Would You Fire Shurmur?

[mikhal5569]

Would You Fire Shurmur?

If it was up to you, would you Fire Pat Shurmur? I wouldn’t.

Okay, I know who cares about me? What if you were Stan Kroenke the new majority owner of the St.Louis Rams, would you fire Shurmur even if you weren’t happy with him? No way. Firing Pat Shurmur now would only come off as a knee jerk reaction, or an attempt to appease a disgruntle fan base after a bitter and abrupt end to a otherwise promising season. Firing Shurmur would send a red flag to the team and its players and a fair weather fan base that only looks at the overall record to gauge the team’s improvement. After all, when it’s all said and done and the 2011 season is about ready to begin, few people will be looking at how the Rams lost the final game of the season and will instead be focusing on the six win turn around season lead by rookie of the year Sam Bradford. The writers at St.Louis Post Dispatch will be weaving wonderful tales of how the Rams went from only winning three games in two years, too falling only one game short of the playoffs. The Rams will be the feel good pick of many other sports analysts and announcers, because everyone loves a comeback story. Attendance at the dome should improve and revenue in general should be on the rise. But, wins alone don’t always tell the whole story.

Pat Shurmur was hired by the Rams head coach Steve Spagnuolo as the St.Louis Rams offensive coordinator on January 21st 2009, after a nine year stay with the Philadelphia Eagles as a quarter back coach. He was to bring with him a modified version of the Eagles ‘West Coast Offense’ which relies on running the ball, short passes and the wide receiver to have the ability to run the ball after a catch. The system was originally put into place to help protect Rams battered quarter back Marc Bulger, who has since been replaced by rookie sensation Sam Bradford.

In Pat Shurmur’s first year with the St.Louis Rams they ended the season ranked 32nd in total offense. In 2010, the Rams had nowhere to go but up and ended the season ranked 21st in total passing yards and 25th in total rushing yards. To me, these stats immediately pose one big question. Is Pat Shumur doing what he was hired to do, which is of course to stick to the running game? If so, why are we having more success with passing? Sam Bradford? Okay, he might be good, but he’s not considered to be a top five player at his position like Steven Jackson is, at least not yet. What’s even more concerning is that the Ram’s have improved more on defense then they have on offense. This is concerning because St.Louis does have a running back who is considered to be one of the NFL’s best and the Rams invested most of their recent high draft picks on offensive players.

Let me pose another question. Should the Ram’s go out and draft a number one receiver with their first round draft pick? Will Shumur know what to do with him if they do? I’m not sure he knows how to get the best out of the personal he has now. It seems pretty clear to me that every other coach on this team is capable of pulling their own weight except for this guy. The Rams have not improved by six games because of Pat shumur, they did it in spite of him.

Does a six game improvement warrant Pat Shumur one more season with the Rams? Yes, I think it does. If not for Shumur’s sake, but for the sake of the team. I say we give him one more year, then we fire his ass!

[sjacksonrules]

I think the raise in numbers was in spite of him not because.

[live4ramin]

sorry, I misread and voted no. I thought I was firing Spags.

I shuda voted "Hell Yeah".

[svh01]

You don't want to have the Rookie QB learning a new system in his 2nd year. Give him a chance to learn more about the NFL before you make a change like that. 1 more year for the whole staff.

[The Rammer]

You don't want to have the Rookie QB learning a new system in his 2nd year. Give him a chance to learn more about the NFL before you make a change like that. 1 more year for the whole staff.

I absolutely agree.

[Fortuninerhater]

Not sure I'd fire him, but the offensive gameplan would surely take a 360 degree turn.

The philosophy we used this year would certainly be out the door, along with whomever couldn't live with the change.

Jackson's role would be decreased, not increased.

Gone would be those underneath crossing routes from the playbook in favor of the post routes that Bruce and Holt ran so well.

Sam Bradford would be directed to throw the ball to a receiver who is beyond the first down marker on 3rd down plays, so all the receiver would have to worry about is catching the ball.

No sense trying to force guys who are not necessarily playmakers to be playmakers.

There will be an emphasis on getting someone deep in every game we play, and probably multiple times a game.

We will use the pass to set up the run, like the GSOT did.

In fact, we would run our version of GSOT's offense.

[molar_pistol]

and when our o is a joke and too conservative next year will you still say no?

[Fat Pang]

Voted no.

I have concerns but think that we really need to upgrade our Wideouts and interior linemen before we start making any changes.

At this stage, continuity is the best thing for Bradford and his development in my humble and profoundly armchair opinion and retaining Shurmur provides that.

I'm also not entirely sure if the conservative nature of what we've seen this season is down to Shurmur and Shurmur alone.

Give him another season with more weapons to deploy.

[Bing69]

I also voted no. Think of the weapons Shurmur has had to work with, mostly the poor receivers. Only Amendola stepped up, we had to use bubble screens, flats etc because we had no deep threat and hardly any seperation. Yes he should have used Jackson more, but from i seen this year either S-Jax couldnt get going / or the o-line wasnt opening holes for him. (Maybe S-Jax is starting to wind down?)

The Rams were 2nd in the nfl in converting 3rd downs i believe, surely you have to give Shurmur credit for this if you give him all the blame for receivers not catching balls, o-line not opening holes etc.

I think he can do a good job, but hey im a patient guy

[39thebeast]

One of the main reasons guys like Alex Smith and Jason Campbell are busts is because of offensive coordinator instability. Its hard to learn a new system and QBs excell when they are in the same system for years.

Reason 2 this offseason should be all about getting and developing offensive playmakers. We can't give up on uh-oh, Fendi, DX, and Amendola going into years 2 and three god willing healthy those guys should get better chemistry with bradford. You also probably have Clayton and Avery coming back healthy who IMO should compete with DX for the number 2 job. Number 1 priority is to get a number 1 receiver preferably early in the draft IMO. The rams look way better when there top 5 receivers are Jones/Blackmon, DX, Clayton, Amendola, and Avery. Also our rookie TEs will be in year 2 hopefully healthy and will be better than Fells and Bajema.

[Azul e Oro]

I vote no. Upgrade & develop the talent & maintain the continuity.

[Guam rammer]

I was pissed at the game planning against the Seahawks but with all due respect, lets see what would happen if we get some potential game breakers around Sam before calling for Shurmurs head.

[HUbison]

If I wanted to stunt Bradford's growth, then yes, I would fire him.

However, I'd rather continue Bradford's growth, so no, I would not fire him.

[Truth]

You don't want to have the Rookie QB learning a new system in his 2nd year. Give him a chance to learn more about the NFL before you make a change like that. 1 more year for the whole staff.

I pretty much agree here. I might take a look at replacing the O-line coach. I'd say replace Cromwell as the receivers coach except he's had very little to work with. You can't blame him for that.

[laram0]

Voted no.

I have concerns but think that we really need to upgrade our Wideouts and interior linemen before we start making any changes.

At this stage, continuity is the best thing for Bradford and his development in my humble and profoundly armchair opinion and retaining Shurmur provides that.

I'm also not entirely sure if the conservative nature of what we've seen this season is down to Shurmur and Shurmur alone.

Give him another season with more weapons to deploy.

I couldn't have said it any better. Bradford had an amazing year and his growth for next season is in Shurmurs hands. A few upgrades on our starting eleven and the sky is the limit for Bradford.