The Los Angeles Rams per ESPN’s John Clayton are getting ready to offer head coach Jeff Fisher a three-year contract extension. Clayton, appearing on 710 ESPN Seattle said:
The word on the street, I don’t know if they actually put it in one of the…because…they haven’t really put out the Michael Brockers contract extension yet, because I know he just got a contract extension. I think they were gonna put at the bottom of the release that Jeff Fisher signed a 3-year extension.
For Rams fans, this has to be a slap in the face. Here is a coach who has not had a winning season since joining the team in 2012 but yet here he is on his way to an extension. After what the team did in the season opener against the San Francisco 49ers on Monday night, the fan base should be in an uproar.
Fisher took heat for drafting QB, Jared Goff with the No.1 pick in the 2016 Draft then giving the starting job to Case Keenum, only to move Goff down to third string. But as Keyshawn Johnson said on the Stephen A. Smith show on SirusXM Radio, Fisher was forced to draft Goff. Say what? Upon hearing that, the scenes in Hard Knocks makes sense. Fisher never gave the rookie the time of day, or never acknowledge his existence during any practices.
Another scene I would like to point out is the news of management agreeing with WR, Tavon Austin on his four-year, $42 million deal. When Fisher told his coaching staff of the news everyone was shocked, one coach went as far as to say that Austin doesn’t have the stats to be paid that type of money. When Fisher gave Austin the deal to sign and hugged him, you could see the smugness in his approach as he told Austin, “you deserve this.” There is no coach alive that honestly thinks he deserved that money.
The extension is not about the wins and losses on his record; it’s hush money. The Rams organization respects Fisher because he doesn’t bite the hand that feeds him, he stays quiet, does what he’si told and stood on the sidelines and coaches a team that doesn’t have the necessary pieces to compete on most Sunday’s.
Now it all makes sense. Fisher is not a winner; he has six winning seasons in 22 years as a head coach, so for upper management to give him an extension is stupid. The Rams are in a new city, new stadium and were welcomed back by their Los Angeles fans with open arms. But if they continue to play the way they did Monday, just as quick as their fans welcomed them back they could start making enough noise to put the pressure on Rams owner, Stan Kroenke to fire Fisher if he can’t turn the season around.
With the Raiders looking to make the playoffs and the 49ers having gone in another direction, the pressure is on the Rams to show their fans something positive, especially if they want the help for a new stadium. By signing Fisher to an extension, the Rams are saying they believe in a guy that has shown no ability to lead them anywhere in four seasons.
I was always under the impression that you reward winners, but apparently, the Rams go about business differently than most teams. AS of now this is just NFL Rumors, but if John Clayton is reporting this, then it can turn real, really fast.
Stay tuned…