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

Welcome to Tuesday's St. Louis Rams "News, Nuggets and Notes at Noon," the daily one-stop destination for all major updates and other tidbits on the Rams.

Although the Rams 2012 London game versus the New England Patriots has already been put back on the docket, the finalization of an amendment to the lease between the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Convention and the St. Louis Rams that would officially allow the Rams to play a home game outside of the Edward Jones Dome has not yet been ratified. 

In a report from Matthew Hathaway of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, he shares that the CVC will hold a closed session today via teleconference and will likely vote to resolve the issue today.   

With all the progress that has been made in regard to getting the "London games" back on, it appears likely that an official vote will be taken today by the CVC's Board of Commissioners and that they will approve an amendment allowing the Rams to play one "home" game per year overseas in 2012-2014.  

In case you missed it, you can check my report on a major sports journalist in St. Louis asserting that "Kroenke's not moving the Rams" from the Gateway City.  

In other news, head coach Jeff Fisher and the Rams have reportedly interviewed former St. Louis Cardinals running back Lyvonia "Stump" Mitchell for the vacant running backs coach position.  

Mitchell spent nine years as a running back for the Cardinals (1981-1989), averaging 4.7 yards per carry during his career.

Mitchell began his coaching career two decades ago (1992) at the high school level.  In 1996, he took over as head coach at Morgan State (1996-1998).

In 1999, Mitchell jumped to the pros, heading to Seattle as running backs coach (1999-2007) before taking the same job with the Washington Redskins (2008-2009).

In eight of 11 seasons as an NFL running backs coach, he oversaw three 1,000-yard rushers: twice with Ricky Waters, five times with Shawn Alexander and once with Clinton Portis, respectively.

Most recently, Mitchell has served in the capacity of head coach at Southern University (2010-2011).

Our attention, as is typical this time of year, turns back to the impending free agency period as well as the 2012 NFL Draft.  

Monday marked the start of a two-week time frame where NFL organizations can place a franchise tag on players slated for unrestricted free agency.

The Rams themselves are not expected to utilize the franchise tag in 2012, but, if they were, it would likely go towards wide receiver Brandon Lloyd, who will likely end up with either the Rams or the Patriots and his favorite offensive coordinator/head coach, Josh McDaniels. 

For some in-depth analysis on the franchise tag, I suggest taking a look at this from stlouisrams.com.  For another terrific look at the franchise tag, as well as who might be expected to receive the aforementioned tags in 2012, check here. 

Looking at the upcoming NFL Draft, the Turf Show Times interviewed Bleacher Report's own NFL draft guru Matt Miller regarding the 2012 NFL Draft as it related specifically to St. Louis.  T. Ram asked Miller 10 questions and Miller responded to those as read here.  

Yesterday, I released the second version of my St. Louis Rams seven-round mock draft. I carefully analyzed who made the most sense where and cross-checked repeatedly to ensure that all players had a legitimate shot at being available where I have the Rams selecting them. 

Finally, Ron Clements suggests that a full-fledged culture change is underway at Rams Park, after the additions of Jeff Fisher and new general manager Les Snead. 

Hope you enjoy the day, STL 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.