Rob Ryan fails to land Rams' defensive coordinator job

By Larry Hartstein | CBSSports.comJanuary 29, 2013 10:04 am MT


Five minutes is turning into the better part of a month.

Rob Ryan -- who bragged, “I'll be out of work for like five minutes” after being fired Jan. 8 as the Cowboys' defensive coordinator -- won't be joining the Rams as defensive coordinator.

The Rams announced Tuesday that “after extensive discussions involving defensive philosophy, the Rams and Rob Ryan agreed that he was not the right fit for the defensive coordinator position.”

Ryan came close to getting the Rams job. The Post-Dispatch reports [the team nearly issued a press release] announcing his hiring last Friday.

But the paper noted that Ryan runs 3-4 defenses and the Rams play a 4-3, and that Ryan's defenses finished in the top 10 only once in his nine seasons as a coordinator in Dallas, Cleveland and Oakland.

The Cowboys' injury-ravaged defense finished 19th in yards allowed (355.4) and 24th in points allowed (25.0) this season. Dallas managed 16 takeaways, which tied for 29th.

YearPPG VsSacksTakeaways200427.6 (31st)25 (31st)18 (30th)200523.9 (25th)36 (18th)19 (29th)200620.8 (18th)34 (19th)23 (27th)200724.9 (26th)27 (28th)26 (21st)200824.3 (24th)32 (13th)24 (17th)

<p>HTML Tables</a></p>

<p>It is really difficult to measure his tenures in Oakland and Cleveland.  The easiest way to see this reality is to name his best pass rusher for his 7 years as a DC.  In Oakland, was it Tommy Kelly?  Derrick Burgess?  Old Warren Sapp joined him in 2006, but the personnel has not been present in Oakland for quite some time and yet most across the league thought Rob Ryan was doing a decent job with what he had despite the numbers not making anyone quake in their boots.  With the chaos in the Oakland organization (4 coaches in 5 seasons with no seasons with more than 5 wins), I am not sure what to make of these rankings.  It is worth noting, though, that for a short while, Nmandi Asomugha combined with Charles Woodson to put together what should have been the best CB tandem of the era, but it never really panned out.  Woodson obviously just wanted a change of scenery by the time Asomugha was emerging.</p>