LINEHAN OUT, HASLETT IN?

As expected, the Rams have parted ways with third-year head coach Scott Linehan. Per ESPN’s Chris Mortensen, two team sources have indicated that the change has been made. (We’ve separately heard from a league source that, indeed, Linehan is out.) The expected replacement is former Saints coach Jim Haslett. During part of his tenure in New Orleans, the Saints had an ongoing rivalry with the Rams, given their mutual presence in the NFC West. In Haslett’s first year on the job, the Saints beat the Rams in the wild-card round of the playoffs, which also was the Saints’ first postseason win in franchise history. The Saints left the NFC West in 2002, when the league switched from six divisions to eight. Haslett and the Saints parted ways after a 2005 season made disastrous by the damage done to New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina. The Saints played no games in the Superdome that year, with home dates played in places like New Jersey, San Antonio, and Baton Rouge. Linehan, a former offensive coordinator at Louisville who rose to prominence in 2004 as the offensive coordinator of the Vikings, which put up strong offensive numbers and a 110.9 passer rating from quarterback Daunte Culpepper. Linehan then took a lateral move in Miami for a year before becoming the boss in St. Louis. He arguably should have been fired after a disastrous 3-13 season in 2007. He was saved in part by an unsettled ownership situation and the perception that a rash of injuries contributed to the poor record. This year, the injuries weren’t there. But the losses continued, typically in blowout fashion. The Rams fell to 0-4 on Sunday, squandering a lead over the Bills before losing by 17 points. UPDATE: Adam Schefter of NFL Network reports that Haslett indeed will take over.