Demoff on the Beast 2-19 (including official transcript)

Rams CEO Kevin Demoff updates free agency, move to Los Angeles

Vincent Bonsignore

link: http://www.insidesocal.com/nfl/2016/02/20/rams-ceo-kevin-demoff-updates-free-agency-move-to-los-angeles/

I got the chance to talk to Los Angeles Rams President and CEO Kevin Demoff on my radio show on The Beast 980 Friday. Demoff touched on a number of subjects, including having to release popular players like James Laurinaitis and Chris Long, the status of contract negotiations with unrestricted free agent cornerbacks Janoris Jenkins and Trumaine Johnson and the daunting process of moving an entire franchise across the country.

Here is a transcript:

IT HAD TO BE DIFFICULT TO RELEASE LB JAMES LAURINAITIS, DE CHRIS LONG AND TE JARED COOK

It’s a tough day. I feel like, it’s one of those, we’ve used the word bittersweet over the last month, but anytime you lose the type of players and people we lost today or move on from them it is truly bittersweet. It’s exciting times, but it’s a tough day for the Rams.

ARE THESE MOVES JUST THE TYPICAL ATTRITION OF AN NFL OFFSEASON AS IT RELATES TO THE SALARY CAP AND FREE AGENCY?

I think it’s a cliche to say this is what happens every offseason, but it is. You take a look at your team, you take a look at your growth plan, where you’re at, where your players are at and who fits the scheme of what you’re trying to do. We weren’t entirely positive moving forward on the best fits for these guys, and when you head into the combine, and with everything going on with the change in our offseason, we didn’t want people to move their families, come out here and maybe go into camp on uncertain footing. We wanted to provide them clarity. Especially guys like John and Chris, who have been the longest tenured players on our team. They deserved the clarity, they deserved the chance to go into free agency and be free agents and not have it dangled. We felt it was best to give them that news and clarity now and that was the best way to handle it.

IS THERE A CHANCE ANY OF THE THREE CAN COME BACK TO THE RAMS?

I think there is a scenario in which any of these players can come back. And one of the reasons we wanted to do this was give them the chance to go to Indianapolis and see what the market is for them and understand their options. And at the end, if there is a deal that works out for them and for us, that door is never closed. When (head coach) Jeff (Fisher) and (general manager) Les (Snead) and I talked to them today, we all wished them well and we would never close the door on that as a potential option. But when you make these kinds of moves it’s always with the understanding it’s likely the players won’t come back by their choice or by our choice. Could we bring them back? Sure. But rather than talk to them about a pay cut, it’s better for them to see the market and understand the market, and then if they want to come back we can revisit those discussions at a later time.

ANY UPDATE ON CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS WITH CORNERBACKS JANORIS JENKINS AND TRUMAINE JOHNSON?

When you get to this point in the season everybody always wants to peek into free agency, they at least want to peek into the legal tampering period and see what somebody else may be offering and where it stands. We’ve been talking to Janoris and Trumaine for over a year and we’ve been close to deals at times and we’ve been far apart on deals at times. It’s a process. I think the great part is, they both love playing for coach Fisher, they’re excited about the move to Los Angeles, they want to be part of this, and when you add in a Rodney McLeod, our starting safety, they all want to be back together and help this team breakthrough.

I think with all of our free agents that’s one of the things that gives us great comfort. They all love playing for coach Fisher, they love being a part of our organization. All of them are homegrown, for the most part, and they believe in what we’re doing. Now, things get crazy when free agency starts, people throw money around, but we’ve always planned for this offseason having a lot of salary cap space and having a lot of cash available to make sure we can keep that core. But I also look at it as having good free agents you want to keep means that Jeff and Les and our scouts have done their job and developed this roster.

HOW DIFFICULT IS THE BALANCING ACT PREPARING FOR NEXT SEASON BUT ALSO MOVING A FRANCHISE?

I have bigger plates, that’s all I can say. We’re now in the buffet line and you take it all on. Some of it, it’s great to have days like next week. We always said (before approval for relocation) ‘the combine is in Indianapolis, then free agency starts right after that, the draft is going to be April 28th, and whether we’re the Los Angeles Rams or not we have the 15th pick and we have to go prepare for the football season. Right now our coaches are hard at work, working on the schemes, especially offensively with (new assistants) Rob Boras, Mike Groh, Skip Peete working on how to fix our offense. And I think Gregg Williams – and a lot of what we see today – Gregg Williams and Jeff Fisher and the defensive coaches sitting down figuring out what we did well, what we need to do better and making sure our personnel fits that. So from a football perspective, it’s no different than any offseason. From a business perspective, it’s obviously very different as we try to set up a home in Los Angeles. When you try to merge those things – and you can give clarity to coaches and staff and players like we did today – I think it’s better to do it sooner rather than later.

WITH THE MOVE TO L.A. IS THERE ADDED PRESSURE THIS OFFSEASON TO PUT A WINNING TEAM ON THE FIELD?

More pressure than St. Louis? No. You always want to put out a winner. But I think, obviously, you’re under a microscope from a whole different segment. In St. Louis you had a fanbase, they knew your players, they knew your team and they followed it forever. I think people’s first look – and one of the things in Los Angeles, you have a lot of people who might be Steelers fans or Browns fans or Giants fans growing up. All of a sudden they’re new (Rams fans) and they want to believe in your team but they want to get behind a winner. Certainly for us, we have to find a way to break through. We’ve been at the cusp. But we need to make sure we develop a winner. That’s true every year. But I think you’d be naive to think it doesn’t play a bigger role this year than it has past years. Not that your try more or you care any more, but I do think the microscope and the spotlight are on our organization in a way it has not been the last few years.

ANY UPDATE ON HEADQUARTERS AND TRAINING CAMP SITES?

We’re still looking, we’re close. But it’s like free agency, nothing is final until you sign the contract. I think we’ve made progress. We are looking mainly at Oxnard for the offseason workouts, it’s a turn key facility with what the Cowboys have done up there. From there – the Cowboys will be coming back in July – we need to find a new training camp home and we’ve talked to a number of different universities about that opportunity.

We’re looking for what I call permanent/temporary space all around Los Angeles, with a focus on the (San Fernando) Valley area, and trying to get a handle on what that might look like and where that might be. And from there, where can your get office space. And of course, finding the permanent practice facility is an on-going process which will probably take most of 2016, is my guess. But hopefully by March 1st we’ll have nailed down most of this.