Every NFL Team's Biggest Mistake of the Past Decade

[Karate61]

She died in 2008, so she almost slipped out of getting my vote as biggest Rams mistake of the last decade.

Totally disagree with Georgia being on this list. She's already on the NFL's Biggest Mistake EVER" list!

 

[tempests]

The question no one has yet answered is why would he do that? It was career suicide to hire inept coaches in important positions. Did he not know they were inept when he hired or promoted them? Did he not notice their poor judgment during games? If he did notice then why didn't he fire them? Inquiring minds want to know.

Dan Pompei of the Chicago Tribune wrote an article on Fisher's behalf a few months ago. It's a hard read because it's written entirely in the 2nd person. Fisher may as well have wrote the thing himself.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...ontroversial-complexand-not-yet-fully-written

Regarding the coordinators, this is how Fisher sees it:

"You were never an offensive coach. You hired others to do that. And that's where things unraveled. After the 2014 season, your offensive coordinator, Brian Schottenheimer, wanted to be closer to his family, so he told you he was leaving for a job at the University of Georgia.

Your intent was to replace him with an experienced NFL play-caller. You reached out to four coaches who had been successful NFL coordinators. Three of them also had head coaching experience. None of them wanted to be your coordinator. "My sense," you say, "is they didn't want to have to endure the relocation."

So you promoted from within. It didn't work once. You made a change and tried another promotion. Your team didn't have Robert Woods, Sammy Watkins and Cooper Kupp for your quarterbacks to throw to, so it wasn't ideal for your coordinators.

"Had I stayed," you say, "there were a lot of changes I needed to make that we had been unable to make because of the move."

 

[George Remus]

Yeah no. Wrong answer.

I skimmed through the entire article, and looked at their "answers" for all 32 teams. They got one team 100% spot on. and that was the Falcons for not picking Aaron Donald in 2014.

That should have been the answer for most of the teams that picked another player when Donald was still on the board.

Aaron Donald is a "once a decade" player.

The Rams picked 13th. 12 teams passed on Donald, they all made a mistake ... including the Rams.... the Rams made up for their mistake of not taking Donald ... by taking Donald.

Two of the remaining 11 teams chose marquee players (Beckham and Mack) so those "mistakes" can't be considered serious.

The article was correct to call out the Falcons for not picking Donald, but 8 more teams also made their worst mistakes of the decade by not taking him.

And the article's most wrong answer ... was by not mentioning Pete Carroll's decision to pass the ball at the goal line in the Super Bowl. As far as I"m concerned, the writer invalidated his qualifications to be a writer worth paying attention to. Question: What was the writer's name? Answer: Who's on first, and What's on second, because I don't give a damn who the writer is..

 

[Soul Surfer]

Of course its all conjecture.

Shoulda, woulda, coulda.:headexplosion:

I look at it is more like a learning experience.

Don't do what Fisher did.

 

[Prime Time]

"You were never an offensive coach. You hired others to do that. And that's where things unraveled. After the 2014 season, your offensive coordinator, Brian Schottenheimer, wanted to be closer to his family, so he told you he was leaving for a job at the University of Georgia.

Your intent was to replace him with an experienced NFL play-caller. You reached out to four coaches who had been successful NFL coordinators. Three of them also had head coaching experience. None of them wanted to be your coordinator. "My sense," you say, "is they didn't want to have to endure the relocation."

So you promoted from within. It didn't work once. You made a change and tried another promotion. Your team didn't have Robert Woods, Sammy Watkins and Cooper Kupp for your quarterbacks to throw to, so it wasn't ideal for your coordinators.

"Had I stayed," you say, "there were a lot of changes I needed to make that we had been unable to make because of the move."

Totally bizarre!!!

 

[kurtfaulk]

Dan Pompei of the Chicago Tribune wrote an article on Fisher's behalf a few months ago. It's a hard read because it's written entirely in the 2nd person. Fisher may as well have wrote the thing himself.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...ontroversial-complexand-not-yet-fully-written

Regarding the coordinators, this is how Fisher sees it:

"You were never an offensive coach. You hired others to do that. And that's where things unraveled. After the 2014 season, your offensive coordinator, Brian Schottenheimer, wanted to be closer to his family, so he told you he was leaving for a job at the University of Georgia.

Your intent was to replace him with an experienced NFL play-caller. You reached out to four coaches who had been successful NFL coordinators. Three of them also had head coaching experience. None of them wanted to be your coordinator. "My sense," you say, "is they didn't want to have to endure the relocation."

So you promoted from within. It didn't work once. You made a change and tried another promotion. Your team didn't have Robert Woods, Sammy Watkins and Cooper Kupp for your quarterbacks to throw to, so it wasn't ideal for your coordinators.

"Had I stayed," you say, "there were a lot of changes I needed to make that we had been unable to make because of the move."

oh man. this is my sense - the ocs didn't want to endure fisher and his meddling. doesn't he think they saw what happened in 2013?

he didn't have woods, watkins and kupp? he could have but he wanted athletes instead. quick, britt, jared cook, grob, tavon was his best wr. he had his chance and he blew it. it's no coincidence that as soon as mcvay entered the building the rams hit on pretty much every player they signed and drafted. they fixed their wr corps and oline in one offseason.

.

 

[Adi]

Allowing jeff Fisher to pick his own offensive coordinators, I put more blame on those yahoos than Fisher.

The rams made a few bad draft decisions under Fisher, DONT DRAFT OFFENSIVE LINEMEN IN ROUND 1! cant say that enough. But he also brought in alot of all stars and potential superstars .

The offense was horrible and it hurt the whole team , I think Greg William's qaa good but it's frustrating to coach defense when you cant allow 14 points or you lose .

Fisher liked his guys and believed in them , that's where he failed . Your only as good as the people working for you

 

[BadCompany]

I think Fisher knew what the team needed in order to have a quality offense, but it just didn't work out with the players he went with. I suppose that's on Fisher, but I have a hard time seeing him as being completely clueless. In fact, I look at a lot of the moves he made and I see some real comparables with the moves McVay made:

OT: Jake Long vs Andrew Whitworth
Center: Scott Wells vs John Sullivan
#1 WR: Kenny Britt vs Robert Woods
Possession WR: Stedman Bailey vs Cooper Kupp

I mean, the logic in all these moves was very similar, right? Veteran OT, veteran center, free agent WR, 3rd round draft pick WR... it's just that players Fisher got flopped, whereas McVay's didn't. As I said, that's on Fisher, but it's not like he didn't see the holes...

 

[fanotodd]

I think Fisher knew what the team needed in order to have a quality offense, but it just didn't work out with the players he went with. I suppose that's on Fisher, but I have a hard time seeing him as being completely clueless. In fact, I look at a lot of the moves he made and I see some real comparables with the moves McVay made:

OT: Jake Long vs Andrew Whitworth
Center: Scott Wells vs John Sullivan
#1 WR: Kenny Britt vs Robert Woods
Possession WR: Stedman Bailey vs Cooper Kupp

I mean, the logic in all these moves was very similar, right? Veteran OT, veteran center, free agent WR, 3rd round draft pick WR... it's just that players Fisher got flopped, whereas McVay's didn't. As I said, that's on Fisher, but it's not like he didn't see the holes...

You make some excellent points.
Fisher also brought in some good players to transform the defense overnight just as McV did with the offense last season.

I don't know who's to take the lion's share of the blame, but I look at 2 rounds in particular that could have made a huge difference had the Rams made better picks.

2nd round, 2012. The inherited roster was garbage. There were no bad picks to make, position wise, but the Rams chose quick, pead, and jenkins. Jenkins was the only player who turned into anything--and the Rams let him get away. The Rams missed out on wagner by trading back so they could recoup a 5th rounder who ate his way out of the league.

1rst round, 2013. The Rams needed a safety and, as always, weapons. I was on board for reid (went to the 9ers and had a pro bowl year) and Woods (who we now have). This was a draft rich in both DBs and WRs.
We gave up 2 picks to snare austin and drafted OTree later. I was more than ok with otree, but once he got moved inside, he was on his way out. Austin will never live up to his draft status.

Things have worked out for the best NOW, but then again, even with better selections, the Rams just wouldn't have known what to do with them. Just how many ex-Rams were on the SB winning team this year? In the playoffs?

 

[Angry Ram]

I think Fisher knew what the team needed in order to have a quality offense, but it just didn't work out with the players he went with. I suppose that's on Fisher, but I have a hard time seeing him as being completely clueless. In fact, I look at a lot of the moves he made and I see some real comparables with the moves McVay made:

OT: Jake Long vs Andrew Whitworth
Center: Scott Wells vs John Sullivan
#1 WR: Kenny Britt vs Robert Woods
Possession WR: Stedman Bailey vs Cooper Kupp

I mean, the logic in all these moves was very similar, right? Veteran OT, veteran center, free agent WR, 3rd round draft pick WR... it's just that players Fisher got flopped, whereas McVay's didn't. As I said, that's on Fisher, but it's not like he didn't see the holes...

I've been saying that since last summer. And those players didn't flop. The linemen got hurt, injuries that they never had before. Sted got hospitalized.

Kenny Britt produced, and it seemed like JF was the only guy that could handle his idiocy, but obviously he was the worst signing of the group.

 

[The Ramowl]

In hindsight, I would say drafting Sam Bradford was the biggest mistake. We played with backups several years and had we had the time to develop a QB that could stay healthy, We might have had some better seasons under Fisher.
I don't blame the team on drafting him though, it was not an easy thing to predict and the guy has talent.

 

[Merlin]

Agree with most here that Fisher's hire was not the worst decision. To even claim that demonstrates a lack of understanding about the Rams I think, where he actually elevated us from a bottom feeder to a competitive roster and team. But interestingly enough, the decision was actually made by Fish, which was the hire of Schotty to run his offense out the gate.

During that short window in which Schotty was his OC, he had a promising QB in place in Bradford. If Fish had brought in the right OC, I think better decisions would have been made from the gameplanning to the draft. Fish requires a guy who can hold down the whole show on that side of the ball, plain and simple.

The second biggest mistake, IMO, was not drafting OL early on, and building around said QB so that they could move forward together. Of course it's easy to criticize with hindsight, and that roster was so terrible.

I really feel like there's a parallel universe somewhere, in which Fish hired Hue, maybe even one where he made room for Norv and pursued him when he came available later in his tenure too. And if he'd done those things there's a good chance he's still our coach. Strangely enough, the Rams are probably in better shape now though. Funny how things work out eh?

 

[Rams43]

Agree with most here that Fisher's hire was not the worst decision. To even claim that demonstrates a lack of understanding about the Rams I think, where he actually elevated us from a bottom feeder to a competitive roster and team. But interestingly enough, the decision was actually made by Fish, which was the hire of Schotty to run his offense out the gate.

During that short window in which Schotty was his OC, he had a promising QB in place in Bradford. If Fish had brought in the right OC, I think better decisions would have been made from the gameplanning to the draft. Fish requires a guy who can hold down the whole show on that side of the ball, plain and simple.

The second biggest mistake, IMO, was not drafting OL early on, and building around said QB so that they could move forward together. Of course it's easy to criticize with hindsight, and that roster was so terrible.

I really feel like there's a parallel universe somewhere, in which Fish hired Hue, maybe even one where he made room for Norv and pursued him when he came available later in his tenure too. And if he'd done those things there's a good chance he's still our coach. Strangely enough, the Rams are probably in better shape now though. Funny how things work out eh?

See, that’s the thing about the Fisher hire decision, Merlin.

The ripple effects were practically endless, including the successive OC hires.

The hire resulted in so many other fubar side effects, the sum total of which are virtually incalculable.

Lack of successive QB development.
Lack of OL improvement.
A pathetic WR corps every year.
Back to back worst O’s in the league.
The mind blowing Tavon extension.
He stuck with coaches that were regressing (Boudreau).
Hell, he managed to make BOTH Gurley and Goff look like busts in ‘16, no small feat. Let that sink in for just a minute. Lol.

Yeah, Fisher raised us from 2-14 to 7-9 in his first season, but that was his high water mark. That was his ceiling and he crippled improvement opportunities thereafter. Hard to top that as an ongoing 5 year “mistake”.

I stand by my statement. Fisher was at the root of many, many of the Rams woes for 5 freaking years. No other mistake really comes close in the last 10 years when total effects are considered.

 

[PhillyRam]

Allowing jeff Fisher to pick his own offensive coordinators, I put more blame on those yahoos than Fisher.

The rams made a few bad draft decisions under Fisher, DONT DRAFT OFFENSIVE LINEMEN IN ROUND 1! cant say that enough. But he also brought in alot of all stars and potential superstars .

The offense was horrible and it hurt the whole team , I think Greg William's qaa good but it's frustrating to coach defense when you cant allow 14 points or you lose .

Fisher liked his guys and believed in them , that's where he failed . Your only as good as the people working for you

More specifically his 1st OC in Schottenheimer. I think once he left Fisher had a tough time filling the job because everyone expected that Fisher was also on his way out.

He needed a bright McVay type guy to come in and groom Bradford and hopefully help with drafting skill guys. So then maybe we don't end up with Quick/Pead/etc.

 

[1maGoh]

See, that’s the thing about the Fisher hire decision, Merlin.

The ripple effects were practically endless, including the successive OC hires.

The hire resulted in so many other fubar side effects, the sum total of which are virtually incalculable.

Lack of successive QB development.
Lack of OL improvement.
A pathetic WR corps every year.
Back to back worst O’s in the league.
The mind blowing Tavon extension.
He stuck with coaches that were regressing (Boudreau).
Hell, he managed to make BOTH Gurley and Goff look like busts in ‘16, no small feat. Let that sink in for just a minute. Lol.

Yeah, Fisher raised us from 2-14 to 7-9 in his first season, but that was his high water mark. That was his ceiling and he crippled improvement opportunities thereafter. Hard to top that as an ongoing 5 year “mistake”.

I stand by my statement. Fisher was at the root of many, many of the Rams woes for 5 freaking years. No other mistake really comes close in the last 10 years when total effects are considered.

That was my point earlier. Fisher himself wasn't a bad hire, but the effects that his hire had on the team were terrible.

However, he wasn't hired until 2012. The Spags hire forced us into a position to hire Fisher and the team was worse in almost every way under him, so he was probably the worst decision in 10 years. He ruined us so bad that Fisher seemed like a good idea.