Eric Dickerson on Rams' woes: Jeff Fisher 'is not the coach for this football team'

Former Rams, Colts, Raiders and Falcons running back Eric Dickerson is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Current Los Angeles Rams head coach Jeff Fisher is two losses away from being the losingest head coach in NFL history.

Last week, Dickerson, who is one of the more visible and beloved Rams alumni from their first stint in Los Angeles, revealed that Fisher told him he couldn’t be critical of the team during his numerous media appearances and still expect favors from the team like sideline passes for himself and friends.

Dickerson responded that he won’t attend another Rams game as long as Fisher is head coach, and is sticking with it even after meeting with franchise COO Kevin Demoff for three hours.

And if the gloves weren’t off before for Dickerson, they are now.

Appearing on Fox 11 Los Angeles on Sunday evening after the Rams’ 26-10 loss to the New England Patriots, Dickerson had plenty to say about Fisher, the two-year contract extension he received despite not posting a winning (or even .500) season in nearly five seasons as Rams head coach, and the sad state of the offense.

Dickerson chuckled when anchor Liz Habib opened by asking Dickerson to weigh in on the game, which saw Los Angeles total just 25 yards of offense in the first half, the lowest total for any team this season.

“It was hard to watch that. You know that Bill Belichick is going to most definitely out-coach Jeff Fisher for sure,” Dickerson said. “The extension is that the extension is. I knew they probably had an extension in place when I met with Kevin Demoff this week and talked about it and I asked him point-blank, ‘does he have an extension?’ and he said, ‘well, we’ve been talking about it.’ So I said, ‘I know what that means, he has one’ and he didn’t answer me.

“He’s not the coach for this football team. He’s had five years of this. I feel bad for all the Rams fans because I feel like I’m the Rams fans’ voice. I’m a fan like Vince (Ferragamo, the Fox 11 co-anchor and former Rams quarterback) is a fan, like (Hall of Fame right tackle) Jackie (Slater) is a fan, and I feel like we’re going in the wrong direction with the football team.”

Now 4-8, the Rams are last in the league in total offense (284 yards per game), last in first downs per game (15.7), and last in third-down conversion rate (32.5 percent); they are near the bottom of league in all other offensive categories.

Rookie No. 1 pick Jared Goff has started the last three games, and Dickerson believes the coaches aren’t doing enough to help him, specifically letting him lean more on 2015 rookie sensation Todd Gurley. Gurley is averaging fewer than 18 carries per game, and got the ball just 24 times total over the last two weeks, as the Rams played the Patriots and New Orleans Saints.

While Los Angeles quickly fell behind to the Patriots on Sunday, which may have impacted the way Gurley was used, the Rams led the Saints 14-7 in the second quarter before they started to fall behind. As a team, the Rams have 284 carries for 950 yards this year, averaging 23.7 rushing attempts per game and just 3.3 yards per carry.

“They say they’re a running football team, but you run the football 12 times, 11 times, 13 times in three weeks [Gurley did have 20 carries in Week 11 against the Dolphins], you’re not a running football team,” Dickerson said. “This team has no identity. This is a defensive football team (with) a very good defense. Not great, but very good. We have a young quarterback we’re trying to develop and we should be running the football more. We should run the football 25, sometimes 30 times a game if we’re really trying to get our running game on track.

“I’m watching the news last night and Bill Belichick says, ‘Man, I’m afraid of’ – what’s he afraid of? – ‘I’m afraid of the punter.’ I mean, Johnny Hekker, he’s the MVP, he really is, he’s the best punter in the NFL, but he gets a lot of practice. He’s a great punter but how do you go to a football game and the opposing coach says man I’m afraid of y’all’s punter, the special teams? I’m not afraid of the running game, I’m not afraid of the defense, I’m not afraid of the quarterback, I’m afraid of your punter. I’ve never heard that in my whole life.”

Dickerson was asked if his long meeting with Demoff (Demoff’s father, Marvin Demoff, is Fisher’s agent, which may have something to do with the team hanging onto him for so long) resolved anything, but Dickerson made it clear it didn’t change at least one thing.

“I’ll never come back as long as Jeff Fisher is head coach. And I mean that,” he said. “I’ll support my team, I was at a sports bar watching the game, but it was hard to watch. It’s hard to watch every game, not just this game. It’s hard to watch all the games.

“The offense is boring. The defense plays great – the only reason we have four wins is because of our defense, it has nothing to do with our offense. I’ll say it again: how in the world can you give a guy an extended contract and he has five losing seasons? And I asked Kevin Demoff and he said ‘it’s not about the record.’

“So what’s it about? Is it about him looking up at the scoreboard real nice like? I’ll say it again: Where are the naked pictures? Who has them? Because something is going on here to hire this guy back again for another two seasons. It’s a joke. Unless they’re waiting to try to get the fans to hold on until we get the new stadium and just ride this out. He’s not a winning coach.”

Dickerson just wants to see the Rams win, and believes the team won’t win with Fisher as head coach. If he’s wrong, he said, and Los Angeles has a winning season in 2017, he’ll be the first to congratulate Fisher.

And Dickerson had more to say – the entire interview went for about 10 minutes. You can watch it above.