"We are happy to announce that Art Valero will be retained," said Spagnuolo. "Art has been an asset to every staff he has been on and we feel fortunate to have him with us."

Also hired were running backs coach Sylvester Croom, strength and conditioning coach Rock Gullickson, special teams coordinator Tom McMahon, defensive line coach Brendan Daly and quality control/defense coach Matt House.

Croom was most recently head coach at Mississippi State and was last in the NFL as running backs coach with Green Bay.

Daly was a defensive assistant/defensive line coach with the Vikings last season. McMahon was Atlanta's assistant special teams coach in 2008. Gullickson was with the Packers last season, while House was a special teams assistant and assistant in strength and conditioning with Carolina.

--Kevin Demoff, who was a senior assistant to the general manager in Tampa Bay the last three seasons, was hired as the Rams' executive vice president of football operations/chief operating officer. Demoff will handle contract negotiations for the team, in addition to being a liaison to ownership regarding football and business issues.

Said owner Chip Rosenbloom, "We are very excited that Kevin has chosen to join the Rams. His experience, intelligence and personality will add greatly to our front office team."

--For the first time since 2000, the Rams have a director of pro personnel. Hired away from San Francisco where he has been the assistant director of pro personnel since 2005 was Mike Williams.

"It's huge," general manager Billy Devaney said. "You need an in-house guy. Mike will be assisted by Ray Agnew, who will remain on the pro personnel side. I'll be involved in it. Brandon Schwab is going to be involved - he'll move over from quality control (coaching) to personnel. So we'll basically go from not having a pro personnel department to where we have three, almost four guys working on it.

"It'll be a huge boost for us. We're on the cusp of free agency. He's familiar with the league. He's got a great deal of experience. He knows our team inside out from being a division rival, which gives him a leg up on people. I worked with him for three years with the 49ers. He's a tireless worker. And he's a really good evaluator."

Devaney was pleased 49ers general manager Scot McCloughan allowed Williams to leave.

Devaney said, "Scot McCloughan deserves a lot of credit because it's kind of unusual for a personnel guy to be moving this close to free agency. It's a classy move by Scot, because it's a great opportunity for Mike Williams to advance his career."

--LB Quinton Culberson and QB Brock Berlin, each scheduled to become exclusive rights free agents on Feb. 27, were re-signed to one-year contracts.

--Bruce Warwick, who most recently was assistant athletics director for football operations at the University of Tennessee was hired as assistant to the head coach/football operations.

QUOTE TO NOTE: "St. Louis has treated me well, giving me the opportunity to play and I am always going to be appreciative of that. Whatever happens, that is in God's hands and I am not really fretting over it. I feel like I am going to be where I'm supposed to be this next year." -- FS Oshiomogho Atogwe, commenting on his impending free agency. Atogwe is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent Feb. 27.