Fisher’s Rams run ends,
Rams dismiss coach of five seasons amid stumbling, grumbling
The Jeff Fisher era is over for the Los Angeles Rams.
The day after an embarrassing 42-14 home loss to the Atlanta Falcons — after which star running back Todd Gurley criticized the offense — the Rams fired Fisher.
Fisher was 31-45-1 in nearly five seasons with the Rams.
The Rams are 4-9 this season and play Thursday night against the Seattle Seahawks. Specialteams coordinator John Fassel will take over as interim head coach.
The Rams did not have a winning record in any of Fisher’s years with the franchise. But he was able to last longer than many NFL coaches would without making the playoffs, in part because of years of quarterback injuries and futility, and, more recently, the challenge of moving the team from St. Louis to Los Angeles.
Fisher had been given a contract extension this year, though word of the move did not surface until last week. But drama within the front office and the losing — and the way the Rams were losing — might have pushed owner Stan Kroenke to take action. A report last week from The MMQB described the relationship between Fisher and general manager Les Snead as toxic, though both parties dismissed any notion of a rift when asked.
Sunday’s loss to Atlanta at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was the breaking point. The Rams, playing their fourth game with No. 1 overall pick Jared Goff at quarterback, trailed 42-0 before ending the shutout in the fourth quarter.
That led Gurley, the reigning NFL offensive rookie of the year, to liken the Rams offense to a “middle school offense” and say players were “going through the motions.” Gurley has not had a 100-yard game this season and has been limited to 3.3 yards a carry.
The Rams offense has been disappointing throughout Fisher’s tenure, especially after the team lost quarterback Sam Bradford to
knee injuries in 2013 and 2014. Moving up to the No. 1 pick this year to select Goff was supposed to be the blockbuster move to change that.
But Goff wasn’t deemed ready to start until late last month, when the Rams had already fallen well behind in the NFC West race. His lack of development — while other rookies such as the Dallas Cowboys’ Dak Prescott and the Philadelphia Eagles’ Carson Wentz proved themselves ready to be Day 1 starters — was an indictment on Fisher’s coaching staff and the front office for giving up so much to draft him when he wasn’t ready to play right away.
The Rams offense ranks last in the NFL in scoring at 14.9 points a game and yards at 286.2 a game.
Yet a bigger issue for Fisher lately has been the failure of the Rams defense. That group, loaded with talent such as tackle Aaron Donald, end Robert Quinn and linebacker Alec Ogletree, was supposed to carry the Rams while the Goff- Gurley offense developed.
That the Falcons loss happened in front of a home crowd, with thousands of empty seats, surely didn’t sit well with Kroenke so soon after moving the team from St. Louis. It’s hard to sell a noncompetitive franchise in the Los Angeles sports market. Now the Rams will start over. Los Angeles’ new coach will inherit that talented defensive roster and an offense that has several intriguing pieces, most notably Gurley.
But a new head coach and offensive coordinator will need to fix the offensive line, accelerate Goff’s development and find a way to use Gurley, rather than waste his talents.