Around this time last year, with the Los Angeles Rams holding a 4-9 record, the team fired its head coach, Jeff Fisher. Fisher was a veteran coach, as he had led the Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans for 16 years and the Rams for four. However, with the Rams struggling, the franchise decided to go in another direction.
In January 2017, Los Angeles hired Washington's offensive coordinator, Sean McVay, making him the youngest head coach in the NFL. McVay has done a masterful job with the Rams this year, as L.A. is 10-4 and, armed with a speedy young roster, looks like a real threat to make a run in the NFC playoffs. McVay, of course, has been widely praised.
If you were Jeff Fisher, how would you feel about this?
Fisher seems to feel a bit salty, judging by a recent interview he gave to Nashville radio station 104.5 FM. In the interview, Fisher said he left the team "in pretty good shape."
"I am a huge fan of the Rams players," Fisher said. "They're basically—I don't want to say my players—but I had a lot to do with that roster."
Fisher also said he knew how good quarterback Jared Goff was going to be—though he didn't make Goff the starter.
"All through it, I was thinking about the best interests of the franchise, not myself," Fisher said. "If I was worried about myself, I probably would have started him from day one and said, 'Hey, this guy is going to be a better player.' That was his rookie year, so we could chalk [struggles] up to a rookie year, but no, I wanted to do what was best for Jared."
Goff and the team's star running back, Todd Gurley, struggled under Fisher. It's impossible to say how much of that could be attributed to the coaching and how much could be attributed to the players' growth.
One of Fisher's former assistants, Dave McGinnis, also gave Fisher a lot of the credit for the state of the team.
"Jeff Fisher and I, we built this roster, you know what I'm saying?" McGinnis said. "So I know these guys very, very well...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 just like David Carr got ruined when he had to play at Houston when they drafted him and got him 76 sacks his first year."
McGinnis also said Fisher envisioned Gurley as his next Eddie George.
Fisher, who is 59, is rumored to desire another head coaching opportunity.
