Rams reportedly hire fired Cowboys DC Rob Ryan

It took a quite a bit longer than "five minutes," but fired Cowboys defensive coordinator Rob Ryan has been hired by the Rams, according to Brian Costello of the New York Post via Twitter.

Ryan was fired Wednesday after his Cowboys defense finished 19th overall, 17th against the run and 21st against the pass, while missing five starters due to injuries and two backups who had become starters.

Ryan, the brother of Jets head coach Rex Ryan and son of former Bears defensive coordinator and Eagles head coach Buddy Ryan, was surprised by the firing.

"I inherited a team that was 31st in the league in defense and made them better," Ryan told ESPNDallas.com's Tim MacMahon. "I (expletive) made them a hell of a lot better. I'll be out of work for like five minutes."

"I think I did a good job and I think our staff did a good job on defense trying to compete with what we had at the end of the year," Ryan told MacMahon. "But the best job we did was when we were able to coach our starters."

Cowboys officials reportedly had been leaning toward firing Ryan long before he managed to patch the team's injury riddled defense during a late unsuccessful bid to make the playoffs. Cowboys executives thought Ryan focused too much on his scheme, at the expense of forcing turnovers and fundamentals such as tackling. The 2012 Cowboys forced a franchise-low 16 turnovers, the league's fourth-worst total, and a league-low seven interceptions.

The Rams were looking for a new defensive coordinator after the team fired Gregg Williams who remains indefinitely suspended for his role in the Saints bounty scandal.