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Former Rams coach Jeff Fisher, seen last season with quarterback Jared Goff, said he projected Goff to be capable of the kind of season he’s had in 2017. (Photo by Paul Rodriguez, Orange County Register/SCNG)
By VINCENT BONSIGNORE | vbonsignore@scng.com | Daily News
December 23, 2017 at 2:01 pm
In the spirit of the holiday season, it’s probably best we simply let Jeff Fisher’s comments about the Rams remarkable turnaround season, and the over-inflated role he believes he played in it, slide.
On the night before Christmas, with Sean McVay and Jared Goff and Todd Gurley and Aaron Donald one win away from delivering to their fans and Los Angeles an NFC West division championship — and who could have imagined that big shiny gift sitting under their Christmas tree one year ago? — the noble thing would be to laugh off Fisher as a guy who had one too many egg noggs.
But then Fisher and Dave McGinnis, his right-hand man during an unremarkable five-year Rams coaching run, were so egregious in their attempt to prop themselves up as the architects of this emerging power steamrolling its way across the NFL, it simply can’t go discarded.
The Rams can secure their first NFC West title in 14 years Sunday with a win over the Tennessee Titans. If so, they’ll culminate one of the most stunning about faces in NFL history by roaring all the way back from a 4-12 record in 2016 and the 13 other non-winning seasons that preceded it.
The way Fisher and McGinnis would have us believe, they set the whole thing up for McVay to simply swoop on in, tinker with things a little bit and then enjoy the ride of his life thanks to the stacked team they graciously left behind.
In a pair of recent interviews that can only be described as widely myopic, Fisher and McGinnis took some incredible leeway in taking some massive bows for the work McVay, the nearly completely overhauled coaching staff he built, and general manager Les Snead have done to turn the Rams around.
“I’m a huge fan of the Ram players,” Fisher said on Nashville’s The Midday 180 on Friday. “They’re basically — I don’t want to say my players, but I had a lot to do with that roster. Left them in pretty good shape. And Sean, as he’s proven in this very short period of time, is an outstanding young coach. And he’s got the offense rolling, which they needed.”
Said McGinnis: “First of all, Jeff Fisher and I, we built this roster, you know what I’m saying? So I know these guys very, very well.”
You can read everything McGinnis said here. And you can read what Fisher said — including all the excuses he makes for his overall Rams failure here.
To which we say to all of it: Bah humbug!
Yes, Fisher deserves some credit for some of the defensive players he and Snead drafted during their five years together. Donald, Alec Ogletree, Michael Brockers, Trumaine Johnson and Lamarcus Joyner were all drafted under Fisher’s watch.
And absolutely Fisher was in charge when Gurley, Goff and starting linemen Rob Havenstein, Jamon Brown were drafted and special teams aces Pharoh Cooper, Johnny Hekker and Greg Zuerlein were acquired.
He also had help from Snead and the Rams scouting department, although you’d never know that listening to him and McGinnis rewrite history as the two men most responsible for the current Rams roster.
In the meantime, they completely glossed over the whole part about developing players and putting them in the best possible position to succeed and, ultimately, building a cohesive, competitive, functional team that can compete at the highest levels of the NFL.
For which Fisher was an abstract failure with the Rams. So for him to suggest he had everything set up for McVay is, frankly, laughable.
Fisher was in charge of the Rams for five seasons, including last year’s laughable first step back into Los Angeles in which 90,000+ crowds to begin the season dwindled to the mid 40,000’s after thousands upon thousands of fans decided they no longer wanted to waste their Sunday afternoon watching the kind of stomach-turning product Fisher and his staff were delivering.
The Rams weren’t just bad, they were epically boring and unimaginative.
The offensive philosophy was some dusted off relic straight out of the 1970’s, the foundation of which rested on a run game that would ultimately open things up through the air. The way Fisher saw it, you establish Gurley on the ground then create favorable situations for quarterbacks Case Keenum, and later Goff, with play action passes. Behind all that, you had a stellar defense and potent special teams to help keep games close.
What could go wrong, right? Everything, as it turns out.
All because Fisher was too hard-headed to make the necessary offensive adjustments to support the philosophy he preached.
After trading away six picks to surge to the top of the draft to select Goff, Fisher hung his young rookie out to dry by paying lip service to the necessary elements of quarterback and offensive development.
A defensive-minded head coach, Fisher inexplicably elevated veteran tight ends coach Rob Boras to offensive coordinator. Chris Weinke, who had absolutely zero track record in honing and nurturing rookie quarterbacks into eventual NFL standouts, was entrusted as Goff’s quarterback coach.
No upgrades were made along the offensive line, specifically left tackle, where Greg Robinson was grading out among the worst in the NFL.
And with an obvious need to improve a woeful wide receivers group, Fisher stubbornly kept the status quo intact. That meant Kenny Britt and Brian Quick and Tavon Austin were the three primary targets for Keenum and then Goff.
The lack of any real attention to the offense was an appalling oversight by Fisher. Gurley went from NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year to bust, as teams continually stacked the line of scrimmage and dared the Rams to beat them through the air.
A woeful offensive line could not counter by powering open holes. The pass protection was even worse. Britt, Quick and Austin were unreliable route runners and inconsistent pass catchers to whom defenses paid minimal respect.
By the end of the year, Gurley was calling the Rams offense “middle school” caliber. From overall talent to scheme to play calling, he was spot on.
When Goff finally got the starting role in the second half of the season, he was nothing more than a punching bag while getting ravaged by 26 sacks across seven games. Done in by a woeful supporting cast, unimaginative game plans and a complete and utter inability by coaches to make any adjustment.
In lieu of actual solutions to pressing issues, Fisher and his staff kept feeding us: “We’ll fix it.” “We just have to execute better.” For longtime Rams fans, it was the frustrating loop that played over and over and over during Fisher’s tenure.
When he was finally let go with three games left in the 2016 season, his final tally as the chief architect of the Rams was 31-45-1 and not a single playoff appearance. By the end of his run the Rams were getting worse, not better.
Fisher wasn’t solely responsible for the awful football teams he oversaw. But the bulk of the buck always has to stop somewhere, and with Fisher having the loudest say in coaching and personnel decisions and carte blanche to impose his will on the direction and vision of the on-field product, he was absolutely the most culpable.
It’s taken McVay mere months to do what Fisher never could: Build, develop and coach up a worthy NFL offense and construct an accountable, cohesive, complete team that’s s on the cusp of a division title.
Andrew Whitworth was brought in at left tackle, immediately turning a weakness into a strength. Veteran John Sullivan was brought in to solidify the center position. Rodger Saffold, Brown and Havenstein, now playing alongside better line-mates in a system more conducive to their talents, have emerged to lift the Rams line to among the best in the NFL.
That’s on McVay and Snead, not Fisher.
Robert Woods, Cooper Kupp and Sammy Watkins turned a mediocre wide receiver group into one of the most dangerous in the NFL. Fisher had nothing to do with any of them being acquired.
Goff, now surrounded by a much better supporting cast and playing in an imaginative, creative offensive system that always seems a step ahead of the defense, is a Pro Bowl alternate in his second year.
Gurley is flourishing in the run and pass game and is garnering recognition as the NFL MVP.
There are three groups that deserve to take bows right now: Mcvay and his staff. Snead and his staff. And the players.
Fisher deserves some credit. He was here when many of these players were drafted. But he also deserves a ton of blame for never taking them from Point A to Point B. Let alone Point Z.
Looks like he wants all of the former and plenty more that’s undeserved. But he completely glosses over the later.
To which we say: Bah Humbug.
Vinny B Rips Jeff Fisher a New One
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