It's true, sadly.
I am not on the fire Phillips wagon, not yet, but I so think that the change to a 3-4 may be the biggest mistake McVay has made.
I think he needed the validity and experience that adding Wade to his staff provided.
I wonder if the surprisingly fast success of McVays first season didn't push this team into contention before the defensive roster was built to contend in a 3-4. If we hadn't traded away so many picks, maybe in year 3 we could have had some young talent and depth and Wades 3-4 would be legit... but hindsight is always 20/20.
If McVay didn't need WP to get hired, would we have switched out of the 4-3? Would our defense be further along to help our O? I think probably so.
None of thats intended to say that I have a problem with McVay, Phillips or Snead for going berzerk in trades that didn't work. We were obviously close... might as well go for it.
Go Rams!
This is pretty much my take on it.
I'm not down McVay, Snead or anyone else at all. In fact, I'm estatic after two decades of losing.
But, I railed against the switch to the 3/4 because it was weakening the strongest part of the team at that point.
My biggest worry was Donald being slowed....that worry was unfounded obviously.
So, here we are now.
A team that can contend but with little depth across the board and missing or miscast pieces on D.
This offseason should again prove interesting.
I would be staying away from "sexy" picks this draft....WR, RB, QB etc.
I would be going best player on D in the first round and using the rest of the picks on D and OL.
In FA some big choices to be made but adding several pieces, solid vet players as opposed to a big name would be smart imho.
Suh. earning $14M when that money could buy a solid starting LB and a couple of 3/4 DL for a DL rotation....well, easily choice to me at this point.
Truth is, when the O is rolling, the D only needs about 4 punts a game (well, that and not giving repeated "free" long TDs by blowing coverages) to make the team almost unbeatable.
For the Rams title contention window to remain open more than a couple of years they have to draft well. It is the keystone to the whole thing.