2012-2016- The Fisher Era

No Dave McGinnis, you don’t get credit for building the 2017 Los Angeles Rams

The Los Angeles Rams play for the NFC West title against the Tennessee Titans on Sunday, December 24. The 10-4 Rams enter this game featuring one of the league’s best offenses, a more than capable defense, and an excellent special teams. When the current Rams were brought up to former Los Angeles assistant head coach and current Titans color commentator Dave McGinnis, he gave an interesting answer:

“First of all, Jeff Fisher and I, we built this you know what I’m saying?” McGinnis said in an interview with the Tennessean. “This defense and special teams of the Rams has been playoff-ready for two years, ability-wise and performance-wise. The last two years, the offense has been historically bad. The offensive line was not good, was underperforming, could not get any stability at quarterback. The receivers, that was the issue. And we knew if we could ever just get, when we drafted Jared Goff, Jeff Fisher did the Rams organization a huge favor by not playing him right away because he would have ruined the kid …”

Let’s get this out of the way. Fisher and his staff deserve credit for being part of the group that brought in stars like Aaron Donald and Todd Gurley. However, to say they built what the Rams have now is garbage. It’s absolute garbage. Head coach Sean McVay and his staff have done in one year what Fisher’s group couldn’t do in five years. We saw teams like the Arizona Cardinals tear down a playoff roster and rebuild a new one during that same stretch. For McGinnis to take credit for building the current Rams is simply unbelievable.

McGinnis notes the issues with the receivers and the offensive line. My question for him is why he and his staff failed to develop both unit during his tenure? How can he take credit for building the team when Fisher and his staff clearly didn’t get the job done? His comments concerning the five years he spent with the Rams are mind-numbing to say the least.

More excuses

McGinnis finished his comments by stating, “… It’s a talented team. It’s a well-coached team. We left them a lot of talent. It’s just, we were the youngest team in the league four years in a row. This team has grown up together. This is on eof the better teams in the league right now, personnel-wise and the way they’re playing.”

This is ridiculous. McGinnis excuses the failures of former head coach Jeff Fisher and his staff to be the result of being the league’s youngest team. Youth matters. Maturity and experience play a major role in a winning football team. However, leadership comes from the top. Fisher and McGinnis had their chance to build a well-disciplined contender out of the talent on the roster. Instead, they proved unable to create a team with the poise and character needed to win in the NFL. The Rams struggled to play fundamental football, and that’s what wins games.

Fisher’s job was to put a winner on the field. He failed, regardless of age or any other factor. McGinnis can claim that he and the rest of the Fisher coaching staff “left them a lot of talent,” but that’s all they left the Rams. The years of poor coaching, unimaginative offensive play, and immature behavior are over. If McGinnis wants to take credit for something, maybe he should take credit for those characteristics of the Rams under Fisher.

Derek Ciapala has been following the Rams since childhood. He has been published on Yahoo! Sports, Sports Out West and multiple other websites. You can check him out on Facebook or Twitter @dciapala.

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