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Seeing the article about Spags wanting to be a HC again, got me thinking. Who was the worst HC in Rams history and who was the best? With such a long glorious history, I am sure there are many good choices.

As for the Worst HC in my lifetime, it would be tough to decide between Spags and Linehan. Spags teams were SOOOO bad and Linehan lost the team and also let Ike Bruce go!

Spags was such a little douche dictator who suffered from "little man syndrome" or "Napoleon complex" fielded some pretty bad teams. We almost went 0-16 with him. His overall record was .208 and Scottie Linehan was .306.

My vote goes to Spags!

My vote for best HC (in my lifetime) goes to Martz\Vermeil. I have to go with both because IMO it was BOTH TOGETHER that got us our SB trophy. I don't think either was as good without the other.

Thoughts???

Worst has to be Spagnuolo.
Bezdek and Hasslett's % are low but have a small sample size. Of course that sample size might not be an accident

My personal fav and #1 in my book was George Allen. McV is growing on me though, lol.

Malavasi did take us to a chip so I have a warm fuzzy for Ray too.

If Robinson didn't have ED methinks that might have gone a lot worse.

On my watch? (Since the 70s).

2 worst--Brooks and Linehan.

(Spags is in the running except his entire team was carpet bombed with injuries in 2011, including things like starting 10 different CBs, and also having what Football Outsiders identified as the single most injured up offense since 2002. Why 2002? That's as far back as they looked. I don't think he was ready to be a head coach but 2011 gutted the team, so I give him a pass for that.)

2 best--Vermeil and McVay

Vermiel was certainly able to put 1 top notch staff together. He was also at the helm when the team won their 'chip'.
But iirc, his teams didn't do well until MM came along. Even the brass agreed when MM threatened to leave if not promoted to HC.
Disclaimer: This info has been verified by friends of mine in STL who are also personal friends and family with MM.

Hacksaw wrote:Vermiel was certainly able to put 1 top notch staff together. He was also at the helm when the team won their 'chip'.
But iirc, his teams didn't do that well until MM came along. Even the brass agreed when MM threatened to leave if not promoted to HC.
Disclaimer: This info has been verified by friends of mine in STL who are also personal friends and family with MM.

Vermeil rebuilt a team from scratch. Martz did well as long as he had Vermeil's team, which deteriorated under him (though a lot of that was Zygmunt).

I stand by the view that as good as Martz was, any good coordinator would have won with the combination of that OL, Warner/Green, Holt & Bruce etc, and Faulk.

Plus of course in 99 that defense was ranked 6th overall, 4th in points.

Given all that Martz was not the only difference between 98 and 99. As said--completely rebuilding the OL, Banks replaced with 1 good and 1 great option, Bruce healthy, adding Holt and Faulk....that's a lot.

Good post my friend. I see it's being trolled already .

The worst has to be Spags, followed closely by Linehan.

The best to me were John Robinson and Martz. I don't put McVay on that list yet.

/zn/ wrote:Vermeil rebuilt a team from scratch. Martz did well as long as he had Vermeil's team, which deteriorated under him (though a lot of that was Zygmunt).

I stand by the view that as good as Martz was, any good coordinator would have won with the combination of that OL, Warner/Green, Holt & Bruce etc, and Faulk.

Plus of course in 99 that defense was ranked 6th overall, 4th in points.

Given all that Martz was not the only difference between 98 and 99. As said--completely rebuilding the OL, Banks replaced with 1 good and 1 great option, Bruce healthy, adding Holt and Faulk....that's a lot.

OK he built a decent team. High draft pick from Brooks and DV's last place finishes didn't hurt that cause either.
Don't get me wrong, I always liked Vermiel, but the win column during his tenure in horns was not his finest, , until HE hired MM.

I have a hard time picking the absolute worst Rams coach I've seen. A lot of old timers point to Prothro but he ended his 2 year stint with a winning record so how bad could he have been? Of course in his second season he had us sitting at 5-2-1 but lost 5 of the last 6. Still, I can't give it to him considering the other duds we've had.

Rich Brooks, Scott Linehan and Chuck Knox II would be my pick....pick any of them and I'd agree. Spagnuolo for all his inexperience, his four pillars and his ineptness had us 1 last game of the year win away from the postseason. A lot of jokes were made of that view at the time but how close did Brooks, Linehan or Knox have us to the postseason?

Best coach? Well hell Vermeil has to be in the running doesn't he, regardless of whether Martz was the difference or not? And of course Martz has to be up there too. For all his misuse of timeouts, which in my opinion were way overblown, he had the Rams crushing teams. There was no letup either, as there shouldn't be. Just ask Jet fans.

Allen, Knox I, Malavasi and Robinson were all excellent but each had their warts they couldn't overcome. And the guy we have right now, might end up being the best by far. But that's down the road a bit.

If I have to pick one of each, Vermeil for obvious reasons and Brooks.

Hacksaw wrote:but the win column during his tenure in horns was not his finest, , until HE hired MM.

Which is what happens with rebuilds.

In terms of what he inherited from Brooks, in the end the guys left from the Brooks drafts on the 99 team were Miller and Carter. That's it. One 5th round pick, one first round pick. Granted that Conwell was injured, but, if you look at the 1st 3 rounds of the 95 & 96 drafts, that's 9 high picks and they ended up with only 2 left. So no he did not inherit anything.

In fact go back to 1990. In the first 3 rounds from 90 to 96, that's 26 high picks. Out of those 26 the 99 Rams had 3 of them still on the roster--Lyght, Bruce, and Carter. Granted some of those lost were injuries (Wright, Lyle, Conwell).

That was a 2-year rebuild--which not only hit on draft picks, high and low, but also on UDFAs, free agents, trades, and picked-up cuts from other teams.

Again. I have always said that you hire any good coordinator for that 99 team and they win.

I think it IS a coincidence that it was Martz, though obviously he was a good addition. I think it is NO coincidence that a team with that roster was winning in 99.

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/zn/ wrote:Which is what happens with rebuilds.

In terms of what he inherited from Brooks, in the end the guys left from the Brooks drafts on the 99 team were Miller and Carter. That's it. One 5th round pick, one first round pick. Granted that Conwell was injured, but, if you look at the 1st 3 rounds of the 95 & 96 drafts, that's 9 high picks and they ended up with only 2 left. So no he did not inherit anything.

In fact go back to 1990. In the first 3 rounds from 90 to 96, that's 26 high picks. Out of those 26 the 99 Rams had 3 of them still on the roster--Lyght, Bruce, and Carter. Granted some of those lost were injuries (Wright, Lyle, Conwell).

That was a 2-year rebuild--which not only hit on draft picks, high and low, but also on UDFAs, free agents, trades, and picked-up cuts from other teams.

Again. I have always said that you hire any good coordinator for that 99 team and they win.

I think it IS a coincidence that it was Martz, though obviously he was a good addition. I think it is NO coincidence that a team with that roster was winning in 99.

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Let's save our thumbs and agree to disagree here.