Nothing has been made official as of yet, but in the coming hours, it's likely we will hear from the St. Louis Rams organization on the hire of defensive coordinator Rob Ryan. ESPN's very own, Adam Schefter, reported the news less than 24 hours ago:

When Ryan was fired from the Cowboys, he stated to ESPN's Tim MacMahon that he would be out of work for about five minutes. It ended up being a little bit longer than five minutes, as Deadspin.com figured that he was out of work for 22,987 minutes.

But really, who's counting?

Ryan has typically ran a 3-4 defensive scheme for the majority of his career, so that left fans and media members alike wondering if the Rams will be moving to a 3-4 defense. The simple answer is no, according to Bernie Miklasz of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

That right there is good news for the St. Louis Rams. Under the tutelage of Jeff Fisher, the Rams' defense make incredible strides in year one. They ended the season as the 14th best defense in terms of total yardage and they secured the 11th most interceptions.

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Yes, you read that headline correctly. Second-year quarterback Colin Kaepernick has only started but a handful of games for the San Francisco 49ers, yet he is already trying to cozy up to the media. Before Thursday's practice, he had 15 pizzas from Pizza My Heart delivered to feed the media:

As Tim Kawakami of the Mercury News said, it is indeed a unique thing to do. I was paging through Google search results to see if any other player had ever done something like this during the Internet age, but to no avail; I couldn't find anything relative.

Naturally, it is quite possible that some player at some point in history has bought members of the media lunch. Naturally, it wasn't reported because no one cared, or because it happened so long ago that everyone forget.

Regardless, pizza from Pizza My Heart isn't the average pizza you will find from a national chain. Pizza My Heart is a California-based pizza company that was founded in 1981. According to their website, they are family owned and they have no plans of franchising or selling out.

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When Jim Harbaugh took over the San Francisco 49ers in 2011, the team became an instant success. Under Harbaugh's tutelage, San Francisco transformed from a 6-10 team with Mike Singletary at the helm to a 13-3 team.

The core group of players remained the same despite a roster add here or there, but the biggest upgrade came from a coaching standpoint. Not only was there a change at the top, more than a few positional coaches were replaced as well.

Most teams try to turnover a roster when a new coach is brought in. Yet the 49ers didn't need to do that. They were loaded with talent, they just needed to find a way to maximize the talent they had. And maximizing talent didn't seem to be a problem as San Francisco has now appeared in back-to-back NFC Championship games.

Not to mention they will be appearing in their first Super Bowl since 1994 next week. A lot has changed in a short amount of time, which has given Jed York and the organization freedom in more ways than one. One of the biggest freedoms has been the team's patient teaching approach and ability to redshirt rookies.

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Without question, second-year quarterback Colin Kaepernick had the opportunity of a lifetime when he was put in under center while Alex Smith sat out with a concussion. Very few quarterbacks lose their job amidst a 6-2 record, but when you play as well as Kaepernick did against Chicago, it would be hard for any previous starting quarterback to keep his job.

When Matt Maiocco of CSNBayArea.com asked Smith if he is still enjoying the 49ers run to the Super Bowl, here's what he had to say: "Absolutely, yes, very much so." Obviously he didn't expect it to happen this way, but that doesn't mean he hasn't been impressed by the way things have unfolded.

Smith makes a very good point. There are plenty of young players who come in and make spectacular plays, yet they make a handful of dumb ones to go along with them. Kaepernick has consistently made good decisions as he has only turned the ball over six times.

Four of the six turnovers have come on interceptions and the other two have been fumbles lost. Hard not to like those numbers considering Smith turned the ball over six times before being benched. The Super Bowl is indeed the biggest stage, so Kap should make sure February 3, 2012 doesn't start the same way the Packers game did.

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With three games left to play, it was all but a done deal. Outside linebacker Aldon Smith had tallied 19.5 sacks. All he had to do over the course of those final three games was register 3.5 more. Considering he had averaged 1.5 per game over the first 13 contests, the record should come as no sweat.

Unfortunately for Smith, he hit the driest patch of his young career. Against New England in Week 15, he recorded zero sacks, two hits and four hurries. In Week 16 against Seattle, he wasn't able to pick up a single sack or hit, only managing three hurries on rookie quarterback Russell Wilson.

Finally, in Week 17 against the Cardinals offensive line, one would have thought he would have gotten at least one. Nope; instead, he hit Brian Hoyer once and hurried him one another time. Some people are saying the loss of Justin Smith affected his pass-rushing skills, but that theory carries little merit by my standards.

To logically think that Justin Smith held on almost every single play would be complete asinine. If that was the case, there's no question the officials would have eventually caught on and watched more closely for it. Aldon Smith missing Michael Strahan's single-season sack record was more dumb luck than anything.

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Pete Carroll and John Schneider have carefully constructed one of the most talented young teams in the NFL. When they took over as head coach and general manager prior to the 2010 season, the Seahawks were an ever- aging team in salary cap hell.

It took these two men in charge little time to flip this roster upside down, as Seattle went from one of the oldest teams in the league to now being one of the youngest. At season's end the 'Hawks were the third-youngest team in the league, not to mention the youngest team to play and win a playoff game.

Very few holdovers from the Mike Holmgren/Jim Mora Jr. era exist. However, there are a few recognizable names who could be on their way out. Age is a player's biggest Achilles heel in the NFL, and by the looks of it, the Seahawks organization isn't into paying players who are indeed over the hill.

The youth movement started in Seattle a long time ago, which is why you see so many young players log playing time. Carroll's "Always Compete" motto drives everyone to give their absolute best, young and old.

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The past couple of days have been a game of he said, she said for Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson. ESPN's Christ Mortensen reported on Sunday that a representative from Wilson's camp called the Seahawks, "insisting that something had to be done to adjust the bargain rookie contract for the third-round quarterback."

Yet Wilson insisted he had nothing to do with the call. He even went as far as telling Sports Illustrated's Peter King: "I speak for myself. I never demanded or asked for a restructured contract."

If he said he had nothing to do with the call, it's probably in your best interest to believe him over Mortensen.

I'm not saying Mortensen is wrong, but he might have gotten bad info from his source. Under the new CBA, it wouldn't even be permissible to restructure Wilson's deal. The young quarterback out of Wisconsin is due $526,217 in 2013 and $662,434 in 2014.

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As newly appointed head coach Bruce Arians continues to fill out his staff, I've spent a good amount of time the past couple of days monitoring all the moves. I'm a big fan of Harold Goodwin as offensive coordinator and Tom Moore as assistant head coach.

Goodwin did some really nice things along the offensive line last season in Indianapolis with a quote, unquote "makeshift" offensive line. Not to mention it will give him the opportunity to prepare and learn the ropes of the position without actually having to call the plays.

Arians decided he would be calling the plays as head coach.

The Moore hiring is intriguing because he is currently 74 years old and has spent 34 years of his life as an assistant in the NFL. Twelve of those 34 years were spent as the offensive coordinator for Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts. 

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