Ken Whisenhunt. Norv Turner. Mike McCarthy. Sean Payton. Mike Tomlin. Eric Mangini. Those are the coordinators hired by NFL teams in the last three seasons that have won playoff games as Head Coaches.

Wade Phillips. Scott Linehan. Brad Childress. Gary Kubiak. Romeo Crennell. Mike Smith. Those are the coordinators hired by NFL teams in the last three seasons that haven’t won playoff games as Head Coaches.

John Harbaugh, Tony Sparano, Jim Zorn and Rod Marinelli don’t count because they weren’t coordinators when they were hired.

Each and every one of these coordinators inspired high hopes among their fan bases when they were appointed, but so far six have won playoff games, six haven’t.

So while we in the media and the fan base sing the praises of the Rams hiring Steve Spagnuolo, we have to keep one important thing in mind. For every win, there’s a loss. For every ascending coordinator that has won a playoff game in the last three years, there’s been one that hasn’t (although it’s unfair to judge Smith at this point).

Nobody wants to see the Rams succeed more than I do, and I HOPE they made the right choice in Spagnuolo and get him good players to coach. But the reality is that there’s just as good a chance that he’ll fail as that he’ll succeed. Because of what the Rams are right now, I was hoping for someone with past success as an NFL Head Coach, that has dealt with some of the difficulties that the Rams coach will have to endure.

Now it’s incumbent upon Billy Devaney to be a stout leader when those difficulties that Spagnuolo hasn’t encountered pop up. I have utmost confidence in Devaney, but recent history tells us that there’s just a 50% chance that this one will work out.