Spags left Fisher an absolute mess. Historically bad. I might be wrong but I seem to recall that Fisher turned over something like 75% of the roster, and all of those guys were out of football within a year (if not immediately). Not at all that experience for McVay.
Fisher might not have built a world-beater, but he largely acquired and retained defensive talent far above what Spags left for him to work with. Offense was very bad, but not Spags-level "junk the whole roster" bad. I agree that Fisher's main problem had to do with acquiring the right coaching staff, matching the modern philosophies, and offensive players to build a team that could score points, win games, and of course... be FUN to watch.
I have to put that stubbornness at Fisher's feet too, and here's why: he was generally respected for knowing and building good, effective defenses. But how can you build an above-average defense without being intimately knowledgeable of modern offensive philosophy and scheme? Kind of a "know your enemy" thing. He had to have known that he was behind the times, he just either refused to change... or maybe didn't know how.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/18/2017 02:59PM by ArizonaRamFan.