I think youre giving Spags a heavy dose of benefit of the doubt while minimizing any positive Linehan had. Steven Jackson was in his prime and had his career best under Linehan. He never came close to that success again. And as much as Linehan had leftovers from the gsot days he also inherited veterans that basically didn't buy in to him and didn't support him.
And in Linehan 2nd season it was a train wreck like both of Spags train wrecks and he at least mustered 3 wins. IMO Linehan was billed as an offense coach and he at least showed some of that year 1 and since he left the Rams. No idea what Spags identity is or was as his vaunted d from his giants days was nothing like what we saw in at Louis or in new orleans
I don't think so, I think I'm showing you what Spags did right and bringing back into focus what Linehan did completely wrong that was being glossed over.
The veterans didn't buy in because Linehan didn't earn their respect, Linehan lost his team, they weren't out to get him from the get go. Linehan aggrandized the situation to the point where Holt, Bruce and Jackson were screaming at him on live TV. Linehan was a conceited guy and it came back to bite him in the ass big time when he tried to run over the players who were a bigger part of the Rams than he was. The guys didn't hate Haslett, and the few that remained didn't hate Spags. The only person they disliked was Linehan, and I balk at the idea that he was just some poor schlub who got suckered into their hategasm.
Also I don't see how the at least he mustered 3 wins stacks up, given when Spags took complete reign over the team he got them to 7 wins, something Linehan can't say unless we're going back to the season where he was relying heavily on Martz team.
Linehan did go on to have success while Spags is still struggling to stay afloat, but that has nothing to do with their ability as a head coach, and both had their say completely diminished. Saying Linehan is better at calling offensive plays and nothing else than Spags is better at calling defensive plays and nothing else really doesn't lend into the HC discussion.
I look at it like this, Linehan inherited a better team, destroyed it, lost about everyone in the locker room, insulted and ran off some of the best players in Ram history, some of who are future HOFers, was an unapologetic dick about it, was wild and made his team play a style of of football that the talent couldn't back, and basically left a dumpster fire for the regime taking over for him.
Spags inherited a poor team, didn't make it much better, was a control freak who rubbed people the wrong way, was mean to the equipment manager, was so conservative I'm surprised he didn't punt on every down just so they didn't do anything dangerous, he buckled under peer pressure and got away with what was working to placate the clamor for change, tried to force his team to play ball in a way the roster wasn't built for and was ran off, but still helped contribute to bringing in players who are stalwarts to this team and left the dumpster a little less on fire than it was to begin with.
