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St. Louis Rams Hire Sam Bradford A Quarterback Coach: Report

The St. Louis Rams reportedly hired Frank Cignetti to be their quarterbacks coach—giving Sam Bradford a QB coach a year after neglecting the position entirely.

By Dan Moore
SEATTLE - DECEMBER 12: Quarterback Sam Bradford #8 of the St. Louis Rams walks off the field after losing 30-13 to the Seattle Seahawks at CenturyLink Field on December 12, 2011 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images)
SEATTLE - DECEMBER 12: Quarterback Sam Bradford #8 of the St. Louis Rams walks off the field after losing 30-13 to the Seattle Seahawks at CenturyLink Field on December 12, 2011 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images)
Getty Images

One of the numerous suggested reasons for Sam Bradford's apparent decline between 2010 and 2011 was a strange decision the St. Louis Rams made in the course of switching from Pat Shurmur's conservative offense to Josh McDaniels's wild one—they didn't hire a quarterbacks coach, leaving their second-year starter to learn the offense and everything that came with it on his own. According to a Fox Sports report by Alex Marvez, the Rams will hand the job to Rutgers offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti.

It won't be Cignetti's first pro job—he served as the Saints' quarterbacks coach in 2000 and held the same position with the 49ers—where he mentored another number-one overall quarterback, Alex Smith—in 2007.

As Turf Show Times notes, we still don't know why the Rams neglected to hire a quarterbacks coach in the first place, but with Bradford struggling to learn a new offense in the slim time afforded him by the lockout and the wide receiving corps collapsing around him, it mustn't have gone exactly as they'd anticipated when they did it.