options for the Rams.

While fans are going to want the Rams to look outside of the organization for a new offensive coordinator, believe it or not, it actually makes a lot of sense for them to stay in house and promote somebody per se.

The coaches on the staff already know the kind of philosophy that Jeff Fisher likes to run and they know the players on the team and their capabilities. Two names that immediately come to mind are quarterback coach Frank Cignetti and tight ends coach Rob Boras.

Cignetti has spent most of his time as an offensive coordinator in the college ranks spending time at Fresno State, North Carolina, California, Pittsburgh, and Rutgers.

The Rams quarterback coach found most of his success at Fresno State where in 2004, the offense ranked fifth nationally and seventh in 2005. They also became the sixth team in NCAA history to score over 50 points in four consecutive games. The 2004 team also led the WAC in average yards per carry.

Cignetti has been with the Rams since Fisher’s arrival in 2012 which would make him a likely candidate and, however, according to ESPN’s Nick Wagoner, Boras is a guy to keep an eye on.

Boras has only offensive coordinator experience at UNLV, however he his experience at the NFL level is pretty impressive. Boras served as the tight ends coach with Chicago from 2004 to 2009 and lead young tight end Greg Olson to career high touchdown numbers and back to back 500 yard seasons.

He also coached Jaguars tight end Mercedes Lewis to career high numbers in yards and touchdowns in 2010. Boras is in his 11th year coaching at the NFL level and is a rising star on the coaching staff.

If the Rams do not go in-house a lot of names could come up, however a couple that we might see are Kyle Shanahan, , Greg Roman, Rob Chudzinski and Marty Morninweg.

If Shanahan doesn’t get a head coaching gig, Shanahan would be a very good move for the Rams and a coach that Fisher would be interested in. Shanahan is also a ground and pound coach who has found some success in Houston, Washington, and even with a Brian Hoyer lead Cleveland team.

Greg Roman, the 49ers offensive coordinator will also be someone that the Rams will have to look at. Roman, also ran a ground and pound offense in San Francisco. While 49ers fans may not have liked him due to his “inability” to use Kaepernick, he is a popular name right now, and a top guy on the market.

Chudzinski and Morninweg are two big name guys worth a look. Chudzinski turned Derek Anderson into a Pro Bowler in 2007 and lead the Browns to an 8th ranked offense. In 2011, Chudzinski was the offensive coordinator for the Carolina Panthers and took what was one of the league’s worst offenses in 2010 and transformed it into one of the seventh overall offense in 2011 with rookie quarterback Cam Newton.

Morninweg’s name alone will certainly grant him an interview, but he has struggled the last couple of years in New York with the Jets. He has been in the NFL for a long time as he was the quarterbacks coach for the great Packers team in 1996 that won the Super Bowl, as well as the offensive coordinator for the 49ers in the late 90’s. His most recent success came with the Eagles as he was the offensive coordinator there from 2006-2012.

It would be nice if the Rams could get somebody like Marc Trestman, but after his recent lack of success in Chicago. He’s a great offensive mind, but not somebody that Fisher would be interested in.

While I would find it highly unlikely that Jeff Fisher would do it, grabbing somebody from the college ranks could be a possibility. If it were to happen, the only guy that Fisher might look into is Lane Kiffin, the offensive coordinator at Alabama. Kiffin has NFL experience and has found success now in the SEC. The Rams would of course have to steal him from Alabama.

While guys like Art Briles and Dana Holgorsen would be great, the chances Fisher would get somebody that has zero NFL experience is very slim. Fisher is a very traditional guy, and thats exactly what he is going to go after.

This is a long list of guys from in-house, the NFL, and the college ranks, but in reality, the Rams probably have three or four guys, if that, in mind to run their offense. As mentioned earlier, Fisher is a traditional run the ball to set up the pass kind of coach, therefore he is going to hire somebody who believes in that same(possibly boring) philosophy.