The left coast of Missouri has no love for McD... surely that's reason enough to accept him, right?

McDaniels' name first surfaced as a speculative candidate among us fans, thinking out loud, with no idea that the thoughts might be echoed by Twitter luminaries such as Jason La Canfora, Adam Schefter and Peter King. When that happened, it forced us Rams bloggers to take a serious look at McDaniels' impressive offensive pedigree as a playcaller.

But if there's a fear factor for Rams' fans, it goes beyond his offensive prowess, beyond the questions of schematic continuity or learning a new playbook. McDaniels is the league's latest incarnation of Icarus, the boy who flew too close to the sun; we don't know whether the experience of the last year humbled him, tempered him like steel, or merely burned him.

If McDaniels is brought in at full fire and brilliance, it would certainly make for an interesting chamistry experiment with the conservative, "team-first" nature of Steve Spagnuolo. And you can bet that Stan Kroenke would be watching carefully. Management theory is keen on introducing "creative destruction" and "disruptive innovation" to help teams and individuals take big leaps forward. 

McD represents both qualities in spades, and the potential volatility of this chamistry experiment formed the topic of the second half of our conversation with Bryan Douglass.

Tomorrow's most pressing question: do they make hoodies in blue and gold?

As our pals at RamsGab wrote this morning, the Cleveland Browns are expected to name their next head coach as early as tomorrow; every indication is that it will be Rams offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur. While fans in Cleveland may look askance at yet another first-time head coach who still has room for growth as a coordinator, Rams fans wonder what's next for Sam Bradford. As ESPN's Mike Sando writes, the Rams need a succession plan. And quick.

Former Minnesota coach Brad Childress has been the early front-runner of imagined candidates. After all, he is a close friend of Steve Spagnuolo and a high branch in the Mike Holmgren WCO coaching tree. But NFL.com's Jason LaCanfora throws a wrench in the works:

JasonLaCanfora
Coordinator musical chairs - still hear Mike McCoy to KC to replace Weis, Josh McDaniels to Rams if Pat Shurmur new HC in CLE as many expect

Bomb. Shell. And it blows the notion of offensive continuity out of the water.

With that in mind, I reached out to Bryan Douglass, a fellow Fanball alum and owner of deep knowledge on the Denver Broncos, for a perspective on McDaniels that I bet few Rams fans have heard. His response was so thorough that I am breaking it up into two posts. Here is part one of our interview:

This man will stop at nothing...

The NFL has a sacred place in many of our hearts, a Sunday ritual attended to as faithfully as any church service. The game itself is as compelling and as well-watched as any televised program today, and even a deep economic recession has little affected attendance numbers. (Source: Forbes.com) Frankly, we love the game and we expect those who shepherd it to be reasonable-minded men interested in keeping the flock healthy and whole.

And that's what makes the contrarian stance of the owners, led by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, so difficult to understand.

Doug Farrar, writer for the Shutdown Corner on Yahoo, as well as Football Outsiders, sat in on an NFL Players Association conference call, and captured some unbelievable things in his Twitter timeline. Said Farrar as an introduction: "It's clear from this NFLPA conference call that the league's and the players' takes on player safety are very far apart." However, it isn't just the players that are on the so-called playing field of this business negotiation... now Goodell is openly going after their families, directly attacking the players' ability to be providers.

If the CBA negotiation process breaks down completely, and the players find themselves locked out of their jobs, they'll be unemployed -- with the corresponding loss of health insurance and other benefits that are commensurate with full-time employment.

FO_DougFarrar
Scott Fujita, CLE player rep, says on conf. call- player wives have asked if they should induce labor before lockout health insurance lapses

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FO_DougFarrar
Again -- this is a NINE BILLION DOLLAR PER YEAR organization in which the wives of the players wonder if births of kids will be covered.

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FO_DougFarrar
Fujita asked Goodell about those player wives worried about insurance, and Goodell said, "well, you'll want to get this done, won't you?"

If the CBA negotiation process breaks down completely, and we find our Sundays hijacked and the growth of our Rams stunted, remember this moment. Maybe this bit of inhumanity, this bit of irrationality, this pure lack of reason was the line in the sand that couldn't be crossed. 

Update: Farrar posted a full article at the Shutdown Corner detailing this and other surprising revelations from the NFLPA Conference call. Also, the NFL's Greg Aiello published the league's official argument for a change to the CBA on ESPN. That deserves its own post and its own dissection... 

MaryKayCabot
ESPN's Chris Mortensen reported that according to NFL executives, Rams OC Pat Shurmur is emerging as the frontrunner for the Browns top job.

FtblSickness
Yep. BUT, 2 things on which I trust Holmgren: QB's and coaches. RT @AaronAloysius: @FtblSickness "Meh" appears to be consensus on Shurmur.

Sam Bradford is almost a shoo-in for the NFL's offensive rookie of the year award (vote now! vote often!), having thrown and completed the most passes in NFL rookie history, but it looks as though his success is having unexpected ripple effects. Despite fitful success in his two years here, the Rams' offensive improvement from last year to this is undeniable. And as much scorn as Shurmur gets for the "conservatism" of the offense -- blame that may be shared between the offensive coordinator and his head coach -- the offense he tailored helped Sam Bradford make the most of a scrappy bunch of underdogs and unlikelies at receiver, and helped the Rams to a six-win improvement in the standings. And that improvement apparently makes Shurmur something of a hot commodity around the NFL.  

On Friday, Shurmur interviewed for the head coaching position in Cleveland, a football city absolutely defined by "scrappy bunch of underdogs and unlikelies," and one with a bright young quarterback of its own. And from all reports, his interview was very impressive.

For Billy Devaney, hiring the combination of Spagnuolo, Shurmur and Ken Flajole as first-time head coach, offensive and defensive coordinators was a big commitment to growing together as a team. It was also, as commenter CoachConnors once put it, "a massive experiment in simultaneous learning curves."

While Shurmur is still young as an offensive coordinator, he showed his potential with brilliant gameplans in Week 12 vs Denver and Week 16 vs San Francisco. But is he ready to be a head coach in the NFL? As the Rams showed with Spagnuolo, two years and some success as a coordinator is about all it takes these days to be a candidate, especially if you're committed to a youth movement. And for Browns' GM Mike Holmgren, Shurmur represents a short reach into his own coaching tree, as well as a young and presumably "moldable" guy that won't mind Holmgren's guiding hand.

Now if Shurmur gets the position, the Rams and Bradford will be facing a new experiment -- a second offensive coordinator and potentially a second offensive philosophy in two years. However, Spagnuolo could reach into this same coaching tree and shake out a guy who he has a close connection with in Brad Childress. (Remember, Spagnuolo specifically sought out Chilly's counsel when the Rams were debating the Randy Moss acquisition.)

Offensive continuity is a critical factor in the growth and development of young quarterbacks, lest we grow and develop a new Alex Smith. However, losing Shurmur might not be the biggest risk to this continuity. The biggest fear factor for the Rams has to be a lockout. If the NFL owners and players association fails to come together on a CBA this offseason, Bradford would be isolated from his new coach, from his new playbook, until the lockout ended. And Bradford would be unable to take the necessary next step of getting deeper into his offense, his reads, his progressions.  

The Rams' season has come to an end and it's time to reflect a little bit before diving into the boiling ocean of the offseason. Or rather, since we're already getting draft fever, dreaming up strategies, scouting prospects, and reading between the lines of various coach/GM interviews, consider this a time to take a brief break to get our heads above water before diving back in again.

Our Bloguin network writers announced their NFL regular season awards, and Sam Bradford already has something shiny to put on his internet mantle.

The Rams honored four of their own this week as well. Bradford was named the team's Carroll Rosenbloom Memorial Rookie of the Year, Steven Jackson the Daniel F. Reeves Memorial Most Valuable Player, Oshiomogho Atogwe the Carl Ekern Spirit of the Game Award for "best teammate," and Bradley Fletcher was given the Ed Block Courage Award in honor of his strong comeback from a season lost to devastating knee injury.

However, it seems to me that several deserving guys need to be honored in this space as well. So here, without further ado, are the first annual RamsHerd year-end awards: