LA Rams land a great positional coach in Former UW HC Jimmy Lake

The LA Rams are filling up their staff coaching positions now at a steady and rapid pace, but that does not mean that it's haphazard or reckless. In fact, the Rams seem to have a clear concept of the type of coaches they want to hire based on the goals for their respective positional group. Right now, the secondary head coach is, in my mind, every bit the priority of their offensive line coach. In some ways, perhaps more.

On the offensive line, the Rams have other tools in place to assist their performance. There is the opportunity to add an extra offensive lineman. The team can pivot to two tight-end personnel packages. The team can run misdirection plays, or slow down pass rushes with screens and or sweeps. But the Rams secondary has not obvious tools at their disposal.

The Rams defensive backs definitely displayed regression in 2022. And that has many fans up in arms, not at the players nor at the former DB coach Jonathan Cooley. The ire of fans focused upon Defensive Coordinator Raheem Morris, whose defense often resembled leaving too much space between defensive backs and their offensive receiver counterparts. That left a sour taste in the mouths of many Rams fans, and that was not something those fans are accustomed to.

Rams secondary will likely rebound

Per NFL Insider Tom Pelissero, the LA Rams have reportedly hired former UW's former head coach Jimmy Lake to the coaching staff. Well, before he became the head coach of the University of Washington, he was the Defensive Coordinator. Before he was the DC, he was the secondary coach. Right now, the Rams need help coaching up their secondary.

Right now, I believe they have hired a coach who can do that quickly. What role will Lake assume on the team's staff. Initially, I was certain that he would be involved with the team's secondary. But the team has hired former Coach Aubrey Pleasant to the staff as well.

Is there room on the Rams staff for two coaches to focus upon the secondary. It seems to me that the most logical steps would be to have Pleasant assume the DB coach role, to bring in Lake as his assistant coach to get him acclimated to the LA Rams organization and work with the younger DBs as they transition to the NFL, and to restore Coach Chris Shula, who had worked with linebackers and outside linebackers in the past, back to his more familiar OLB coaching role.

Of course, that's just my gut feeling, but it makes an whole lot of sense to do exactly that. The Rams migrated a number of positional coaches into completely new roles for 2022, and were left without answers as the complexity of the season overwhelmed their limited experience in their new roles. This year, the Rams appear to be returning coaches to their natural and more comfortable roles.

I, for one, love the new direction the team appears to be taking. Not only have the Rams targeted some of the most respected coaches in the NFL, but the team appears to be making an effort to ensure that the right coach oversees the right positional group.