Haslett's future in St. Louis not looking good

by Ryan Van Bibber on Nov 24, 2008 5:00 PM CST in 2008 St. Louis Rams season

It's not a leap to assume that Jim Haslett won't be coaching the Rams next season. How can he? The team has to do everything it can to make fans forget (and forgive) the things they saw this season and last, and Haslett, love him or hate him, has been too closely associated with a Rams team that will be forever remembered as historically bad. It seems like an instant credibility killer to hire the same coach who was at the helm when the team hit rock bottom.

Nevertheless, I feel for the guy. You can hear the pain in the quiver of his voice from yesterday's post game presser. As taiko said in the comments, "Between the Rams and the Katrina-year Saints, he must be wondering what the hell he did in this life to deserve this."

Whether it's fair or not is mostly beside the point. He's been given a terrible team to work with, filled with backups in key roles, players well past their prime, and thick-skulled morons who fail to understand that they're the problem. Not to mention the over-matched front office.

If he has any chance of staying, he'll need to win some games and coax better play out of this team. Right now, either one of those things is really hard to imagine.

What's really amazing is that the players, according to Dan Arkush's report today at Pro Football Weekly, support the guy. Here's QB Marc Bulger:

"He was dealt a bad deck of cards. He’s doing all he can to get us going and motivated. It’s up to us to help him out. I know we haven’t given up. There are definitely some winnable games coming up. I’d love to win the rest and solidify his job.

I know I speak for a lot of players when we say we’d love to try to help him win some of these games.”

What players? I guess this gets back to the talent vs effort debate. But I just can't believe this team, for its glaring lack of talent, is bad enough to get beat this bad on a weekly basis. Is Detroit or Kansas City really more talented than the Rams? That's where accountability comes into play. Haslett seems set to start holding players accountable; he pulled starters and made changes in yesterday's game, including sitting well-compensated Jacob Bell and putting rookie John Greco in his place. He even took them to task in front of the media yesterday, not individually, but we'll see what happens. Is it too little too late?

Haslett has critics around the league, though. And the PFW report features a few prime quotes. To wit:

"Haslett can care less about 2009. The coaches are in it for themselves. It takes a talented leader to work through all the individual visions of his staff in a transition period, and Haslett does not see the ultimate vision.

He has put his stamp on that defense and had a lot of say in personnel since he got there. Tye Hill, Adam Carriker, La'Roi Glover, Fakhir Brown — these are his guys now. He can’t say he didn’t have a chance to pick the players because the coaches run the show there."

The person cited here points to Haslett as part of the problem with the team's lack of talent, getting back to what I said above that Haslett is closely tied to this team's failure. There's more from another source:

"Haslett is tied to (defensive coordinator Rick) Venturi, and they’re playing the same type of defense they used to play in New Orleans. They don’t want to get beat deep, so they play it safe on the back end and give up 200 yards rushing...

They make bad quarterbacks look good and average quarterbacks look great. The Jets blew them off the ball. With the way they were getting rolled up, it’s like they were playing without a defensive line, and we’re talking about a defensive line with two top-15 picks."

Ouch. Read the rest of the article, there's plenty more juicy tidbits in there. There's one more question to ask in the discussion of whether or not to bring Haslett back: what do we expect of him? How do we define turning this team around? Knowing that he's played a role in filling out this roster makes the case for bringing Haslett back a real tough sell to fans who won't easily forget some of the performances they've seen at the Dome over the last three years.

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I'm still not sure I'm buying it.

I just can’t accept that he had such control over the defense because of the whole Fakhir Brown thing. But I’ll ask this question. Who was the last Rams coach (HC, OC, or DC) who had control over the roster? It’s been pretty well documented that started to deteriorate shortly after Martz took over and Zygmunt started calling the shots as the “General Manager”. And you know for damn well they didn’t trust Linehan since they stopped letting him pick his assistant coaches. Why would they let him pick players?

It was written in a Burwell column a few months ago that Zygmunt would change the draft board after the scouts and player personnel staff would finalize it and he would often pull the shots on draft day as well, so why are we to accept this un-named “source” when he says Haslett put his “stamp” on the defense. (btw, I’ve yet to see d-linemen like the ones they had in New Orleans. Well, Long is pretty close)

And who’s to say that un-named source isn’t an ex-Ram coach or front office type? We sure have a hell of a lot of ’em out there, and most left on real bad terms. They guy also says “the coaches run the show there”. Since when?

Our country reeks of trees. Our yaks are really large. And they smell like rotting beef carcasses. And we have to clean up after them. And our saddle sores are the best. We proudly wear women's clothing. While searing sand blows up our skirts.

And the buzzards, they soar overhead. And poisonous snakes will devour us whole. Our bones will bleach in the sun. And we will probably go to hell. And that is our great reward. For be-ing the-uh Ro-yal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen!

by Tackle Box on Nov 24, 2008 5:42 PM CST reply actions

players

I don’t buy the players thing so much. but I wonder if Haslett’s not too close to the last three years to stick around. of course, a 2-1 start to the season might do wonders for everyone’s memory.

by Ryan Van Bibber on Nov 24, 2008 7:34 PM CST up reply actions

Oh, and Little Richie isn't going to be punished.

Even after flipping the bird to the media during practice last week (seemed to have slipped through the cracks).

I see this as a move of desperation by Haslett. He simply can’t afford to be benching, suspending, or cutting a healthy offensive lineman. Sucks, but I really think this is the case. Apparently Haslett had a talk with Little Richie and is basically giving him one last shot and it’s real hard to realistically argue with that while looking at the health and depth of our O-Line.

Maybe they can dump his ass in the offseason? He is a restricted free agent after this season. Maybe their holding on to him for that reason? They could possibly get a draft pick for him. Wouldn’t that be a steal?

by Tackle Box on Nov 24, 2008 5:50 PM CST reply actions

Incognito

I am really starting to hate this guy. What the heck is his problem? This team sucks and all he can do is complain and act like a little punk. Did he forget already that he almost cost 1 of our 2 wins with his stupid penalty against the Redskins? I can’t wait for this guy to go and become someone elses problem. He reminds me a lot of Kyle Turley.

As far as Haslett is concerned I honestly feel bad for the guy. There is no way that this is his problem. I agree with the above from Tackle Box that it starts from the top. The bottom line is that Haslett will not make it if the Rams continue to lie down and get pounded week after week. I can’t believe how bad we are on both sides of the ball. Complete haulover is the only way to go with this team and that is becoming clearer and clearer with each passing week.

by ksmooth on Nov 24, 2008 7:25 PM CST reply actions