Fix the franchise: St. Louis Rams edition

Everyone is always telling me that I think I am so smart, that I should try running one of these teams and see if I could do any better. Today I am accepting that challenge, as a sports writer I get paid to analyze things. With that in mind I am going to take a look at all 32 NFL teams and tell all of you what I would do if I wee the owner, or more realistically the General Manger. We start with the St. Louis Rams one of the worst franchise over the last five years.

The Rams need new owners, since that is going to happen we can leave that one alone. However, the new regime will need a direction, and at the moment there is no direction for this entire franchise. I would fire teh entire coaching staff and start anew. This group has already proved they are incapable of this job, and I am not sold on any of them long term. It is a bad mix, bad players, with over matched coaches. Since they are not the answer long term, they should be shown to the door sooner rather than later.

Since the Rams are way farther away from being good than one good player, they should work towards trading out of the number one pick in the 2010 draft. Some of that is out of their control, they have to hope that one player lights in up next week in the NFL Scouting Combine and become the consensus number one pick. Once that happens they can start talking trade with a few teams that may covet that player.

Right now it looks like Ndamukong Suh is the consensus pick to go number one. If that is true then the Rams are very lucky, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers covet Suh, and have the draft picks to work a deal to get up to the number one pick. I would trade down ask for the third overall pick, and the third pick in the second round plus a later round pick. I would then use one of those first three picks on a new franchise QB. Regardless of the state of the Rams defense, they cannot win if they cannot score. It all starts with the QB and at pick #3, #33, or #35 it would be perfectly acceptable to draft QB Colt McCoy of Texas, or Jimmy Clausen of Notre Dame. One of them will be there then.

That would be the start of my Rams turn around plan. As for a Coaching Staff I would scour the College ranks and look for the next big thing, or try and lure Bill Cowher there. In all reality anything else would probably be better than what they got.

Related Links:

• St. Louis Rams news and notes
• 2010 NFL Draft news, notes, and rumors
• NFL Complete.com