http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2016/12/04/rams-jeff-fisher-ink-contract-extension/
Rams, Jeff Fisher ink contract extension
Posted by Michael David Smith on December 4, 2016
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Apparently a 4-7 record is enough to earn a contract extension in Los Angeles.
Jeff Fisher and the Rams have signed a two-year deal through 2018, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reports.
Although a contract extension for Fisher has long been discussed, there was talk that the disappointing season this year could change those plans, and that Stan Kroenke could be in the market for a new coach to build his team going forward.
Instead, Kroenke has decided to keep things going with Fisher. The coach’s single biggest task will be developing first overall pick
Jared Goff into a franchise quarterback, but the broader question is the simplest one of all: When will the Rams win under Fisher?
Through five seasons with the team, Fisher has gone 7-8-1, 7-9, 6-10, 7-9 and now 4-7. At some point, he’s going to have to do better than that if he wants to keep his job. But that point will apparently not be this year. Fisher will be back.
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...gests-2017-will-be-up-or-out-for-jeff-fisher/
Two-year extension suggests 2017 will be up-or-out for Jeff Fisher
Posted by Mike Florio on December 4, 2016
When it comes to contracts given to NFL players and coaches, the devil takes up permanent residence in the details. As to players, those details always become known. As to coaches, the nuances rarely make their way to the surface.
As to Rams coach Jeff Fisher, who officially has received a two-year extension, the biggest detail relates to the actual security Fisher has received. If, as some league insiders believe, the contract
includes a one-year out for the team, Fisher has security only for 2017.
The winds had been blowing in the direction of Fisher staying put. Comments from COO Kevin Demoff
strongly suggested that the team’s 4-7 record wouldn’t be held against Fisher, given the changes the team has endured in 2016.
Even without a one-year out clause in the new contract, 2017 now feels like an up-or-out year for Fisher. In 2012, Fisher received a five-year deal, and the exclamation point of commitment that went along with it. With only a two-year Band-Aid currently in place beyond 2016, the not-so-subtle message is that, while Hall of Fame running back Eric Dickerson isn’t getting what he wants for now, the change he craves could be coming in 2017.
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2016/12/04/jeff-fisher-extension-was-signed-weeks-ago/
Jeff Fisher extension was signed “weeks ago”
Posted by Mike Florio on December 4, 2016
For most of the season, league insiders have insisted that the Rams and coach Jeff Fisher already have a new deal in place. In the aftermath of the news that Fisher has a two-year extension, Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that the deal indeed has been in place for “weeks.”
Which raises an interesting question about the contract: Why was the news of it leaked today?
It could be that the Rams and Fisher became increasingly antsy about the fan base’s willingness to accept a continuation of Fisher’s tenure with the team, given an all-out assault from Hall of Fame running back Eric Dickerson that has culminated in Dickerson recently playing the “
where are the naked pictures?” card.
Then there’s the fact that the news was leaked only a few hours before the Rams face the Patriots, a franchise that has beaten Jeff Fisher-coached teams by the combined score of 104-7 in their past two encounters. Squatting on the secretly-signed contract until after the Patriots hang another 40 or 50 on the Rams would have made it a lot harder to justify the move.
And so while the Rams apparently were waiting for the right moment to announce the deal with Fisher, it could be that they decided there would be no right moment, and that the contract needed to be unveiled before the wrong moment became a worst-case scenario.