The search has begun for the St. Louis Rams as they try to find someone to lead the team back to prominence and out of the cellar of the NFC West.

New general manager Billy Devaney will interview Green Bay assistant head coach/linebackers coach Winston Moss sometime this week to lead off the parade.

Moss has never been a coordinator in college or the NFL, but that is of little importance to Devaney, who told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the next coach of the Rams, first and foremost, “needs to be the leader in our building. He needs to change the atmosphere inside our building. This leader, whoever it is, has to reconnect with our fan base.”

That’s not saying that Winston Moss is the leading candidate for the spot vacated by the fired Scott Linehan, who gave way to interim coach Jim Haslett. But apparently Moss fits the criteria that Devaney has laid out.

Devaney will lean on an experienced group of football men as he canvasses the league for the right candidate. He said Tuesday that Bobby Beathard, a four-time Super Bowl-winning executive at Washington and his former boss at San Diego, will be a sounding board along with Rams director of player personnel Lawrence McCutcheon. In addition, former Big Red tackle and Hall of Famer Dan Dierdorf and former league MVP Marshall Faulk will be asked for their input.

Having those people in his corner will give Devaney the best chance at trying to pinpoint the right man for the job, not to mention, discover any warts that might be hidden by prospective candidates. He might be anxious to get an outsider’s opinion of Jim Haslett, who will also get to interview for the job he kept “cold” for the final 12 weeks of the season. Haslett went 2-10 during his audition and lost his last 10.

The fact that Devaney highlighted leadership in his criteria means he is more interested in substance rather than style points or trying to lure the circuit’s hottest coordinator.

Devaney was part of a coaching search last year when Atlanta was looking to replace Bobby Petrino. The Falcons interviewed the likes of Baltimore defensive coordinator Rex Ryan before settling on relative unknown Mike Smith, who was previously the defensive coordinator at Jacksonville. We know how that turned out — Smith’s Falcons won the NFC South a year after the franchise sank to new depths during the Michael Vick saga.

That’s proof that a struggling team doesn’t need to throw big bucks at someone like Bill Cowher to have success. They don’t have to have the hot name like Jason Garrett (last year), Steve Spagnuolo (last year and this year) or Josh McDaniels (see Spagnuolo).

Rex Ryan is an intriguing possibility. For the time being, he’s off limits because the Ravens are preparing for this week’s AFC Wild Card playoff game at Miami. Once the Ravens’ season is over, Ryan is worth taking another look at. He’s an excellent schemer who has been able to put pressure on offenses in 4-3 and 3-4 sets. Then again, he is able to deploy players such as Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, Bart Scott, Terrell Suggs. What do those players have in common? They don’t play for the Rams.

Is Ryan a “leader” who has the qualities that Devaney is looking for? Or is he the beneficiary of having premier talent at his disposal? If Devaney passes on Ryan again, we should know Devaney’s opinion. But picking his brain is worth the time and effort.

If I was pressed with compiling a list of candidates for the Rams, I would start with these two men:

Tennessee defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz — Schwartz has been the Titans’ defensive coordinator for eight seasons and is labeled as intense by some, a numbers freak by others. Bottom line, he has gotten great production out the Titans on defense the last two seasons.

Minnesota defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier — Frazier knows a thing or two about defense, having played for the Chicago Bears when they won the Super Bowl following the 1985 season. He helped turn around Philadelphia as an assistant before moving on to Cincinnati and Indianapolis, places where his charges showed marked improvement. He’s in his second season in charge of the Vikings’ defense and is well-respected around the league.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

For the second week in a row, the Rams enjoyed a fourth quarter lead only to see the opponent walk off with the victory. This time, the Rams held a 16-3 advantage with just over four minutes to play before the 49ers pulled off the comeback.

The Rams showed some spunk and won their first two games under Jim Haslett, but since then have dropped nine straight in varying fashions. Simply put, they haven’t been able to close out games.

Even though he was handed a sub-par product upon the dismissal of Scott Linehan, Haslett has done little to prove to Rams ownership he should be the choice to lead the team. He’s had ample time to rally the troops and “coach them up,” but he hasn’t gotten the job done.

That said, the Rams will be hard-pressed to bring in a big name as a replacement. Owner Chip Rosenbloom could sell the team if a good offer comes along and any prospective head coach would be reluctant to sign a long-term deal if ownership is in a state of flux.

In other words, Marty Schottenheimer and Bill Cowher will not be seen shopping for homes in the St. Louis suburbs.

The interim coach is now 2-0 and obviously has the minds and ear’s open from his over achieving players. Though we have all seen this offense be potent in the past it is really the defense that is now overachieving. “It was short and sweet,” quarterback Marc Bulger said of Haslett’s pre-game speech when he thought his team was too nervous. “But it was full of explicit words.”

Scott Linehan got his first shot at head coach and failed even worse than his predecessor Mike Martz. I hated Martz but at least Martz failed in the Super Bowl once. Even more stunning is the St. Louis Haslett’s won consecutive games for the first time since Mike Martz (2004). So not to over analyze how big of a loser Linehan was I’ll leave it to Steven Jackson, “We’re having fun now.

Haslett history shows Mike Ditka left a 3-13 New Orleans team in 2000 to Haslett and he turned it around to a 10-6 playoff team the following year. Haslett lasted 5 years in New Orleans and was kind of disenfranchised when he was fired after the crazy Hurricane Katrina team went 3-13 that played without a home stadium.

The changed attitude on the Rams doesn’t surprise me considering Jim Haslett doesn’t understand the notion of pressure as evident from his pre-game speech (chairs were thrown). Apparently in the fourth quarter after a FG gave them 34 points Haslett was running up and down the sidelines yelling “40!” over and over again. I love that mentality (coming from the guy who loves to tell the Woody Hayes “because I couldn’t go for three” story). A fresh feeling from the first four games in which the Rams lost by a 26 point average.

Another good feeling is Issac Bruce’s replacement is now a rookie WR coming into his own, Donnie Avery. The speedster from Houston had a 42 yard TD catch and ended up with 5 catches for 65 yards. He also had a clutch long ball catch at Washington the previous week which set up the game winning FG.

And now? One week at a time so all I can say is, bring on the Patriots. Or as Haslett will probably put it, bring on the f*cking Patriots.

Side note: Steven Jackson (with T Orlando Pace out) had 25 carries for 160 yards and 3 TD’s while playing with a deep thigh bruise. An MRI today will confirm if he must miss any games.

[tags]st. louis rams, jim haslett, dallas cowboys, nfl, football[/tags]