St. Louis Rams: News, Nuggets and Notes at Noon (Wednesday Edition)

Happy Wednesday to each of you and thank you for taking a look at today's St. Louis Rams "News, Nuggets and Notes at Noon."

As many may have heard, St. Louis is expected to indeed hire Frank Cignetti of Rutgers as quarterbacks coach.

Some, like Alex Marvel of FOX Sports, have reported that he has already been hired, although others say that is not necessarily the case.  

According to Jim Thomas, nothing is official yet: 

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@jthom1Jim Thomas Frank Cignetti, most recently with Rutgers, is likely new Rams quarterback coach. Nothing is signed yet.

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Whether official or not (and the Rams have not announced the hire), it is almost certain that Cignetti will be the first quarterbacks coach in St. Louis since 2010 quarterbacks coach Dick Curl retired. 

Cignetti was the offensive coordinator of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in 2011 as Rutgers went 9-4.  For much more on Cignetti, look here.

As for the continuing St. Louis Rams and Convention and Visitors Convention lease negotiations, Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says there may not be a conclusion to the matter until the latter part of the year.  Thomas answered a slew of questions from St. Louis Rams fans during his weekly chat.

In the same chat, Thomas speculated that a Rams counteroffer could come in the range of a $300 million dollar price tag, with the totality of the bill going to the CVC.  You may recall that the CVC initially proposed $124 million in upgrades to the Edward Jones Dome on February 1 with 52 percent of costs (based on an NFL average for renovations around the league) going to the Rams. 

The Rams have until March 1 to accept or reject that initial proposal and until May 1 to present their counteroffer to the CVC.  

If they do ultimately counteroffer (as expected) and do present a similar plan to the one Thomas suggested, the CVC would have until June 1 to agree to the Rams counteroffer or see negotiations head to arbitration on June 15. 

With that said, it would appear unlikely that the CVC would almost immediately agree to a significantly different counteroffer than their proposal by June 1 unless the two parties were to negotiate very hard and fast over a 30 day period and were to meet somewhere in the middle. 

Under this scenario, arbitration would appear to be a legitimate possibility.  This would allow both parties to hash out a workable solution.  

I fully expect a pro St. Louis resolution but it looks like it may not come before late June at the earliest.  I do feel that both the Rams and CVC would like to come to an agreement no later than mid-August, a few weeks before the opening of the 2012 NFL season. 

On a lighter note, St. Louis Rams cheerleaders have been traveling the globe, spreading the brand and some goodwill to Rams fans in Alaska and Mexico, among other locales, including China.  

In NFL news, Commissioner Roger Goodell released a letter addressing NFL fans, the state of the league and a glimpse at the vision of the NFL going forward. 

On the field, Steven Jackson continues to excel.  Jackson recently shared his thoughts on Fisher, the St. Louis fanbase, the new offense and his overall expectations here during an interview with the NFL Network.  

Speaking of Jackson, here is a nice compilation of his best plays of the 2011 campaign.

Have a tremendous day, Rams Nation.

Shane Gray covers the St. Louis Rams year-round. You are encouraged to check out the rest of his work here and to follow him on Twitter.