Rams fire head coach Jeff Fisher

The Los Angeles Rams today announced that they have fired head coach Jeff Fisher, ending his tenure with the team after nearly five seasons.

During his time with the Rams, Fisher went 31-45-1 and never once made the playoffs. In his 22-year head coaching career, Fisher has gone 173-165-1, tying the all-time record for most losses by a head coach. Of the eleven coaches in league history with 130+ losses, Fisher’s win percentage of .512 is the lowest. He made six playoff appearances in 22 years and won one conference championship (in 1999). He has made the playoffs in only two of his past 12 seasons as a head coach, however, which isn’t good.

As a bit of a side note, Fisher has gone 7-13 all-time against the Indianapolis Colts, and he won his only game against them as head coach of the Rams. That 38-8 beating in 2013 will go down as the second-largest margin of victory in the Fisher era for the Rams (which spanned 77 games and 31 wins), ahead of only a 52-0 victory over the Raiders in 2014.

What the Rams did today was fire a head coach hired in 2012 who signed a contract extension before the season began and who pretty much everyone could see wasn’t cutting it but didn’t seem like a lock to be fired. Does that sound familiar? It should.

The Colts are in a similar situation right now with Chuck Pagano, who signed a contract extension last offseason and who pretty much everyone can see isn’t cutting it, but who also isn’t a lock to be fired.

One thing that many have said is that the Colts probably wouldn’t fire Pagano because he just recently signed a contract extension, but the Rams just did it with Jeff Fisher. So Jim Irsay wouldn’t even be the first owner this year to fire a coach in that situation, meaning he wouldn’t be alone if he choose to make that move. The Rams did what was best for their franchise, no matter what Fisher’s contract situation was, and the Colts need to do the same with Pagano, no matter what his contract situation is. Admittedly, the Colts’ decision is a bit tougher than the Rams’ decision, but there are parallels to be made if Irsay does indeed fire Pagano.