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Bernie Miklasz
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/ ... 72aa7.html
[wrapimg=left]http://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/stltoday.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/c/f0/cf0caf8d-8433-5167-aa48-4c69168b1a05/50e50a3ba4f6f.preview-300.jpg[/wrapimg]The chase is on, with seven NFL teams in pursuit of new head coaches after a manic-Monday round of firings. Maybe the league’s owners and general managers will get it right this time, but recent history tells us we should expect a failure rate of about 50 percent.
Over a four-year period (2008-2011) NFL teams brought in 24 new head coaches, and only 12 remain in their current jobs. Several hirings stand out for their obvious success: Mike Smith is 56-24 in Atlanta, John Harbaugh is 54-26 in Baltimore, Jim Harbaugh is 24-7 in San Francisco, John Fox is 21-9 in Denver.
The outlook is encouraging elsewhere, with Mike Shanahan (Washington), Pete Carroll (Seattle) and Leslie Frazier (Minnesota) having guided their teams into the 2012 postseason tournament.
The 2009 job search was a particularly notable disaster. Of the nine coaches who were hired before the ’09 season only two have survived to last into the 2013 season. And those two aren’t exactly distinguishing themselves; Detroit’s Jim Schwartz has gone 22-42 and the NY Jets’ Rex Ryan is 34-30. The combined record of the nine hires: 162-249.
This madness and instability make me appreciate the aggressive actions of Rams owner Stan Kroenke last offseason.
Instead of going cheap by recruiting an unproven assistant coach to become head coach, the Rams’ owner went in a new direction. There would be no Scott Linehan or Steve Spagnuolo experiment this time around.
Kroenke wanted a proven leader to coach his team, so he spent a significant sum of money in hiring Jeff Fisher.
If you agree that the Rams are finally on the right track, then the credit starts with Kroenke.
Fisher’s superb coaching and leadership reminded everyone why his Tennessee Titans were fifth among the 32 NFL teams in victories over an 11-season stretch from 1999 through 2009. And we saw why Fisher’s tough Titans won more road games than all but four NFL teams over those 11 seasons.
A year off from coaching renewed and energized Fisher. The Rams are clearly in a position to benefit from the best years of his career.
“I had a blast,” Fisher said in describing his first season as Rams coach. “I can’t wait to get started again.”
Kroenke’s investment went beyond paying Fisher a reported $8 million a year. Kroenke gave Fisher the financial freedom to hire a first-rate staff of assistants. Kroenke also hired a new GM in Les Snead, and Snead was given an expanded budget for reorganizing the scouting and draft operation.
Before any of that could be realized, Kroenke had to pay off the remaining contract dollars owed to the deposed regime of GM Billy Devaney, head coach Spagnuolo and assistant coaches.
So bringing in Fisher was a costly, ambitious endeavor and Kroenke was willing to make that commitment. Yes, Kroenke is worth nearly $4 billion, but that doesn’t mean he would automatically spend a fortune on a new coaching staff and front office. There’s no shortage of wealthy owners who make a half-hearted financial commitment to their franchises. Kroenke bucked up to give the Rams an opportunity for a more successful future.
Fisher and Snead are off to a terrific start, having gone 7-8-1 in their first season. The obvious progress was a welcome relief from the repeated hammer blows of 65 losses in 80 games over the previous five seasons.
The 2012 Rams didn’t make the playoffs or carve out a winning season, but the new regime had an admirable launch. Tearing down the roster was the only place to start, and the Rams replaced rotting parts with fresher, faster and younger talent.
On offense, 41 percent of the Rams’ snaps were taken by players in their first, second or third NFL seasons. On defense 35 percent of the snaps were taken by players in their first three seasons.
Winning seven games with the NFL’s youngest roster taking on the league’s third-toughest schedule represented considerable progress. There’s no need to parse it; this was a good season for the Rams.
The team’s young core nucleus should only develop and provide enhanced performance over the next two, three seasons. And the franchise will have two first-round draft picks to use in 2013 and 2014. The talent pipeline is flowing again.
“The building process is ongoing,” Fisher said. “We’re still not there yet. We still have some work to do. But players make the greatest improvement from year one to year two. We saw some improvement from our second- and third-year players that had already been on this roster and there’s still room for improvement there.”
What do the Rams need to jump above .500 and emerge as a playoff team in 2013? The defense could use a free safety, an outside linebacker and more depth on the line.
The top priority should be pumping up an offense that still lacks big-play, quick-strike potential. The 2012 Rams were among the league leaders for having the most 10-play drives and possessions that lasted five minutes or more. Their average scoring drive (8.58 plays) was longer than all but four teams.
Ball control can be a positive. But this offense suffered too many breakdowns via penalties, dropped passes, a failure in protection, a bad throw, etc. When an offense must trudge its way over long distances to score points, too many things can unravel.
That’s why the Rams drove into the red zone (inside the opponent’s 20-yard line) only 37 times this season — or the third-lowest total by an NFL offense. This largely explains why the Rams finished 28th among 32 teams for points scored on offense, and tied for 27th in touchdowns from scrimmage.
Having a stout defense can put you in position to win, but the offense must finish the job. Of the last 36 teams to qualify for the playoffs, 31 were ranked in the league’s upper half for points scored on offense.
Of the Rams’ 182 possessions this season, they generated only two quick-strike touchdowns. (That’s a TD that occurs in three plays or fewer.) Only the Jets, with one, had fewer quick-strike scores.
The Rams still need playmakers at receiver — at least one wideout who can routinely get open downfield. Pro Football Focus rated Sam Bradford as the league’s 11th-best quarterback this season for deep-throw accuracy, but the Rams still don’t have a game-changing receiver to consistently get open for anything more than a short and relatively harmless pass.
Too many of the Rams’ laborious possessions stalled on third down; their conversion rate of 32.1 percent ranked 29th among 32 teams. Bradford won’t maximize his potential unless the Rams give him a receiver who can inflict serious damage downfield.
If the Rams expect to reach the playoffs, they’d better reach the end zone more frequently in 2013.
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/ ... 72aa7.html
[wrapimg=left]http://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/stltoday.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/c/f0/cf0caf8d-8433-5167-aa48-4c69168b1a05/50e50a3ba4f6f.preview-300.jpg[/wrapimg]The chase is on, with seven NFL teams in pursuit of new head coaches after a manic-Monday round of firings. Maybe the league’s owners and general managers will get it right this time, but recent history tells us we should expect a failure rate of about 50 percent.
Over a four-year period (2008-2011) NFL teams brought in 24 new head coaches, and only 12 remain in their current jobs. Several hirings stand out for their obvious success: Mike Smith is 56-24 in Atlanta, John Harbaugh is 54-26 in Baltimore, Jim Harbaugh is 24-7 in San Francisco, John Fox is 21-9 in Denver.
The outlook is encouraging elsewhere, with Mike Shanahan (Washington), Pete Carroll (Seattle) and Leslie Frazier (Minnesota) having guided their teams into the 2012 postseason tournament.
The 2009 job search was a particularly notable disaster. Of the nine coaches who were hired before the ’09 season only two have survived to last into the 2013 season. And those two aren’t exactly distinguishing themselves; Detroit’s Jim Schwartz has gone 22-42 and the NY Jets’ Rex Ryan is 34-30. The combined record of the nine hires: 162-249.
This madness and instability make me appreciate the aggressive actions of Rams owner Stan Kroenke last offseason.
Instead of going cheap by recruiting an unproven assistant coach to become head coach, the Rams’ owner went in a new direction. There would be no Scott Linehan or Steve Spagnuolo experiment this time around.
Kroenke wanted a proven leader to coach his team, so he spent a significant sum of money in hiring Jeff Fisher.
If you agree that the Rams are finally on the right track, then the credit starts with Kroenke.
Fisher’s superb coaching and leadership reminded everyone why his Tennessee Titans were fifth among the 32 NFL teams in victories over an 11-season stretch from 1999 through 2009. And we saw why Fisher’s tough Titans won more road games than all but four NFL teams over those 11 seasons.
A year off from coaching renewed and energized Fisher. The Rams are clearly in a position to benefit from the best years of his career.
“I had a blast,” Fisher said in describing his first season as Rams coach. “I can’t wait to get started again.”
Kroenke’s investment went beyond paying Fisher a reported $8 million a year. Kroenke gave Fisher the financial freedom to hire a first-rate staff of assistants. Kroenke also hired a new GM in Les Snead, and Snead was given an expanded budget for reorganizing the scouting and draft operation.
Before any of that could be realized, Kroenke had to pay off the remaining contract dollars owed to the deposed regime of GM Billy Devaney, head coach Spagnuolo and assistant coaches.
So bringing in Fisher was a costly, ambitious endeavor and Kroenke was willing to make that commitment. Yes, Kroenke is worth nearly $4 billion, but that doesn’t mean he would automatically spend a fortune on a new coaching staff and front office. There’s no shortage of wealthy owners who make a half-hearted financial commitment to their franchises. Kroenke bucked up to give the Rams an opportunity for a more successful future.
Fisher and Snead are off to a terrific start, having gone 7-8-1 in their first season. The obvious progress was a welcome relief from the repeated hammer blows of 65 losses in 80 games over the previous five seasons.
The 2012 Rams didn’t make the playoffs or carve out a winning season, but the new regime had an admirable launch. Tearing down the roster was the only place to start, and the Rams replaced rotting parts with fresher, faster and younger talent.
On offense, 41 percent of the Rams’ snaps were taken by players in their first, second or third NFL seasons. On defense 35 percent of the snaps were taken by players in their first three seasons.
Winning seven games with the NFL’s youngest roster taking on the league’s third-toughest schedule represented considerable progress. There’s no need to parse it; this was a good season for the Rams.
The team’s young core nucleus should only develop and provide enhanced performance over the next two, three seasons. And the franchise will have two first-round draft picks to use in 2013 and 2014. The talent pipeline is flowing again.
“The building process is ongoing,” Fisher said. “We’re still not there yet. We still have some work to do. But players make the greatest improvement from year one to year two. We saw some improvement from our second- and third-year players that had already been on this roster and there’s still room for improvement there.”
What do the Rams need to jump above .500 and emerge as a playoff team in 2013? The defense could use a free safety, an outside linebacker and more depth on the line.
The top priority should be pumping up an offense that still lacks big-play, quick-strike potential. The 2012 Rams were among the league leaders for having the most 10-play drives and possessions that lasted five minutes or more. Their average scoring drive (8.58 plays) was longer than all but four teams.
Ball control can be a positive. But this offense suffered too many breakdowns via penalties, dropped passes, a failure in protection, a bad throw, etc. When an offense must trudge its way over long distances to score points, too many things can unravel.
That’s why the Rams drove into the red zone (inside the opponent’s 20-yard line) only 37 times this season — or the third-lowest total by an NFL offense. This largely explains why the Rams finished 28th among 32 teams for points scored on offense, and tied for 27th in touchdowns from scrimmage.
Having a stout defense can put you in position to win, but the offense must finish the job. Of the last 36 teams to qualify for the playoffs, 31 were ranked in the league’s upper half for points scored on offense.
Of the Rams’ 182 possessions this season, they generated only two quick-strike touchdowns. (That’s a TD that occurs in three plays or fewer.) Only the Jets, with one, had fewer quick-strike scores.
The Rams still need playmakers at receiver — at least one wideout who can routinely get open downfield. Pro Football Focus rated Sam Bradford as the league’s 11th-best quarterback this season for deep-throw accuracy, but the Rams still don’t have a game-changing receiver to consistently get open for anything more than a short and relatively harmless pass.
Too many of the Rams’ laborious possessions stalled on third down; their conversion rate of 32.1 percent ranked 29th among 32 teams. Bradford won’t maximize his potential unless the Rams give him a receiver who can inflict serious damage downfield.
If the Rams expect to reach the playoffs, they’d better reach the end zone more frequently in 2013.
