Winning isn't Fisher's top job priority
PostPosted:9 years 7 months ago
Winning isn't Fisher's top job priority
• By Ben Frederickson
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/ ... b073c.html
This isn’t a column calling for Jeff Fisher’s job.
That would be a waste of newspaper ink and Internet space.
It would be a Simpsons meme: “Old man yells at cloud.”
Rams owner Stan Kroenke, determined to move his franchise west, seems to care more about Fisher’s experience shepherding a franchise through a relocation than Fisher’s recent experience winning games.
League sources told the Post-Dispatch in January 2012 that Fisher’s interview with the Rams included multiple questions about the Houston Oilers’ transformation into the Tennessee Titans. His answers must have wowed the room.
Never mind the fact the Rams now seem bound for their fourth consecutive losing season under Fisher, that Fisher hasn’t coached a winning season since the 2008 Titans went 13-3, and that Fisher’s next finish above-.500 finish will be just the seventh in his 21-season career.
Whatever wisdom Fisher gathered from overseeing the Oilers’ transition apparently justifies his annual salary of $7 million. Get this: Fisher is within $500,000 of four-time Super Bowl winner Bill Belichick, according to Forbes. Fisher rakes in $2,148,437 more than the reported league average.
That’s good work — if you can get it. Especially for a coach who not only never has taken the Rams to the playoffs, but has not coached a playoff game since 2008 and has not won one since 2003.
We know enough about Kroenke by now to realize he doesn’t care about the quality of football St. Louis fans see on Sundays. His primary concern is moving the franchise to his dream stadium in Inglewood, Calif.
But you would think a successful businessman such as Kroenke, a billionaire who built an empire thanks to shrewd moves, would recognize a regrettable deal.
We’re 58 games into Fisher-coached football in St. Louis, and the return on investment is as bad as Rams quarterback play post Kurt Warner.
Fisher’s body of work is big enough to speak bluntly about the big picture. He’s had a longer leash than most losing coaches. Yes, Fisher has turned the Rams’ defense into one of the NFL’s most imposing ones. But his ignored offense remains a punch-less punchline in which quarterbacks fail and rare stars such as Todd Gurley are asked to do too much.
Forget the abstract arguments about Fisher helping his cause by being a players’ coach, or hurting his cause by coaching a dirty team. Look at the record. It’s the only thing that matters.
The Rams are 4-6 headed into Sunday’s game in Cincinnati. Two of their final six games are against teams with losing records. Tea leaves suggest Fisher’s .422 winning percentage with the Rams (24-33-1) will continue to drop. Yet no one really expects Fisher, who has one year left on his contract, to be canned.
The company line before the season was that it would take a disaster for Fisher or general manager Les Snead to lose their job. This season hasn’t been a disaster, unless you count Fisher letting concussed quarterback Case Keenum stay in the game last Sunday, an apparently accidental oversight made worse by the fact the backup-turned-starter fumbled to set up the Ravens’ game-winning field goal.
Disaster? For Fisher’s Rams, the snafu seemed more like business as usual.
In a win-now league prone to knee-jerk firings, Fisher’s job security would be impressive … if it wasn’t so maddening.
Of the 12 active NFL coaches who have been with their team for at least four seasons, Fisher is the only one who has not taken his to the playoffs.
He has the worst winning percentage of the bunch, and it’s not even close. Sixth-year Cowboys coach Jason Garrett (44-39) checks in above Fisher at .530. Seven of the coaches sit above .600.
Twenty-two coaches have been fired while Fisher’s Rams have failed to turn a corner. That’s counting Jim Harbaugh, who was pushed out of San Francisco, and not counting John Fox, who had some say in his departure from Denver.
Ten of the firees had a higher winning percentage with the team that fired them than Fisher has with the Rams. Eight coached at least one playoff game for the team that showed them the door.
Four teams — Chicago, Buffalo, Cleveland and Tennessee — have dismissed two coaches during Fisher’s futile run here.
Poor Ken Whisenhunt got fired twice, first by the Cardinals then by the Titans.
Yet Fisher coaches on.
The hard truth is this will become a moot point for St. Louis fans if their team relocates.
But one can’t help but wonder what evidence Kroenke possesses that suggests anything, even in Inglewood, will change as long as Fisher is on the sideline.
• By Ben Frederickson
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/ ... b073c.html
This isn’t a column calling for Jeff Fisher’s job.
That would be a waste of newspaper ink and Internet space.
It would be a Simpsons meme: “Old man yells at cloud.”
Rams owner Stan Kroenke, determined to move his franchise west, seems to care more about Fisher’s experience shepherding a franchise through a relocation than Fisher’s recent experience winning games.
League sources told the Post-Dispatch in January 2012 that Fisher’s interview with the Rams included multiple questions about the Houston Oilers’ transformation into the Tennessee Titans. His answers must have wowed the room.
Never mind the fact the Rams now seem bound for their fourth consecutive losing season under Fisher, that Fisher hasn’t coached a winning season since the 2008 Titans went 13-3, and that Fisher’s next finish above-.500 finish will be just the seventh in his 21-season career.
Whatever wisdom Fisher gathered from overseeing the Oilers’ transition apparently justifies his annual salary of $7 million. Get this: Fisher is within $500,000 of four-time Super Bowl winner Bill Belichick, according to Forbes. Fisher rakes in $2,148,437 more than the reported league average.
That’s good work — if you can get it. Especially for a coach who not only never has taken the Rams to the playoffs, but has not coached a playoff game since 2008 and has not won one since 2003.
We know enough about Kroenke by now to realize he doesn’t care about the quality of football St. Louis fans see on Sundays. His primary concern is moving the franchise to his dream stadium in Inglewood, Calif.
But you would think a successful businessman such as Kroenke, a billionaire who built an empire thanks to shrewd moves, would recognize a regrettable deal.
We’re 58 games into Fisher-coached football in St. Louis, and the return on investment is as bad as Rams quarterback play post Kurt Warner.
Fisher’s body of work is big enough to speak bluntly about the big picture. He’s had a longer leash than most losing coaches. Yes, Fisher has turned the Rams’ defense into one of the NFL’s most imposing ones. But his ignored offense remains a punch-less punchline in which quarterbacks fail and rare stars such as Todd Gurley are asked to do too much.
Forget the abstract arguments about Fisher helping his cause by being a players’ coach, or hurting his cause by coaching a dirty team. Look at the record. It’s the only thing that matters.
The Rams are 4-6 headed into Sunday’s game in Cincinnati. Two of their final six games are against teams with losing records. Tea leaves suggest Fisher’s .422 winning percentage with the Rams (24-33-1) will continue to drop. Yet no one really expects Fisher, who has one year left on his contract, to be canned.
The company line before the season was that it would take a disaster for Fisher or general manager Les Snead to lose their job. This season hasn’t been a disaster, unless you count Fisher letting concussed quarterback Case Keenum stay in the game last Sunday, an apparently accidental oversight made worse by the fact the backup-turned-starter fumbled to set up the Ravens’ game-winning field goal.
Disaster? For Fisher’s Rams, the snafu seemed more like business as usual.
In a win-now league prone to knee-jerk firings, Fisher’s job security would be impressive … if it wasn’t so maddening.
Of the 12 active NFL coaches who have been with their team for at least four seasons, Fisher is the only one who has not taken his to the playoffs.
He has the worst winning percentage of the bunch, and it’s not even close. Sixth-year Cowboys coach Jason Garrett (44-39) checks in above Fisher at .530. Seven of the coaches sit above .600.
Twenty-two coaches have been fired while Fisher’s Rams have failed to turn a corner. That’s counting Jim Harbaugh, who was pushed out of San Francisco, and not counting John Fox, who had some say in his departure from Denver.
Ten of the firees had a higher winning percentage with the team that fired them than Fisher has with the Rams. Eight coached at least one playoff game for the team that showed them the door.
Four teams — Chicago, Buffalo, Cleveland and Tennessee — have dismissed two coaches during Fisher’s futile run here.
Poor Ken Whisenhunt got fired twice, first by the Cardinals then by the Titans.
Yet Fisher coaches on.
The hard truth is this will become a moot point for St. Louis fans if their team relocates.
But one can’t help but wonder what evidence Kroenke possesses that suggests anything, even in Inglewood, will change as long as Fisher is on the sideline.