St. Louis Rams Meet with Defensive Coordinator Dick Jauron
By Josh Hill
The St. Louis Rams thought they had found their defensive coordinator when Rob Ryan came to town, but he left without a contract and the search for Gregg Williams replacement continues. But while no hire has been yet made official, the Rams may have finally found the guy they want running their defense in former head coach Dick Jauron.
Jauron spent last season as the Cleveland Browns defensive coordinator and actually had some pretty surprising success. Jauron has bounced around the NFL since being fired as head coach of the Chicago Bears back in 2003. After leaving the Bears, Jauron spent time with the Detroit Lions, Buffalo Bills and Philadelphia Eagles before landing in Cleveland.
To show just how successful Jauron was with the Browns, he was almost retained by new head coach Rob Chudzinski before eventually parting ways with the franchise.
While the Rams and Jauron have indeed made contact with one another, we have to be really careful before pinning his name to the job. Twice Rob Ryan was reported as being the man the Rams would hire and twice those reports ended up being erroneous.
The reason Ryan and the Rams couldn’t come to terms, was apparently due to a difference in philosophy the two sides shared. Ryan runs a 3-4 defense and the Rams currently run a 4-3 scheme they were not willing to change. However, Jauron runs a 4-3 defense and even if he didn’t, would likely be willing to adapt in order to get a job.
Both sides are just in the initial stages of a potential relationship, and it might be a good idea to wait until the middle of season and Jauron is visible on the sidelines to officially report the hiring, since we’ve been burned so badly by bad reporting. But things seem to be looking like they’ll end with Jauron finally filling the void at defensive coordinator for the Rams.