This is the way I see it as well.
Noted above is how well they have drafted defensive talent, but the funny thing is look at a guy like Alexander... He is the defensive equivalent of Quick in that he's got outstanding talent but was extraordinarily raw coming out. After being coached up, the dude is lookin pretty darn good. If he was a WR, I'm sure by now he'd be a good special teams player who still can't run a route correctly, or have any idea what a defense is trying to do.
Fact is the coaching on the defensive side of the ball is top-notch. And Fish got there by firing the guys who weren't good enough until he brought the guy in he wanted originally. Good thing too. Williams is proven, and one of the best at what he does.
But what does Fish do on offense? Bring in a coach's kid who couldn't put up a good offense in NY. Now, that's all well and good provided you are willing to cut bait but I'm not sure Fish would have cut bait if Schotty hadn't taken that Georgia job, in which, incidentally, the offense looked terrible and the head coach was fired. Then he hires Cigs, which was very risky for him and his job security.
Thing is that I really love Jeff Fisher as our head coach. I think he's a good head coach. But in order to succeed he needs to hire an OC who can put his offense on the map. I swear man that if he had managed to get Greg Roman in here this offense would at least be solid and this team would resemble Minnesota instead of the same old Rams. Coordinators are crucial, particularly for that other side of the ball for the mortal head coaches not named Belichick.
So for me it's bittersweet if Fish gets fired. I wanted so badly to see him succeed but I just cannot stomach any more terrible offense. The dude needs to raise the bar and I'm afraid he just doesn't know how. I'm terrified he's gonna find some sorry, run-centric dude to coordinate this offense and it will be more of the same. Or he'll just keep Cigs and this staff in place in spite of the fact that their inability to field a strong offense has put him on the hotseat. It's a bad deal all the way around man with no relief in sight...
This, 1000 times.
He just doesn't seem to get it on the offensive side of the ball, or is unwilling to bring in an OC and give him the control he needs. He made a bad hire with Schottenheimer (who had UGA fans up in arms for much of the season for many of the same reasons we did and just got his HC fired). And it so far doesn't look like Cigs is a great hire ... unless Fisher won't let him do what he needs to do.
I give him plenty of slack on the OL, it's not his fault he doesn't have magic injury prevention fairy dust to sprinkle on our OL (and at least all of our draft picks are getting actual game experience!). But the fact is, our passing offense has been atrocious almost the entire year, well before the rash of injuries started. Players look worse than they ever have. Brian Quick, after looking like a breakout player for the first six games last year, has almost disappeared. Nick Foles looks worse than he ever has as a professional. He may not be as good as he looked a couple of years ago in Philly, but it's hard for me to believe he's really as bad as he's looked here. They have spent much of the year refusing to attack the middle of the field. And on and on and on.
Couple the above with the fact that none of Fisher's teams have ever had a really good offense, and it's hard not to believe that the problem doesn't start at the top. Unless Fish is willing to change his approach to offense, I don't think things will ever get appreciably better here.
Oh, and on a side note, leave Snead out of it. Les has done a great job in my opinion, and he got more draft capital on the RG3 trade than most people predicted. He played his hand perfectly. And he got Philly to give up a 2nd rounder in the Bradford trade, a second rounder that is looking better all the time, while Philly got a player that, while talented, is often hurt and could walk at the end of the season. Whether Fish stays or goes, I hope they keep Les.
