St. Louis Rams Officially Announce Promotions for Frank Cignetti, Rob Boras

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Though the secret has been out unofficially for weeks now, the St. Louis Rams made things official on Thursday by promoting quarterbacks coach Frank Cignetti, Jr. to offensive coordinator and tight ends coach Rob Boras to assistant head coach/offense. Boras will be responsible for the leadership of the run game. Cignetti, who will call the plays, will vacate his quarterbacks coaching role (the Rams were interviewing former NFL QB Jeff Garcia for the job on Thursday), but Boras will continue coaching the tight ends.

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The promotions will mark the most responsibility that both coaches have had thus far at the NFL level. The 49-year-old Cignetti, whose father was the head coach at West Virginia and Indiana of Pennsylvania, has been a quarterbacks coach for the Kansas City Chiefs, New Orleans Saints, and San Francisco 49ers, but has never had a coordinator job at the NFL level. He has held that responsibility at the college level, serving as the offensive coordinator under his father at IU-Pennsylvania, then later on at Fresno State, North Carolina, California, Pittsburgh, and Rutgers.

The 44-year-old Boras’s only coordinator experience came at UNLV from 2001 to 2003. Though he won’t be calling plays, the responsibility over the run game, which is expected to represent a large chunk of the Rams’ offensive attack, will be the biggest role that he’s had over his 22-year coaching career.

The choice to promote from within rather than hire an experienced coordinator such as Marc Trestman, Adam Gase, or Greg Roman, which many Rams hoped for when Brian Schottenheimer departed for Georgia in January, may be underwhelming to some. However, the team will get the benefit of continuity and will be able to continue with the same system and terminology, which is important for an offense that has as many young, ascending players as the Rams’ does.

Next: Rams to Interview Jeff Garcia for QB Coach Job