Fisher and Titans Agree to Extension

Excellent arguments RollTide & aside from Schottenheimer I'd be horrified to see any of those coaches near the Titans.

Wade Phillips is a fantastic coordinator which is why he got another shot as a HC but I fully expect him to fail again. Andy Reid is arguably the next best on
your list but he's too easily out coached in big games. It took him almost 5 years to realize he needed a running game.

All the guys on your list are widely viewed as bad choices for a HC. Beyond the stats are truly awful decision makers.

96-98 he was still inexperienced as a HC. The D was loaded with aging guys
& poor draft choices. The tools were in place for offensive Fisher ball but the rest of the team wasn't yet suited to Fishers style. That's what always happens with a new HC. The 1st 3-5 years are taken up with building their kind of roster.

The few HC that have success early are often walking into an organization that has personnel that fits their scheme. That doesn't happen by accident as I'm sure your well aware of.


We all know Fisher has a propensity to play an experienced player over a talented rookie. We in general as fans dislike his loyalty to his DC. In my mind he's never done anything where I can say damn he has to go. The talent level,injuries ,cap issues & GM clashes have always been reason enough to give him the benefit of doubt.


Regardless of our bad start last year we over achieved in terms of talent. No matter how Young was bumped into the starting lineup we were well coached in general. Out thinking Dungy at the end of the game when Bironas kicked the game winner springs to mind.

We still only have average talent as a group yet I fully expect to get a wild card berth looking at how the other AFC teams are performing.

Lendale is not good enough. We need as RB that can carry the team,he isn't that kind of guy. He'll have good games but he's 2nd string materal IMO. A good RB always produces straight out of the draft. That's why I don't believe Lendale has what it takes.

Fisher has never asked his QB to do much beyond being a good game manager & in that sense he's old school which maybe reflects his playing days with the Bears. Chandler was always a solid QB & he fit perfectly with Dan Reeves style of play in Atlanta. Fisher used him differently.

If anything Fishers style is built around a devastating D & a meat & potatoes running offense & too often we haven't had the personnel to suit Fishers defensive style. A flashy QB doesn't fit the mold of Fisher ball. His player loyalty has in some ways hurt him. McNair had a short window where he was invaluable & then he became an over priced handicap that hurt the team.

I'll likely be flamed for such an opinion but McNair should have been shipped out of town after 03. The Fisher style could have continued without him & we may have gained cap space & draft picks that would have kept us out of cap hell.

If he really has had a hand in picking Reinfeldt as his GM then there will be no more excuses. We're set for another run the Fisher way only this time he has a GM to get him the guys that he wants. This is the time that will truly define Fisher because everything is as he wants it to be.

Expect a lot of draft picks to go on the D,O line & little else,although in my opinion we still don't have the kind of RB Fisher ball needs.

 

Fisher style..?

I think that whole concept is over rated. Only once in fisher's entire tenure have we had a defense that i would call "devastating'. That was in 2000. Some other years we had a good defense but that is the only top 3 unit. As for running the ball if you look at the stats in the eddie era from 96-2003 even when eddie was at his prime and with steve's running ability we sometimes didn't finish in the top 10 in rushing yards. In 99 we were only 13th in rushing yardage. In 03 we were 26th!

03 was one of our best teams and that team was 26th in rushing and 5th in passing yards. In 05 with vet loaded o-line we only finished 23rd in rushing yards and 10th in passing. Fisher's ideal of both good defense and a strong running game has only been realized a few times. This year might be one of those few times.

The mid 80s chicago bears represents the ideal of fisher ball but he hasn't consistently been able to pull that off.. the bears from 84-86 finished first in total defense and first in rushing yards three straight years! Only in 2000 when we were 7th in rushing yards and 2nd in defense did we come close to that ideal..

 

Inexperienced head coach?

After the 95 season fisher had been a head coach for 22 ball games. How many games would he need to no longer be inexperienced? After the 97 season he had 54 games under his belt. Even then he was inexperienced? Hell most coaches don't last that long..

 

That's kind of my point.

With everything in place as he wants it GM wise he should finally be able to realize his ideal team. This his his time to put up,adapt or move on.

I really like Polian's approach that the cap doesn't allow for both a great O & a great D. He committed to the O & found a scheme to run a D on a budget.

 

Childress a question..

I see you want to blame this all on reese. Ok but i think reese is about as good a GM as fisher is a coach.

Here is my question. True or false, the san francisco 49ers from 1982-1995 were a fisher ball type team. A better fisher ball team than jeff fisher's own teams. True or false?

 

Not so fast.

Reese deserves as much credit as Fisher for the success. However the GM's role has evolved beyond picking talent, draft picks & signing contracts. I believe there are even fewer elite GM's than there are elite HC's.

To have both is rarely achieved but seems to be the key to success in the current cap era. I don't think Reese moved with the times in that department. Given the choice between a new HC or a new GM I think Bud made the right move. A shift at GM can revitalize a franchise & complete the puzzle. A shift at HC is more often than not a full rebuild.

If we had a candidate from within the organization to take over maybe but not many fans would say that we have.

The 49ers, I'll play along.

No I would not say that the 49ers played Fisher ball.

Fisher may be a Bill Walsh alum but he's defensive guy. I'd call him a Buddy Ryan protégé before a Bill Walsh one.

 

Childress, i brought up the 49ers because this supposedly finesse, pass oriented team were an average of 5th in total defense during the period from 81-95. They were an average of 10th in rushing yardage.

Jeff fisher a coach in which the forte supposedly is defense and running the ball has had teams that finished 15th on average in total defense and 12th in rushing yardage. So if playing lights out defense and running the football is his goal he has fallen short.

 

Tis true but if he now gets it right we may have a decade of 49ers style success ahead of us.