Five days after he chose St. Louis over Miami, the big day is finally here for Jeff Fisher and the Rams. He will be formally introduced as the Rams' new head coach with a news conference scheduled for 1 p.m. today.
Before taking the podium for the first time at Rams Park, Fisher will sign a five-year contract believed to pay him around $7 million annually, easily making him the highest-paid coach in franchise history. But the No. 1 factor in deciding on the Rams, as Fisher told the Post-Dispatch in a brief interview Friday, was not his salary. It was non-economic issues.
After 17 years working for tightwad owner Bud Adams in Houston and Tennessee, Fisher wanted to make sure he had the resources to put together a strong coaching staff, be active in free agency and have a strong personnel department.
Contrary to speculation, it looks like Fisher's only title will be head coach. He's not expected to have "vice president" or "executive vice president" attached to his name in St. Louis.
Fisher may end up having final say on personnel matters, but as he may outline today, it won't be a "my way or else" proposition. At the very least he wants to be on equal footing with the new general manager. The team's general manager search, by the way, will continue anew this week with Fisher as involved as he wants to be in the process.
Fisher may also unveil at least the beginnings of his first St. Louis coaching staff. On Monday, Gregg Williams informed Fisher, "I'm in," as the team's new defensive coordinator. Williams had the same title for three seasons with New Orleans, but his contract is up with the Saints and Williams will be reuniting with the man he called "my best friend in coaching" in remarks to reporters last Thursday.
In addition, signs point to Brian Schottenheimer joining Fisher's staff as offensive coordinator; Schottenheimer spent the past six seasons as coordinator with the New York Jets. But recently fired Oakland head coach Hue Jackson is another possibility for the position.
It appears likely that Dave McGinnis will come aboard, perhaps with an assistant head coach title. McGinnis was with Fisher for seven seasons in Tennessee and currently has the title of senior assistant with the Titans.
One thing McGinnis probably would do in St. Louis is help groom the younger assistants on Fisher's staff. Two of those younger assistants could be Fisher's son Brandon, who's currently on the Detroit staff, and Williams' son Blake, who's currently on the New Orleans staff.
Other staff possibilities:
• Chuck Cecil and Tim Hauck both have worked in the past with Fisher as secondary coaches.
• Marty Galbraith has worked for Fisher and the Titans as an assistant special teams coach.
• If Schottenheimer ends up coming to St. Louis as offensive coordinator, James Lofton and former Rams assistant Henry Ellard could be candidates for wide receivers coach.
When all is said and done, Fisher wants to hire a quarterbacks coach to work with Sam Bradford.
The addition of Williams as defensive coordinator obviously is a key piece. It's a homecoming of sorts for Williams, a Missouri native from Excelsior Springs who played his college ball at Northeast Missouri State (now Truman State).
Williams was on the Rams' head-coaching radar as a potential successor to Mike Martz following the 2005 season. But Williams decided to stay with Washington where he ran the Redskins' defense and was widely regarded as a potential successor to Joe Gibbs as head coach. But that never materialized following Gibbs' retirement in 2008, with Williams spending a year in Jacksonville before hooking up with Sean Payton and the Saints in '09.
Williams' first stint as a defensive coordinator came in 1997 with Fisher as head coach of the then Tennessee Oilers. Beginning with that season, Williams' units â€" either as a coordinator or head coach â€" finished among the top 10 in NFL total defense six times.
With Tennessee in 2000, Williams' last season there before a three-year stint as head coach in Buffalo, the Titans led the league in total defense. Once he reached New Orleans in 2009, the dramatic improvement of the Saints' defense was one of the major factors in their Super Bowl championship run even though Drew Brees and the New Orleans offense garnered most of the headlines.
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