[
www.stltoday.com]
Gordon: Snead's role is filling Fisher's needs
BY JEFF GORDON Feb 15, 2012
Jeff Fisher is an established NFL head coach. As such, he will ultimately decide which players fit into his 53-man roster.
Fisher selects the starting lineups, with guidance from his assistants. The coaching staff mulls game match-ups. The staff devises the weekly game plans and makes the in-game adjustments. The staff calls the plays on both sides of the ball.
So
Fisher and his coaches will make the final personnel calls. Period.That is how it works when a franchise has the right guy at head coach.
General manager
Les Snead’s job is to identify and acquire the sort of players Fisher needs. Through all means possible, Snead and his staff must add the personnel Fisher requires to transform a 2-14 team into a playoff threat.
Chief operating officer
Kevin Demoff’s challenge is to make the numbers work. He must crunch all sorts of data and establish monetary values for current and prospective players. In a salary cap world, his role is critical. He makes the puzzle pieces fit.
But, as with Snead, his job is to make sure Fisher has the sort of players he wants.
Demoff, Snead and Fisher presented themselves to the media as a united team Tuesday afternoon. They insisted that decisions would be made collectively, with the shared sense of purpose to improve the Rams.
In the real world, though, personnel disagreements are inevitable. Player evaluation is an inexact science.
The head coach is primarily accountable for winning and losing. He must take his guys into battle, for better or worse.
So the roster must be his call. With that power comes the responsibility to trust the expertise of those around him so he can make the right decisions.
Stan Kroenke and Demoff landed Fisher as head coach by convincing him he could build his sort of football operation here in St. Louis. Once he signed on, the franchise continued its GM search and settled on Snead — a well-respected personnel expert who served various coaches and executives during his professional climb.
He arrives with the framework already in place. His role is to work within the established dynamics to give Fisher and his staff optimal options as they reshape the team.
Fisher needs wide receivers? Snead and Co. must find candidates who fit the offensive scheme, the team personality and the budget.
Fisher needs offensive tackles? The personnel guys and number guys work through all the options and discuss all possible scenarios with the coach before proceeding.
A host of factors decide whether the Rams get a particular player through the draft, free agency, a trade or general street scouring.
Everybody must work together through that process. Everybody must remain on the same page. All voices must be heard, but in the end cacophony must yield to harmony.
If it doesn't, it's up to Fisher to yell "Quiet!"We know what happens when dysfunction sets in. The “Greatest Show on Turf” began its slide when general manager Charley Armey lost clout.
Jay Zygmunt, the numbers guy, fancied himself a football guy and grabbed power. Mike Martz, the head coach, came to believe he was a personnel wizard who didn't need guidance from scouts.
As the team eroded, internal bickering escalated into brazen back-stabbing. Because the organization lacked steady leadership at the top — the owner was disengaged, the team president worked out of his Los Angeles office — chaos ensued.
Try as they might, various executives, scouts, head coaches and assistant coaches failed to restore order during subsequent seasons.
As the losses mounted last year, your cyber-correspondent suggested hiring a strong president for football operations to restore order from the top down. Kroenke went a different direction, hiring a strong coach to restore order from the sideline up.
And so here we are. The key operatives are in place. The chain of command is established.
Let the Rams overhaul begin.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/08/2016 08:33PM by Zooey.
