london fletcher and the curse of lovie smith

[general counsel]

Of all the terrible personnel decisions since the peak of the GSOT, i think the absolute worst (at least with 20-20 hindsight) was the decision to let London Fletcher leave and replace him with Jamie Duncan. I deferred to Lovie on that decision (and the front office) so its hard for me to criticize it now. I am only pointing out how badly that choice turned out for us.

Since Fletcher left the Rams, we have floundered defensively. Not that Fletcher by himself would be a cure all to our defensive woes of the last several years, but Duncan couldnt tackle a pregnant woman in a phone booth and Fletcher has about 1200 tackles since he left. He has been durable, intense and remarkably consistent.

The theory was that Duncan was 2/3 as good against the run and was much better against the pass and was going to cost half the money. Needless to say, that math and personnel assesment was an unmitigated disaster for the Rams. Lovie had coached Duncan at Tampa and was in the best position to know what Duncan could and couldnt do. He couldnt have been more wrong. I watched Fletcher today vs the Eagles and he was his usual fantastic self.

Long live the human tackle machine!

Ramming speed to all

general counsel

[Ramblin` Ram]

one of atleast 6 players on D in the last 8 years that we should have kept but got rid of way to early...Fletch,Wistrom,Carter,Bly,Pickett,Young,Ivy,Bryce Fisher,Chillar,Even D-Lew and Shanlee have been productive since they left us....and Sorensen has been missed if you combine what he brought on S.T`s..
Fletch along with Kevin Greene is without doubt the best that got away in the last 20 years tho..

[makersncoke]

Of all the terrible personnel decisions since the peak of the GSOT, i think the absolute worst (at least with 20-20 hindsight) was the decision to let London Fletcher leave and replace him with Jamie Duncan. I deferred to Lovie on that decision (and the front office) so its hard for me to criticize it now. I am only pointing out how badly that choice turned out for us.

Since Fletcher left the Rams, we have floundered defensively. Not that Fletcher by himself would be a cure all to our defensive woes of the last several years, but Duncan couldnt tackle a pregnant woman in a phone booth and Fletcher has about 1200 tackles since he left. He has been durable, intense and remarkably consistent.

The theory was that Duncan was 2/3 as good against the run and was much better against the pass and was going to cost half the money. Needless to say, that math and personnel assesment was an unmitigated disaster for the Rams. Lovie had coached Duncan at Tampa and was in the best position to know what Duncan could and couldnt do. He couldnt have been more wrong. I watched Fletcher today vs the Eagles and he was his usual fantastic self.

Long live the human tackle machine!

Ramming speed to all

general counsel

The one thing that Lovie and the FO didn't factor into the eqaution was Fletch's leadership ability, something that has been sorely missed on this defense since he left.

[dgr828]

London is still showing the great leadership he displayed with the Rams and also with the Bills. I too watched the Philly/Skins game and was surprised to see Fletcher was still around, let alone being a major force in the Washington Redskins defense.
Marc Bulger & Co. will have their hands full, next week, in the Nations' Capitol.

[RamOfDenmark]

I watched the Redskins game too and I also watched one of their other games. Fletcher is a fantastic player and I still root for him every time I watch him play. He was a monster with the Bills and has continued his business as usual with the Redskins. Our defense would never have been this bad against the run especially for so many years if he had played in the middle. Truly a HUGE loss.

[PARamfan]

I have stated this same thing in other threads before that this was the biggest mistake in my opinion that the front office made as far as personell decisions.

[Ram Dragoon]

One man can make a difference!! Who would argue that Ray Lewis for Baltimore is like having an extra player on the field with just his presents? He is a leader and more so a motivator of the entire D.

Fletcher was a leader and did motivate. Its one thing to have a good to excellent--perhaps great- player, but add leader to that resume, then you have an asset. No self respecting HC, cooridinator, or GM who prides himself in his profession lets assets go. A know quantity is better then an unknown one--its called gambling; perhaps what makes Vegas, Vegas, a town built on fools who gamble.

Now how much of loosing Fletcher was Lovies doing? I don't think anyone can say. Its possible with all the rest of the stupid personal choices it could be most FO's fault--then again maybe not.

However, to error is humand and we are all intitled to at least one brain f**t

[sig51]

He was certainly yet another player we shouldn't have let go.

[laram0]

Fletcher would certainly look good between Witherspoon and Pisa. Not to mention his leadership and downright awesome tackling abilities.

[general counsel]

Lovie was critical in this decision because the choice to let fletcher go was not made in a vacuum. It was made in part because Lovie believed that Duncan, who was available in free agency, was a suitable replacement at a lot cheaper cost. Would we have let fletcher go even without a hand picked successor to sign immediately? Who knows. However, the loss of fletcher was massively compounded by the degree to which Duncan turned out to be a bust, and there can be no question that Duncan was Lovies guy.

ramming speed to all

general counsel

[moklerman]

Anyone remember what Fletcher's actual contract was when he signed elsewhere? It's painfully obvious that the Rams have no clue how to spend their money but was it a case of Fletcher just getting too much for the Rams to even consider it?

I know that I grossly misjudged Fletcher's value. I always considered him a spakplug but overall a liability because of all the troubles the defense was having. I guess I'll have to send back my consulting bonus.

[TekeRam]

Fletcher went to Buffalo, so it couldn't have been that much.

And yes, Fletcher would look amazing between Pisa and Spoon. Though would we have gotten Spoon if we had Fletcher? I bet not.

[moloch41]

Jamie Duncan didn't work out?

[moloch41]

P.S.

lovie smith destroyed this defense before leaving for greener pastures. His desire to bring in "lovie-type players" like Jamie Duncan, Kim Herring, Robert Thomas, Jimmy Kennedy, Damione Lewis, Adam Archuleta, and Travis Fisher made this the softest defense in all the land. Also, the fact that he only ran the Cover 2 and refused to blitz made them very timid and used to playing back on their heels.

[Chris58]

It's painfully obvious that the Rams have no clue how to spend their money but was it a case of Fletcher just getting too much for the Rams to even consider it?

I don't know Mok, Jay the "cap genius" Zygmunt has been real instrumental in the Rams sustained occupancy at the top of the NFL heap (tongue firmly in cheek).

As I recall, Fletcher was asking a lot, but in hindsight, given what we spent on Duncan, Witherspoon and Pisa, and other draftees on the defense side did we benefit? Did we really save money? One thing for sure, we lost a great player and a lot of continuity on defense as we have gone through turnstile-like line-up changes trying to plug the hole created by Fletcher's departure.