When Les Snead was hired as the Rams’ new general 12 days ago, he knew he would be making a major adjustment.
Not only was he leaving an organization that was successful for one that has won 15 games over the last five seasons, but he went from being with a team (Atlanta) that didn’t have a first-round pick to one with the second overall selection.
When he was introduced to the media on Valentine’s Day, Snead was asked if he had already discussed that second pick with coach Jeff Fisher and chief executive Kevin Demoff.
“Yes, we’ve had the conversation,” Snead said. “And with that second pick, I think you ask the question because just like you, we realize there are many options with that pick. Here’s what I will tell you: we will be well prepared to take advantage of any option presented. Whether it’s trading the pick or picking a player at that pick.”
That preparation begins in earnest this week in Indianapolis where the Rams’ coaching and personnel staff descend on the city to evaluate this year’s college class over the next six days.
There will be workouts for the players, medical information will be gathered and the Rams can conduct 60 formal 15-minute interviews. In addition, it’s likely the Rams’ brass will begin preliminary conversations with teams that could be looking to move up and acquire the Rams’ selection.
Much of the next two months will be spent assessing any potential trade offers while being mindful of players the Rams would be interested in if they stay at No. 2 or move down.
While the free-agent signing period begins March 13, Snead has made it clear the draft is where the foundation of a team has to be built while using every means possible to add talent.
Said Snead, “I think you get your pillars of your team through the draft. I will say this though, there’s a lot of methods to get players in this league. If you looked at our organization in Atlanta, we traded for a Hall of Fame tight end (Tony Gonzalez) and it worked out well for us. We took a player off of one of your rivals’ practice squads (49ers) who ended up being a starting guard for us and now he’s a starting guard for this organization (Harvey Dahl). Our starting kicker’s from the UFL (Matt Bryant), so I think it’s up to us to really take advantage of all avenues.
“We’re going to ask our personnel department, whoever’s in charge of those avenues, of managing those avenues, to always be on the lookout to find better players for us. Now, from a standpoint of the player, I do think this is a league where you need to have urgency, you need to have passion and instincts from an intangible standpoint. I think you need to be competitive. I think you need to want to be a part of something bigger, you want to be a teammate. I think in this league though, it’s an explosive league, it’s a league that has space, so I think you have to find guys in a short area that are very, very explosive in that short area.”
One reality for Snead and Fisher is they will be relying to a large extent on what the team’s present scouts and personnel department have done over the last several months. It can be a nervous time for scouts when new people in charge arrive. Changes often occur, but not until after the draft.
Snead simply wants the staff concentrating on the job at hand.
He said, “We better focus on the decisions that are going to directly affect next year’s season. And that’s we have to focus on. That’s what we will do. And then we’ll worry about the minor details of changing processes and logistics and all that after.”
During his time in Atlanta, Snead managed to stay on board through several changes above him. How did he accomplish that.
“Good question,” he said. “I think there’s a show called ‘Survivor’ and I’ve always said I could go there and win it easily. I think this is what you do, if you read a book, one of my favorites, Who Moved My Cheese?, life is about change. Life is about adjusting. I think anytime I’ve been a part of a regime change, so unfortunately I’ve been a part of some, fortunately I have because it definitely has shown me what is important during those regime changes, what we have to do right now to be successful over the next couple of months.
“I think the No. 1 thing is when the new leadership comes in, you adhere to their program and you try to execute what their program asks you to do. I can tell you this, being a leader of a department, anytime we’ve had a regime change I’ve sat everybody down and said, ‘Don’t be loyal to me. Be loyal to the new leaders, that’s who’s been hired, and let’s go out and do the best we can for them.’ And I will say this, anytime you go through that, that’s your best resume for the new leadership. It’s not really talking or having an interview, but over the course of a couple months showing them what you can do.”
Click here to print this article.