Rams Clean House On ‘Black Monday’

The Rams didn’t waste any time making changes after their disappointing 2011 season, as the team announced Monday that they were letting go of GM Billy Devaney and head coach Steve Spagnuolo, along with others. As of now, it looks like the only coach who is still under contract for 2012 is OC Josh McDaniels. The Rams plan to move quickly to fill both positions, and they expect to get something done on both fronts within the next few weeks. There was a report out today that the organization has already made contact with former Titans coach Jeff Fisher, but the Rams denied those talks while acknowledging that Fisher is a potentially attractive candidate. To get the rumor mill started, San Diego Chargers’ beat writer Kevin Acee wrote today in his story on Chargers’ GM AJ Smith’s future that “it is all but certain that Jeff Fisher will be the Rams’ next head coach.” Acee also said that Smith was expected to be the front-runner for the Rams GM job if he was fired in San Diego, but now it looks as if he could be keeping his job with the Chargers. A final decision on Smith is expected in the next few days.
I talked about this a little yesterday, but I think this is the right move. The team was 10-38 in three seasons under Spags, and their record over Billy D’s four years was 12-52. It’s hard to place the blame on these two for the first couple of years after the Scott Linehan disaster, but after expectations were raised last season, this year’s 2-14 debacle was unacceptable. It can be tough when your organization has a first-time GM and first-time coach, and I think that was part of the problem here. I firmly believe that both Spags and Devaney will be successful in this league down the road, because I think they both have great minds for the game. Spags will have a job as a defensive coordinator somewhere next season if he wants it, and I expect him to be a good head coach again in the future. More on next page…