The past few years while watching the Rams make Coaching changes, it has been hard not to notice a pattern. During the Mike Martz era, Coach Martz brought in an excellent Defensive Coordinator in Lovey Smith. Lovey Smith turned an awful defense into a powerhouse immediately. The defense of Lovey Smith took the Rams to the Superbowl. It was fun to watch.

Well, as success has it in the NFL, Lovey Smith was not to stay long with the Rams. He was hired by the Chicago Bears as their Head Coach, as smart move on their part. Mike Martz hired his friend, from the Arizona Cardinals Larry Marmie, to be Lovey Smith's replacement. At the time I was thinking how strange it was for Mike Martz to hire a Defensive Coordinator who had not had much success, from a team that hadn't had much success.

Boy, did I hit the nail on the head. The Rams defense was so pathetic under Larry Marmie it was embarrassing. It almost seemed as if Mike Martz thought he could have such a potent offense that the defense just needed 11 guys to take the field to fill positions. It didn't really matter if they played well or not because the offense would just out score the other team. Maybe that is an exaggeration, but that is what it seemed like. That defense became Mike Martz undoing.

After the Rams parted ways with Mike Martz and brought in Scott Linehan, the same story began again. Coach Linehan started hiring his friends. Greg Olsen had worked with Scott Linehan and he became the offensive coordinator, mostly by title only as Coach Linehan was going to run the offense himself.

During the course of the two seasons they worked together the offense starting going down hill. The once potent Rams attack ended up the 2007 season ranked 23rd in the NFL. Far from being the scariest offense in the league that it once was.

This drop in productivity has been hard for me to understand, because you still have Torry Holt, Issac Bruce, Steven Jackson, and some other players who are more than capable of producing. The Rams offensive line has had real trouble with injuries this past season and I know that added to it, but I don't believe by any means that this was the only factor. After such a dismal season, Coach Linehan let Greg Olsen go. He was picked up by Tampa Bay.

So after seeing how it seems that every time the Coach of the Rams hires a "friend" to run a certain area of the team, and seeing how things seem to go south in a hurry, I was nervous that Coach Linehan was going to do that again, that is hire a friend to run his offense.

It was recently announced that Coach Linehan did not hire a friend to run his offense. Instead, he did the right thing and hired a proven Offense Coordinator in Al Saunders. Al Saunders has shown that he can run an offense with the best of them. I am excited about this hiring and am very very hopeful that this is the beginning of a huge turnaround for the St. Louis Rams.