Can't let Snead skate free here. If you are going to blame Fisher for the Robinson pick, then you have to credit him for the good picks too. I don't know who makes the call on drafting players. I assume the GM Snead does. How many high first, second, and third round picks have the Rams used in the Fisher/Snead regime to fix the offense? It has only gotten worse and you have to hold guys accountable, including Snead.
But when you give a coach players that have potential to be good and yet they are not, that has to fall on the coaching.
We've already discussed Robinson's physical gifts and desire to be better. Tavon Austin, another whipping boy on this board, has the potential to be a very dynamic weapon. In the right scheme, with the right coaching, he would be (if Mike Martz had a guy like Tavon, opposing DC's would wake up in cold sweats at night). The problem really comes down to coaching, and you can see by contrasting the offense and the defense.
On the defensive side of the ball, almost all of the players Snead has drafted have worked out to one degree or another. And on that side of the ball, we have good coaching. Fisher's only real mistake on that side of the ball was Tim Walton, and he corrected that one pretty quickly. He brought in a coordinator who is innovative, who doesn't try to fit square pegs in round holes, who instead of trying to force his scheme on the players figures out how to adapt his scheme to the strengths of his players, who makes on-the-fly adjustments to the opposing offense on game day, etc. This is why a 6th round pick like EJ Gaines becomes a starter early on. This is why a guy like Josh Forrest, on nobody's radar, shows great promise in his rookie year. On that side of the ball, those guys are very well coached, and it shows. How many guys have we talked about being busts on defense?
Compare that to what we have had here on offense: Schottenheimer, Cignetti, and now Boras. Do those names inspire confidence in you? All three of those guys have had Tavon Austin, and none of them has ever fully integrated him into the offense. Schotty and Co. turned Sam Bradford into a boring, safety first checkdown artist and virtually negated his superior arm talent. This past Sunday they wouldn't let Goff throw past the sticks on 3rd down (and in fact, most of the routes run were not beyond the sticks). The list of coaching malpractice incidents on the offensive side of the ball could go on for days. And that is not on Snead. That is on Fisher, his philosophy that minimizes risk taking on offense to a ridiculous degree, and his poor choices of OC starting with Brian Schottenheimer.
Bring in a head coach who's not a total retrograde on offense, one who is willing to take at least some risks and wants to score points, and I have plenty of confidence that he can get that guy the players he wants.
