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The Way We Hear It: Changes coming to the Rams with or without Jeff Fisher
By PRO FOOTBALL WEEKLY STAFF –
contact@profootballweekly.comThere are few more buttoned-down owners in the NFL than Stan Kroenke, and most of our sources are having a very hard time getting any real sense of what the futures of head coach Jeff Fisher and general manager Les Snead will be.
But what little we are hearing is that Fisher will most likely be out at the end of the season.
How bad has it gotten under Fisher?
This marks the fourth straight season under Fisher in which the Rams are 4-6. Fisher’s Hard Knocks proclamation that any more "7-9 @#$%&" won’t cut it seems safe. With games remaining at New Orleans, New England and Seattle, and home games with Atlanta, San Francisco and Arizona, The Rams, we think, will be hard-pressed to find more than two more wins on the schedule.
And it gets much worse than that.
Fisher’s all-time 173-162-1 record ties him with Tom Landry for the second-most losses in NFL head-coaches’ history, but Landry has 250 wins and six ties.
Fisher needs just four more losses to break Dan Reeves' all-time record of 165 losses, and Reeves has 190 wins.
Of the 20 least winning coaches in NFL history, only Weeb Ewbank and Norv Turner have lower winning percentages, and Ewbank has 33 fewer losses and Turner has 40 less.
Fisher’s limitations are obvious: he’s a Buddy Ryan disciple who is a very good defensive coach but who doesn’t appear to have a clue on offense.
Strangely, Snead seems to suffer the same flaws as his head coach.
Snead’s picks on defense of Aaron Donald, Michael Brockers, Janoris Jenkins, Alec Ogletree, Trumaine Johnson, Aaron Donald and Lamarcus Joyner have been impressive.
Offensive choices including Greg Robinson, Isaiah Pead, Brian Quick, Tavon Austin and Rob Havenstein are not so great.
Todd Gurley looked like a home run last year, but he has disappeared as a sophomore. With Jared Goff it’s too soon to tell. Snead took him because he was allegedly the most ready-to-go of the top QBs, but it took him 11 weeks to get on the field and be every bit as mediocre in his first start as Case Keenum.
Is it a blind spot for Snead, or that Fisher doesn’t know what to do with the offensive picks he’s been given?
Since Fisher was involved in the hiring of Snead, the Rams have a general manager who’s never hired a head coach. Based on the brilliance of the RGIII trade and his defensive picks, it’s possible Fisher goes and Snead gets a chance to stay and pick his own coach.
The conventional wisdom is both will be let go at the end of the year, but here is something we are hearing from very good sources close to Fisher:
Whether it’s part of a campaign to get a contract extension or an actual epiphany, Fisher has decided if he is retained he will bring in a new, veteran offensive coordinator with a free hand to develop Goff and run the offense.
We’re also hearing that this year’s castoffs – Greg Roman, Turner and Greg Olson – could all be candidates, with Turner a heavy favorite right now to get the job.
The question is, do Fisher and/or Snead get the chance to make the move they clearly should have made some time ago?
