The Sports Xchange

EARTH CITY, Mo. — The offseason for the St. Louis Rams was a study in contrasts.

The defense entered its second year with Gregg Williams as defensive coordinator, the first time in head coach Jeff Fisher’s tenure that the defense was being led by the same coordinator for two consecutive seasons.

In addition, very little change was imminent, with the only veterans added in free agency being defensive tackle Nick Fairley and linebacker Akeem Ayers. In the draft, no defensive players were selected until the seventh round with the addition of linebacker Bryce Hager and defensive end Martin Ifedi.

Williams is so pleased with his unit, he said he told Fisher before the draft he’d be fine if no players would be selected.

However, on the other side of the ball, it’s a different story. With former coordinator Brian Schottenheimer headed to the University of Georgia, quarterbacks coach Frank Cignetti replaced him and tight ends coach Rob Boras took on the added responsibility of assistant head coach/offense.

There’s a new quarterback, Nick Foles, a new running back, Todd Gurley, and a bunch of new offensive linemen following the release of tackle Jake Long and center Scott Wells, and the free-agent departure of tackle Joe Barksdale.

It’s entirely plausible the Rams will line up for their Sept. 13 season opener against Seattle with three linemen with no NFL starts: third-year pro Barrett Jones at center, and rookies Jamon Brown and Rob Havenstein at right guard and right tackle, respectively. Jones is competing with Tim Barnes and Demetrius Rhaney for the starting job.

Said Fisher, when asked about his comfort level with the line, “They’re going to be ready to go so that’s not going to be an issue. We don’t have a lot of experience at the center position, but you gain experience by playing. We’ll make that decision at some point. Like I said, I’m pleased with the flexibility. I’m pleased with where JB (Brown) is right now at the guard spot. Rob has been solid at right tackle. They’re not making mistakes.

“Again, it’s so early because you don’t have the pads on. I think they will probably improve significantly when the pads go on because it stalemates a little bit with the defense. Defense wins right now. That’s just how OTAs are. Defense is going to win.”

Cignetti is also enthused by what he’s seen from the line. “They’re doing a great job in the classroom,” he said. “That’s where it starts. Then once again, you see them bringing it out here to the practice field, making improvements every day.”

Fisher also likes what he’s seen from Cignetti.

“It’s all coming,” Fisher said. “I think the players will tell you that. We shortened the play calls from a terminology standpoint. We have some flexibility to do some things, I think, that match up better with our personnel. We’re just going to continue to work with it. Nick has done a good job. A good mark of where you are offensively is when someone like (rookie quarterback) Sean Mannion comes in and he’s been here for a month and he has a good feel for it. So, it kind of gives you a sense that what they’re teaching is easily absorbed and translated to the field.”

The enthusiastic Cignetti said of the overall offense, “We’ve had a great offseason. When you look at phase 1, phase 2 and now the OTAs, the coaches and players have done a great job learning in the classroom, bringing it from the classroom out to the field. Every day we step out here, we see continual growth. It’s a process. We’ll take the OTAs right into training camp. Right now we’re very pleased with the effort and what the players have been giving us. It’s been outstanding.”

As for how much different the offense will look, Cignetti said, “It’s like this: coach Schottenheimer put a tremendous foundation in place here. It’s like buying a house. The foundation is there. You guys buy a house, what do you do? Let’s remodel a couple rooms. Really, that’s what we’ve done. The foundation of the system hasn’t changed. All we’ve done is put our personal touches in different areas and frankly, if coach Schottenheimer was here, that’s what you do as a staff every year. You look at it and you continually look for ways to improve.”

One of the biggest questions on the offense is when first-round draft pick Todd Gurley will be ready to play. The Georgia running back is working hard to recover from a torn ACL suffered on Nov. 15.

Said Fisher, “It’s hard to say right now. I can’t predict that. I know he’s doing well. He had a day off today (Tuesday) because he’s doing so well. He’ll be around. He’ll rehab with us during the break. We’re also going to give him his time off because he’s entitled to his time off to go home for a few days. We’re just going to see how he progresses. We have options, which are the PUP things and we just have to see where he is. If he’s not PUP’ed then I think you could probably assume that he’s going to play sooner than you think.”

Meanwhile, back on defense, Williams believes the group he has can be special.

“We would hope so,” he said. “I would tell you this: I’ve had a chance to be a part of several, many special defenses. I’ve been seven different places and five of those seven places where we’ve been top five or best in the world at what we do. This is a talented group. In order for us to be that way, there can’t be any miscommunication. One play can beat you one way or the other. When you see these guys, from coaching, I always take it personal. If they make a mistake, it’s because they don’t know, why don’t they know? It’s because evidently I didn’t get it to them right.

“But when they are on the same page and you see these guys talking, yeah, there’s a chance for them to be special. But we’ve also got to get the opponents to cooperate, too. We’ve got a pretty tough schedule. I don’t think there’s any simple schedules in the National Football League. Our schedule’s going to be tough, but it’s going to be fun to see these guys start out and hopefully start faster than we have in the past.”

As for the advancement from last year at this time to now, Williams said, “It’s light years from where we were last year because they didn’t know me and I didn’t know them. Just from a terminology, are we speaking the same language? Do we understand what we really want? It took a little bit of time for all of us to get acclimated last year. Now we’re hoping we can start off faster this year because there’s a knowledge, a base of information that we all know is the same.

“The other thing is, and I’ve said this before to you guys, ‘When will it ever be more important to them than to us?’ The good teams that I’ve ever been on and some of the greatest defenses I’ve ever been a part of, it was much more important to them than it was to me. These guys have kind of taken ownership in that, so it’s been fun.”