As the head coach of the now Los Angeles and former St. Louis Rams, Jeff Fisher has been a pretty good general manager. Since he was hired in 2012 Fisher, along with actual general manager Les Snead, has assembled the most talented Rams roster since 2003 and one of the most talented young rosters in the NFL. The problem for Fisher the Co-GM is he’s providing players for Jeff Fisher the head coach. And that’s been pretty much a disaster.
Fisher is entering the final year of the five-year deal he signed with the Rams back in 2012. It’s a deal that has paid Fisher $7 million a year over that time and never once produced more than seven wins in a season. Fisher is currently tied with John Harbaugh as the No. 5 highest paid head coach in the NFL, but there’s a big difference in those two coaches and their NFL performances. It’s symbolized by a big, fat ring on Harbaugh’s finger.
Over the last four seasons Harbaugh’s Ravens have had just one losing year, last year’s injury-filled 5-11 campaign. Before that the worst they’d done is 8-8 in 2013. That year was sandwiched by a couple of playoff runs and a Super Bowl XLVII win over the San Francisco 49ers.
In that span Fisher had three teams finish 7-9 and one 6-10 and only the first team really contended for a playoff spot, losing in the season finale to the Seattle Seahawks who were kind of building a dynasty at the time.
https://twitter.com/justRVB/status/714870480683929600
The Rams getting the nod (or push, as it were) to be on HBO’s Hard Knocks was easy to predict. In fact, I did it right here on this website back on Feb. 2. Football’s return to Los Angeles was too big a deal to not capture it on camera, but something else will be archived for all history to see as well; Jeff Fisher’s ultimate downfall.
Given the tools, money and talent he’s had with the Rams, there’s no excuse for how poorly the team has performed. If Jeff Fisher can’t get it together this season, not only will he not coach the Rams in 2017, he’ll not coach in the NFL again ever. There’s no reason to hope it’s going to be any different.
Not surprised at all that Rams are on Hard Knocks. League is going to milk the LA return hard . Don't be surprised if draft is there in 2017
— trey wingo (@wingoz) March 23, 2016
Over the next few weeks leading up to the draft you’re going to see plenty of mocks that have the Rams taking a quarterback in the first round. You’ll see debates on who that guy will be and how the Rams might have to move around on the draft board to get him. I want to make this perfectly clear right now, as I had to in past Rams drafts as fans and pundits always seem to be out of the loop when it comes to the mind of Jeff Fisher. Everybody but me.
The Rams will not take a quarterback in the first round. They won’t. Fisher isn’t going into the final year of his contract expecting a rookie to start, nor is he drafting a guy to sit when he could select a starter and impact player that could help save his career. It’s not going to happen. You can dream it, you can work it out in your head, you can talk yourself into how it makes so much sense, but I’m telling you right now, right here, they aren’t doing it. They’ll draft a wide receiver or a defensive lineman. That’s just what’s going to happen. If they trade, it’ll be a trade down to get more picks.
Does that mean the Rams will go into the season with Case Keenum, Nick Foles and Sean Manniion as their quarterbacks? Not necessarily. There is a good chance the Rams will pick a quarterback in this draft in rounds two through four. I’m sure Fisher looks at Mississippi State’s Dak Prescott and sees Steve McNair reborn and so I won’t be surprised to see the trigger pulled there at all. But he’ll be drafting him as a parachute, a guy that can win games late and look good at the end of the season to convince owner Stan Kroenke to give him another contract.
But there’s a bigger problem for the Rams at quarterback than who they may draft to add to the team. It’s Nick Foles.
Hard Knocks will be an hour of Jeff Fisher going full Col. Jessup and defending his QB decision. "YOU'RE GD RIGHT I ORDERED THE CODE FOLES!"
— Will Brinson (@WillBrinson) March 23, 2016
Foles was a victim of the Rams horrendous play design and playcaling early in the season, as well as a rookie-filled offensive line. By the time the Rams benched him, Foles was as shellshocked as everyone else about how things had gone down in a season where he was supposed to solidify the Rams’ biggest problem. The Rams replaced Foles with Case Keenum and fired their offensive coordinator Frank Cignettie. Keenum led the Rams to a handful of wins as running back Todd Gurley continued to dominate at his position, but once Gurley was out of the line up in Week 17, Keenum couldn’t even lead the team to a victory over a pathetic, Blaine Gabbert-led, San Francisco 49ers team coached by Jim Tomsula. That happened.
Stud RB. Stout defense.
Starting QB? Case Keenum.
And the Rams have total faith in him: https://t.co/KEvqeLBuc9 pic.twitter.com/WubsjkBevk— NFL (@NFL) March 27, 2016
Fisher has named Keenum the starter heading into camp, but as the NFL Films cameras will undoubtedly show, Nick Foles will outperform him significantly. Fisher has kept his interim offensive coordinator Frank Boras and added Mike Groh as the “passing game coordinator.” If either of those guys are worth a damn they’ll convince Fisher to hand the keys back to Foles.
What does Case Keenum have on Fisher and Snead that they regurgitate the same 4 points in every national/local interview?
— WeAreDone (@dvond) March 24, 2016
If that happens, Fisher could save his job. Every other coach in the NFL seems capable of learning from his bad decisions and mistakes of the past and maybe Fisher will finally become one of those guys, instead of the pig-headed waste of Grecian formula he’s been so far.
Regardless of what’s going to happen, we’ll all get to see it. NFL Films and Hard Knocks will make sure of that.
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