This Rams HC was named among worst hirings since 2000
While Sean McVay is already the winningest coach in franchise history with an 80-52 record after seven seasons, the Rams haven't always struck gold with their top man.
CBS Sports' Cody Benjamin ranked the 25 worst head coaches since 2000, and the Rams' hiring of Steve Spagnuolo in 2009 came in at No. 15. For reference, No. 1 was Urban Meyer to the Jacksonville Jaguars, so No. 15 isn't so bad all things considered.
Spagnuolo went 10-38 in three seasons for the Rams to continue the team's long playoff drought. He came to the team after two years coaching the New York Giants defense, including the 2007 squad that upset Tom Brady's undefeated season with the New England Patriots.
Another example of a fearsome coordinator who couldn't translate defensive genius to head coaching dominance, Spagnuolo is currently the face of the Chiefs' perennially stingy Super Bowl-contending defense. Long ago, however, right after a separate successful stint running the Giants' defense, "Spags" struggled to keep Sam Bradford upright and supported while the Rams bumbled through some of their last seasons in St. Louis.
The Rams were bad across the board under Spagnuolo. The team never ranked better than 26th in offensive scoring and the defense oscillated from mediocre to dreadful.
His 10-38 record is also misleading because seven of those wins came in 2010. The Rams went 1–15 in his first season, which is the worst season in franchise history, and 2-14 in his final season, which was the second-worst record in franchise history and tied with the 2008 team that preceded him.
Spagnuolo's years were so bad that Jeff Fisher's four seasons with either six or seven wins were seen as an upgrade. The team finally got it right in 2017 with the McVay hiring, as he finished with fewer than nine wins only once, and it was the year Matthew Stafford played just eight games due to injury.
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