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Rams offseason changes? They got lucky with Faulk but all the good teams have and make some luck. Last year's Superbowl showcased two teams with stud all pro runningbacks who were 6th and 7th round picks. They made a good coaching change at offensive  coordinator...and they did something to fix something that plagued this team and more than a few teams in bringing in a group of  guys that could carry  leadership onto the field and this was probably the hardest task.

My own belief as I have said many  times was that Shaw's  philosophy for whatever reason stripped the Rams of  their core leadership and it was THAT that put the  team into free fall...

And who WERE the leaders? Well who was talking? Leslie O Neal? I don't know but I can't  come up with any good  examples of who was doing anything to lead out of  that bunch. They were all hanghead mope-in it, going throught the motions. The  thing may have surfaced at the point that they had  Bettis and Miller healthy but that as we know didn't  last...

The other day my wife got me some Club Box tix to the Cardinals baseball game. I was about three rows off the field behind home plate. They were playing the Astros. The great thing  that I got was that being that close you actually got to "feel" how the  players approached the game. For the Astros part  they had Biggio, Bagwell, and Caminitti, and these  three formed a triad of  confidence and leadership that a couple a other vets  followed into and then that group of 5-6  was  dragging most of the rest of  the daily players along...The Cardinals? They had McGwire, Lankford, and??? a bunch of kids, some  talented,  but just not of the  class of the Killer B's and so forth, and just not  carrying the swagger needed to win. The Cards had  some guys still trying to  figure out just how to play in the majors and the  result was not team but a jumble. As I see it the Cards need to find someone to  step into the void on the side of leadership, form a  cohesion between Mac and Lankford, and pull the team  together yet what I consistantly hear is that they are perhaps planning  on playing more kids like Kennedy, who needs several  years of experience just  to field a batted ball much less step into a role of  leadership...

For a coach to excel he has to have a group of  players that can take the field and put his plan into effect. He HAS TO have on  the field leadership. I think the Rams have crossed  that line and the effort and impetus to get there  has been at the root  Vermeil's. I think this among other things is why  Vermeil told Shaw he needed five years to rebuild  the team. Look at Parcells and  the Jets. I always harp about the fact that he's had  YEARS to put together his staff and when he's moved  teams he's taken a great  amount of players in tow with him (I believe he had  as many as 15 guys that had played with him previous on the Jets squad). Why?  Cause he knows that those guys can carry his  gameplan onto the field...

and so the Rams crossed over with Timmerman, Green,  Faulk and are now I think getting the same sort of  thing from Warner, who's  been a leader and winner at all stops. And  it helps to either be brought forth into confidence, something the old Rams were good at, that Timmerman  got in Green Bay, or to  have preeminant confidence in ones skills a la  Faulk. Then these things have to come together as a GROUP,  something that the Rams  didn't have prior.