For three years as Rams quarterbacks coach Frank Cignetti has operated quietly behind the scenes, working with no less than four starting QBs over the past two seasons. Cignetti’s days of relative anonymity are over.
Coach Jeff Fisher has decided to hire Cignetti as his new offensive coordinator, according to team sources. The formal announcement is expected next week. Cignetti, 49, replaces Brian Schottenheimer, who took the same position with the University of Georgia shortly after the conclusion of the 2014 season.
Just a week ago, it looked like Fisher was leaning toward tight ends coach Rob Boras as his next offensive coordinator, but with Cignetti sharing some of the OC responsibility possibly as passing game coordinator. Instead Boras will be promoted to assistant head coach/offense.
It has been clear for the past couple of weeks that Fisher was going in-house for his new coordinator. It was just a matter of whether it would be Boras or Cignetti in that role. Fisher, obviously, thinks highly of both.
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Cignetti was part of Fisher’s original staff in 2012, so he knows the offense and the playbook very well. So this figures to be a smooth transition and a continuation of the overall offensive philosophy espoused by Fisher. Namely, a strong running game with play-action passing.
It’s unclear if Cignetti will continue to serve as quarterbacks coach, but there have been plenty of offensive coordinators in the NFL who have doubled as QB coaches. It’s also unclear whether Boras will continue working with the tight ends.
Cignetti, 49, is a Pittsburgh native who has had extensive coordinator’s experience on the college level, starting at Div. II Indiana (Pa.) in 1997-98, but then at the Div. I level at Fresno State (2002-05), North Carolina (2006), California-Berkeley (2008), and Pittsburgh (2009-11).
He doubled up as coordinator/QBs coach at Indiana (Pa.), Cal, and Pitt.
In the end, that coordinator experience may have given Cignetti the edge over Boras.
Boras, 44, has spent 11 seasons in the NFL coaching tight ends with the Rams, Jacksonville and Chicago. Among his college-coaching stops was a five-year stint at Nevada-Las Vegas from 1999-2003. He was the offensive line coach there for all five seasons, but doubled up as offensive coordinator his last three seasons there.
Cignetti may not be a household name, but besides his college work, he has also been an NFL assistant in Kansas City, New Orleans and San Francisco. He grew up in a coaching household. His father, Frank Cignetti Sr., once was head coach at West Virginia and was a long-time coach at small-college Indiana (Pa.)
At Fresno State, the younger Cignetti coordinated offenses that finished fifth nationally in total offense in 2004 and seventh in 2005. The ‘04 team became only the sixth team in NCAA history to score 50-plus points in four consecutive games. In ‘09 at Pittsburgh, the Panthers averaged 32.1 points per game.
In another development, Rams assistant defensive line coach Clyde Simmons is interviewing for the head D-line coaching job with the Oakland Raiders.
