Wade Phillips.
This organization has failed on two fronts, but the biggest one that has cost us dearly since his hire is Wade Phillips. I didn't understand it then, and the longer he remains, the worse it gets. Not necessarily defense performance-wise, but how it has negatively affected the team just to get to a point of an average defense.
When Phillips was hired, we didn't have the personnel to run his favored defense. Our greatest defender, perhaps the greatest defender in the NFL in the last 30 years, Aaron Donald, didn't fit into a 3-4 scheme. We had no outside linebackers to attack the passer (a Von Miller-type) so we tried converting a solid DE, Robert Quinn, to a stand-up OLB and the experiment failed miserably. At the time of his hire, we had the personnel to run a 4-3, and let Donald be a terror- Quinn next to him at RDE, a heavier Brockers at LDT, and a rotation of guys who could hold their own at the LDE spot- Westbrooks, Longacre, and others. LB, across the board, was our weakest position, so we turned to a defense that we needed 4 of them, with two studs on the outside.
We're still searching for those studs, three years into this clown show. Out of desperation, we traded a first round pick for Fowler, who has been up and down at best. However, the odds that he signs long term are minimal, so what did we get, exactly, for a first-round pick- 2 years of slightly above-average play and a supplemental third-round pick. Then we traded a first round pick for Marcus Peters, but Phillips doesn't play to Peter's strength, so for the majority of his time here, we got a less than average return for our first round selection, so much so that we flip him to Baltimore (where, miraculously, he seems rejuvenated) for a back-up linebacker and a fifth round pick.
Then, we trade TWO first round picks for Jalen Ramsey, giving us our next first round selection somewhere around 2047. Does Phillips use Ramsey in the manner that best suits his style of play? Nope, Ramsey is playing 10 yards off the receiver, just like Peters did. Why the hell give up two first round picks if you're not going to use the guy in his best position? Keep Peters and let him be a misfit for your "scheme" and save the picks! Now we have spent three first round draft picks on two cornerbacks, neither of whom is being used by Phillips in a manner that plays to his strengths. One is already gone, and we'll see if they find the $$ for Ramsey, but now they are almost forced to- if they don't, for three first round draft picks, the Rams will in turn have received a back-up linebacker, a fifth round pick and likely a third round compensation pick. As the old Guiness commercial might say, Brilliant!!
If Phillips will not utilize his personnel in a manner that plays to their strengths (and the results so far say he won't), I'm going to suggest what should be considered heresy- trade Aaron Donald while he is in his prime and get as much draft capital as you can. What would the Cowboys, say, pay for him? He has become a non-factor in this scheme, and the coordinator has demonstrated without question that HE and HIS SCHEME aren't changing. Putting Aaron Donald into this scheme is akin to taking Mike Trout and turning him into a late inning defensive replacement. We didn't have the personnel for a 3-4 when Phillips was hired, and four traded #1 picks later, we still don't. Phillips, in my opinion, has been an unmitigated disaster, in terms of a lack of significant progress on the D side, but more importantly, the expenditure of significant draft capital which hasn't, to date, made a significant positive impact on the defense. However, similar to almost being forced to keep Ramsey because we're too far down the path to turn back now, I'm afraid we're stuck with the 3-4. Who's going to play DE? Are we going to re-sign Brockers, put the weight back on him and move him back to DT? Can Okoronkwo play OLB in a 4-3? Littleton (if we re-sign him)? This is one muddied up mess, and its all because we hired a guy who was not a fit here from the beginning.
The second area, which is back to the dead horse, is the O-line. Only a naive, delusional, somewhat addled hopeless optimist would come into this season with the O-Line that myopic McVay threw onto the field and think it was going to work. A 38- year old LT, a converted college tackle at LG with all of about 50 NFL snaps under his belt, an undersized, short-armed center with almost no NFL experience, a RG who faded badly down the stretch last year and Havenstein. Depth, none. Cohesiveness, none, because little Martz is smarter than everyone else and just KNEW that this cobbled together line of extreme age, extreme lack of experience and extreme youth didn't need a single snap in pre-season football to get ready. Just like Martz, when it came to the grunt guys, he was never interested. We can rebuild with 3rd and 4th and 5th round picks, garbage cast offs from other teams, and we'll be just fine. Meanwhile, watch me collect receivers and running backs and other shiny toys, none of whom will succeed because the QB will typically not be upright long enough to distribute the ball to them. The ghosts of Kaluana Noa, Travis Scott and John St. Clair, along with Marc Bulger and many others, are laughing at the boy wonder who failed to learn from pretty recent history.
With horrible contracts to Cooks and Gurley, and with another huge contract to Goff who still is far from a proven $110 million player, along with a complete lack of draft picks and cap space, this team is in a PILE of trouble. It didn't have to be this way.
