The Rams have hired Les Snead. This makes The Falcoholic sad.

Not every draft and signing Les Snead presided over turned out to be a winner, but he was a smart, competent personnel man who Thomas Dimitroff leaned on heavily during his time in Atlanta. The Rams managed to land a talented front office manager who won't impinge on Jeff Fisher's territory, which is a balancing act in and of itself.

Because let's face it, Snead kept a low profile in Atlanta. Many times Dimitroff described him as an integral part of the organization, but we're fans. We see those players, coaches and management types who speak directly to us and the media or do spectacular things, and for the front office, that was TD. Snead's considerable role

Snead had a big hand in drafts while in Atlanta, something he'll be counted on as the typically terrible Rams try to jump out of the gutter into brighter days. With smart draft picks and better coaching, they're a team that can probably get there, and Snead has gotten past his share of challenges during his days in Atlanta. For a team with a history of debilitating drafts, he's a smart hire.

The Falcons will probably bounce back just fine, but it's a key piece of the front office missing. How you feel about that probably depends on how you feel about the job the front office has done in recent years, but ultimately the Falcons must replace a hard-working dude who spent 13 years in the FO making things happen. That's not easy to do.

Either way, I do wish Snead luck. He put in a lot of time with the organization and did considerable good, so deserves your respect.

What say you?

Oh, forgot to put a caveat in my title. If Curtis Lofton is re-signed, then he may well be a two-down player in 2012.

Why, you ask? Apparently, Mike Nolan has gotten through a lot of tape from last season and has come away with the impression that Curtis Lofton is lacking in coverage. I thought he actually made modest strides forward in 2011, but there's probably a reason they're paying Mike Nolan a lot of money to be defensive coordinator and not me. For example, my name is not Mike Nolan.

This makes sense. Lofton is a truly elite run-stopping middle linebacker, but if the coaching staff isn't happy with his performance against the pass, they could move things around. Yahoo Sports! suggests that Sean Weatherspoon could move into the middle on passing downs, which would mean a free agent or someone like Spencer Adkins would likely move outside in nickel packages.

Regardless, this could have interesting implications for the Falcons. Lofton may be more reluctant to re-sign with the team if they're not willing to play him as a full-time guy, even if the Falcons are no less serious about re-signing him. It could give Weatherspoon more run in different roles, and it could lead to Adkins finally breaking into the starting lineup part-time, given that he's the only reserve on the roster who appears to have any coverage chops. But this is mostly conjecture.

One thing that is clear is that Lofton will have a bit of a different role if he returns in 2012, one that will play exclusively to his strengths. I'm inclined to believe that's a good thing, in the end. Let him destroy the world on first and second down.

Your thoughts?

Interesting spot o' reportage from D. Orlando Ledbetter, who links the Falcons to former Miami Dolphins middle linebacker Channing Crowder.

Crowder has always been known for his mouth—he can be, depending on your perspective, infuriating or funny as hell—but he was also a pretty good linebacker for the Miami Dolphins and is just 28 years old. With the Falcons facing the possibility of losing Curtis Lofton in free agency, it would not surprise me in the least if they kicked the tires on guys like Crowder.

That said, there's reason to be skeptical about this happening. First of all, pretty much everything DOL's reporting here comes directly from Crowder, who has powerful incentive to create a market for himself. I'm not saying that Ledbetter doesn't have sources in Flowery Branch who are telling him this is going to happen, and the Mike Nolan connection from Miami makes it awfully logical, particularly since Nolan apparently is still in touch with Crowder. But I didn't read anything in that story that said the Falcons are going to go after him, just that there might be interest.

Crowder didn't play at all last season after he was released by the Dolphins, and played in only 11 games in 2010. Given the unknowns about his conditioning after a year off and the fact that he was never an elite linebacker, it seems more likely the Falcons would be looking at him as a potential backup rather than a starter. I'd think the Falcons would promote Akeem Dent before they would install Crowder as Lofton's replacement, but they'd almost certainly be in the market for an experienced backup if that happened.

So keep this one in the back of your mind. As an entertaining reserve with a good pedigree, he'd make a certain amount of sense. We'll have to see what happens with Lofton, first.

The Falcons have all but completed their coaching staff overhaul, promoting two coaches from within and hiring one from the Miami Dolphins. With the Senior Bowl in the books and the Combine coming faster than you'd think, it was important to get the staff together.

Kudos to the unstoppable D. Orlando Ledbetter for the report.

The first hire—defensive backs coach—isn't a surprise. I saw a report that Joe Danna had been hired as defensive backs coach almost a full week ago, but the team didn't make it official until now. He's familiar with Mike Nolan and did a good job with a young Dolphins secondary the last two years. I like the hire.

Glenn Thomas is not a name I knew, but he's the new quarterbacks coach. The offensive quality control assistant under Mike Smith since 2008, he's a guy with organizational familiarity and...well, that's about what we know about his tenure in Atlanta. Feel free to extrapolate based on your opinion of the offense over the last four years.

His history is pretty intriguing, though. As the offensive coordinator for Midwestern State from 2005-2007, Thomas twice helmed offenses that were among the NCAA leaders in yardage. You would also assume he has familiarity with Matt Ryan, which might be a major factor after the Falcons made their second switch at quarterback coach in two years. I'm cautiously optimistic.

The final hire is Andrew Weidinger, who is a new offensive assistant. He's a young, promising assistant, but this is the last time you'll hear me mention him in 2012 unless he tackles a player during a game. There you go.

What are your thoughts on these hires?

As Jason reported yesterday, the Falcons have added a new offensive line coach. It was probably not who you expected.

Pat Hill has been the head coach of Fresno State for the last 15 years, and was just let go after the 2011 season. Over that time, he's guided the team to an above .500 record overall. He's regarded as a bright guy and someone with a knack for guiding offensive linemen, which he did in a four-year NFL stint—the Browns and then the Ravens from '92-'96—and he has a lot of coaching experience. Everything about Hill says "solid hire" to me.

Frequent Pro Bowler Logan Mankins and our own Andrew Jackson both played under Hill at Fresno State, so it's not like he hasn't coached any decent linemen in that time. His Fresno State teams also ran the football well, and if the Falcons are serious about making the ground game more effective, that's an awfully good start.

So welcome Hill aboard. Once the Falcons get finished hiring Joe Danna—it's gonna happen—and get a new quarterbacks coach to replace Bob Bratkowski, the new staff will be completed. I'm looking forward to it.

Your thoughts on the hire?

By now, we've spent a few megabytes worth of spleen on the whole Atlanta Falcons-Jacksonville Jaguars swapping that's become something just shy of a running gag this off-season.

For those who have missed the whole saga, here's a bulleted list of Jacksonville swaps and intrigue:

• Mike Mularkey becomes Jaguars head coach
• Dirk Koetter goes from Jax OC to Atlanta, for the same position
• Mike Mularkey hires Bob Bratkowski, Falcons' QB coach, for the same position
  
• Falcons have a level of interest in Jags' O-line coach Andy Heck...but he's staying
  
• Mike Smith wears teal pants to a press conference

Only one of those is actually made up, by the way.

This might not rise to the level of organizational incest, but there's a lot of swapping going on. It's not a secret to everybody that Smith came from Jacksonville, where he was the defensive coordinator, and that a couple of players have pinballed back and forth between the two organizations since that change. If you want examples, look no further than Mike Peterson and 2008 Falcons draft pick William Middleton, who wound up with the Jags.

So what's going on here? There's been a lot of sound and fury about the Falcons considering and hiring Jacksonville coaches, which is almost certainly a reaction to a brutally bad 2011 season. I can certainly understand that, and had the Falcons pulled both their coordinators out of the Jacksonville coaching family, I probably would be seeing a little red right now.

But in all honesty, this isn't a huge deal. Koetter is a well-regarded offensive mind at the NFL level, even if fans don't particularly like him. Same thing with Heck, who has coached some very successful units over the years. The way these coaches have flipped back and forth and Smitty's ties to Jacksonville are what make this unpleasant for those of us who really want to see the organization do something bold and different, and I get that.

It's also not all that rare. Nobody had a particular problem when Mike Nolan pulled in Joe Danna as his defensive backs coach, even though Danna worked under Nolan in Miami. Most coaches pull from a pool of guys they're comfortable with from stops in college and the pros. The Buccaneers' Greg Schiano just hired his former Rutgers offensive coordinator away from the Arizona Cardinals, where he was the wide receivers coach. If the Jaguars were a deeply dysfunctional organization whose coaches all wore eyepatches and had hooks for hands, it'd make me nervous. But they're just a team with one very bad year and a few mediocre ones over the last decade.

That said, I'd prefer if Heck was the last Jacksonville-related hire of the off-season for the Falcons, if he is indeed hired. So many eggs, one basket, that sort of thing.

UPDATE: Somehow, I missed several nearly week-old reports that the Jaguars have retained Heck. I feel so smart now. Talk offensive line coach candidates instead.

Get the anti-Jacksonville invective out now, please. I'll wait.

For those who aren't familiar with Andy Heck, he's been the Jaguars' offensive line coach for the better part of the last seven years. By and large, he's done a fairly good job, though this last year was a disaster thanks to both personnel and the impossibility of protecting a quarterback who holds on to the ball as if it were a childhood teddy bear I think he's a good choice for the Falcons, who reportedly have interest.

What's more interesting about Heck, if you're willing to dive into his background, is his status as a former first round pick. He was selected 15th overall back in 1989, starting 164 games over a 12 year career. He never quite became an elite lineman, but he was good enough to start for 11 of those years. That's an impressive achievement, and it tells you that Heck should know how to connect with linemen.

He's the first name I've heard connected to the Falcons' offensive line coaching job, but stay tuned for more.

This news is unlikely to rage through your life like a tornado of...news...but Joe Danna is the new defensive backs coach.

You had to expect Mike Nolan to assemble a staff to his liking, and Danna is one of the early pieces of that. The defensive backs coach in Miami the last two years under Nolan, Danna brings experience and familiarity with the Nolan way to the franchise.

The good news? While the secondary in Miami wasn't the greatest thing since sliced bread, Danna worked directly with a talented group of young cornerbacks and safeties. He'll be asked to do something similar in Atlanta, where Chris Owens, Dominique Franks, Darrin Walls and William Moore are still developing.

I'm sure we'll have more coaching news in the weeks ahead. For now, talk secondary.