Rams' Jeff Fisher and GM Les Snead Have 'Toxic' Relationship

Los Angeles Rams head coach Jeff Fisher and general manager Les Snead reportedly have a “toxic” relationship.

Things are apparently not good between Los Angeles Rams head coach Jeff Fisher and general manager Les Snead.

MMQB’s Albert Breer is reporting that one source with knowledge of the Rams’ organization wasn’t too pleased with Fisher’s comments when the head coach was asked about Snead’s contract extension.

First, here were Fisher’s comments on Snead’s new contract:

“I’m so busy here, I was honestly unaware he was extended. I’m being honest with you, we’re just working here,” Fisher said. “I look at this as being my responsibility, the win-loss record. We need to do a better job from a personnel standpoint. We’ve had some unfortunate things take place with some high picks in Stedman Bailey and Tre Mason and those kinds of things you don’t anticipate.

“But we’re moving forward.”

Jeff Fisher Took a Shot at Les Snead?

The source Breer cites took exception to the personnel comment, with the source saying it was a shot at the team’s front office:

“It pissed me off because I knew it was meant as a shot,” said one Rams source. “You see it under that umbrella—‘We need to do a better job in personnel.’ OK, but you want everyone to think that you have full control. You can’t have it both ways, and it can’t always be the talent. Look at the roster, 2012 to now. In ’12, Jeff did a masterful job with what he was given. But we’ve gotten more talent, and we’ve gotten worse.”

When Did the Fisher-Snead Relationship Sour?

Breer makes it clear that things “soured” before this comment, however when exactly the relationship between Snead and Fisher went south is unclear:

There are differing accounts of when things soured. Efforts to get comments from both Fisher and Snead were unsuccessful on Wednesday. But the problems have been an open secret in league circles for some time.

That said, the relationship between Fisher and Snead has been consistently described to me as “toxic.” And it’s been that way for a while.

Here’s what a different club source told Breer:

“It’s always good to have healthy tension between the coach and GM, but that shouldn’t hurt the team or cause finger-pointing,” said another club source. “Over five years, (Tuesday) was the first time you saw public comments. That should never happen. … The organization has given them a long leash. And given that they’ve had time, they have to win, and they have to be able to work together.”

Regardless, both Fisher and Snead are in the same boat as being responsible for building this roster that has failed miserably. It would make sense for the pair to band together and try to fix this, but it doesn’t appear that will happen.