Steve Smith: Politics' Limited My Opportunities with Rams

[jrry32]

Steve Smith, if you were so good, you'd have a team right now. You retired because you didn't have it. I watched you play and you sucked in 2012. You had no burst and you had no explosiveness. You could NOT separate. I'm not a Steve Smith fan.

 

[blue4]

That is absolutely untrue. Cases in point.
The ONLY reason Stacy got a chance to play was because both Richardson and Cunningham were hurt. Other then that Fisher and Shottenheimer were too stupid/stuborn whatever to see his potential. Even more so when the running game was sucking and they still were not trying something different with Stacy or Pead. Pead who has actually played well at RB when given the chance.
I could see in preseason Bailey was a dynamite receiver yet he got no snaps for almost half the season. Then when
Actually Steve Smith confirms what I have felt for a long time. Fisher just can't let the best players play. He seems to have some hang up that a young and new player has to "earn" his way into the lineup by playing way way better then the current starters. At least that's what it seems like to me. And if this happens to Donald this year I am going to be pissed.

Stacy earned his 3rd string with a poor preseason performance and Richardson earned his starting gig by playing well in actual football games the year before.

Bailey probably was learning the offense, he played his way into the lineup by strong special teams play. So how could he do that if Fisher doesn't play good players? I don't think anyone thought Bailey was dynamite in preseason, and no indication was given that he was in practice either. Dynamite? There was a lot of optimism, though, but there was that around all the WRs.

The only thing Steve Smith confirms for me is that there were good reasons that he didn't play.

Pead has by no stretch of the imagination has played well anywhere but occasionally on STs. When it became clear his job was no longer safe because of his draft status.

 

[UnknownREknown]

Politics must also be keeping him retired, I'm sure...

 

[cracengl]

Maybe he was better than "some" of the receivers we had. But if he wasn't playing head and shoulders above every guy, why waste the opportunity to give the younger guys reps? Alas, I find it really hard to believe that if he would have helped the team that much that they would have willfully kept him on the bench. Nothing written or observed about Fisher's regime has ever hinted to the fact that they looked at year 1 or 2 as rebuilding or "lost" years. Plenty has been written about Fisher being unwilling to let them believe they weren't there to win and hellbent on letting competition decide a player's fate. Have some guys managed to get in the doghouse? Sure. But, going 7-9-1 year 1 was a bit of an over achievement for a team one year past the Spags debacle, so I doubt they kept Steve off the field because he wasn't their guy. If they are so enamored with "their" guys, I'm sure they could have found a receiver that had played during Fisher's time with the Titans. Oh and I know we all know what sacrificing talent for "your guy" looks like. That's how we ended up with the term "FOSL."

 

[Boffo97]

This topic begged for creation of a new meme...

 

[RamFan503]

That is absolutely untrue. Cases in point.
The ONLY reason Stacy got a chance to play was because both Richardson and Cunningham were hurt. Other then that Fisher and Shottenheimer were too stupid/stuborn whatever to see his potential. Even more so when the running game was sucking and they still were not trying something different with Stacy or Pead. Pead who has actually played well at RB when given the chance.
I could see in preseason Bailey was a dynamite receiver yet he got no snaps for almost half the season. Then when
Actually Steve Smith confirms what I have felt for a long time. Fisher just can't let the best players play. He seems to have some hang up that a young and new player has to "earn" his way into the lineup by playing way way better then the current starters. At least that's what it seems like to me. And if this happens to Donald this year I am going to be pissed.

First of all, Benny was not injured to start the season. Richardson had played well behind SJ so he was going to get the nod coming into the season Fisher or not. Pead had one decent run. I don't think you could call averaging 1.7 yards per carry "playing well when given a chance". They were also trying to run an offense based more on spread concepts that would take advantage of the skill sets of DR - not a RB like Stacy. Clearly that wasn't working so they made the change.

Fisher played all kinds of young and unproven players and players you could hardly argue were his guys. The idea that Fisher just can't let the best players play is silly at best. Just because you think you see a player play well in a few situations, doesn't mean that player is consistently showing it and doing it. We all saw Sted flash bright. But was he always getting it right on the field? I don't know and I'm quite certain you don't either. And taking the word of a player that couldn't see the field the previous season and has since retired, though supposedly healthier than ever, over what the coaches and many of us saw is a real eye roller.

Acting like you know more about football and calling our coaches stupid is pretty lame as far as I'm concerned. Cite specific instances and disagree with their choices - that's fine. But calling anyone within our organization stupid or any other name isn't really going to fly here.

 

[HometownBoy]

That is absolutely untrue. Cases in point.
The ONLY reason Stacy got a chance to play was because both Richardson and Cunningham were hurt. Other then that Fisher and Shottenheimer were too stupid/stuborn whatever to see his potential. Even more so when the running game was sucking and they still were not trying something different with Stacy or Pead. Pead who has actually played well at RB when given the chance.
I could see in preseason Bailey was a dynamite receiver yet he got no snaps for almost half the season. Then when
Actually Steve Smith confirms what I have felt for a long time. Fisher just can't let the best players play. He seems to have some hang up that a young and new player has to "earn" his way into the lineup by playing way way better then the current starters. At least that's what it seems like to me. And if this happens to Donald this year I am going to be pissed.

LOL, Pead played his own way out of the lineup. You're not gonna sway people to your side trying to say politics kept Pead out and not his butterfingers.