Recent Forum Topics › Forums › The Rams Huddle › audio: Snead interview (more than an hour)… must listen stuff
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May 19, 2016 at 2:35 pm #44341
znModeratorSchrags sits down for an awesome, laid-back one-on-one with Los Angeles Rams GM Les Snead. The two discuss how Snead got his start in NFL front offices and he shares some of the best stories from his career. Plus, the decision behind trading for the #1 overall pick in this year’s Draft, impressions on Jared Goff, the move to Los Angeles, getting ready to be featured on Hard Knocks, and more!
May 19, 2016 at 4:39 pm #44345
wvParticipantWhat is this “guess what” thing,
Snead has fallen into.w
vMay 19, 2016 at 5:04 pm #44347znModeratorWhat is this “guess what” thing,
Snead has fallen into.w
vIt’s the evolved, more adult version of what players always say–“you know.”
He used to be a college player, but, the brain changes as you grow older. You know?
May 19, 2016 at 5:32 pm #44351wvParticipantWhat is this “guess what” thing,
Snead has fallen into.w
vIt’s the evolved, more adult version of what players always say–“you know.”
He used to be a college player, but, the brain changes as you grow older. You know?
—————-
What if that’s not what’s happening.
What if his mind is slowly being taken over
by some evil mysterious force.I’m not even talkin about some Lizard type force.
Could be amphibians, for all we know.
w
vMay 19, 2016 at 5:48 pm #44356
bnwBlockedYou know I don’t.
The upside to being a Rams fan is heartbreak.
Sprinkles are for winners.
May 19, 2016 at 6:13 pm #44360znModeratorWhat if his mind is slowly being taken over
by some evil mysterious force.I’m not even talkin about some Lizard type force.
Could be amphibians, for all we know.
Don’t be so quick to go against facts that way.
An amphibian would never have drafted Gurley.
/
May 19, 2016 at 6:19 pm #44361wvParticipantDon’t be so quick to go against facts that way.
An amphibian would never have drafted Gurley.
———————-
Snead was there, in the stadium, the day
Gurley’s knee got blown out.Coincidence?
w
vMay 20, 2016 at 1:43 pm #44398
Isiah58ParticipantIf you listen to Snead, he has a couple of mannerisms that come out when he is interviewed. One of them is prefacing everything with “It’s interesting, . . .” But this is a good listen, and I have always like Snead and think he has done a commendable job rebuilding the team.
“Marge, don't discourage the boy! Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the animals! Except the weasel.” - Homer Simpson
May 21, 2016 at 12:31 am #44414znModeratorRams GM explains what Michael Vick’s rise and fall taught the NFL
Andrew Lynch
Before his arrival, the NFL had never really seen anyone like Michael Vick — for better and for worse. And it’s unlikely we’ll ever see another Vick, given everything that transpired during his career.
Current Los Angeles GM Les Snead knows all about Vick’s impact on Atlanta and the league at large. Snead was the director of player personnel for the Falcons during Vick’s time with the Falcons, and he joined FOX Sports’ Peter Schrager this week for a wide-ranging conversation that touched on Vick’s on-field prowess; his off-field transgressions; Rams rookie QB Jared Goff; the Sam Bradford trade from last year; and more.
Of course, Vick’s career exploded in controversy when he was sentenced to nearly two years in prison for his involvement in a dog-fighting ring. Aside from the reprehensible nature of the crime, Snead explained how Vick’s transgressions taught the NFL a much-needed lesson:
“During those situations, you always try to learn something from it and apply it in the future. And I think the best thing that probably happened from all that is you quickly realize that a lot of these young kids are under extreme pressure. And I think with Michael’s sake, he would want to escape and get back to his old friends, just to get away from some of the stresses of being the face of the franchise — the face of the city.
“I think what probably all teams and especially us and myself have carried on is that, number one, you realize these are not just young — you’re not just developing football players. You’re developing young men to men. Not just for their time that they’re with you and your franchise. Because you can play a long time, right? And it’s 10 years, and all of a sudden, a 21-year-old is now 31. … So I think those moments, what you learn from it, “Hey, let’s try to do everything we can to continue playing the college role,” per se. It’s not just a job, it’s not just, “You’re a professional.” Even though you are, and the standards and all of that increase, as they should be, the bar is higher.
“You put in programs or whatever, to develop, if you want to call it, boys to men, and not just football players. That’s what I’ve tried to do and I think a lot of NFL teams from that moment have tried to do.”
Looking back, Snead says that the spectacle surrounding Vick was comparable to what we see in today’s NBA — which likely played into the “pressure” Snead believes Vick faced in Atlanta:
“In Atlanta, during our Super Bowl year, I don’t think we sold out a game, even though we went 14-2. … so that just kind of lets you know where the Falcons were on the meter in Atlanta. But I think what Vick did was made you relevant immediately. He was just one of those players at the time, because he was one of the first running QBs that was electric and can pass the ball. Just one of those — people wanted to come see him play.
“So you had people coming to see him play like you almost would, “Let’s go watch LeBron [James] tonight,” or, “Let’s go watch Steph Curry tonight.” A little bit like the NBA, I think that’s what Vick brought to Atlanta. You had to be there and live it to really get the full, full scope or picture of what Vick meant to that city.”
It’s a fascinating comparison, since football is the ultimate team game, consisting of 11 guys on either side of the ball working in unison. A basketball team, on the other hand, only has five players on the court at any one time, so the stars stand out and drive the NBA. That’s not really the case in the NFL, where we root for our favorite teams first and our favorite players second.
Michael Vick is supporting legislation that will help keep pets safe.
When Vick was drafted by the Falcons in 2001, he immediately made Atlanta relevant as a football city and helped raise the city’s reputation as an entertainment and cultural epicenter. Yes, the Falcons had gone to the Super Bowl in 1998; even that on-field success couldn’t touch the excitement in the early ’00s, however.
As for the present day, Snead revealed just how cool and confident Rams No. 1 pick Jared Goff is with a story from Goff’s pro day before the draft. Check out the podcast for that and more discussion about some of the Rams’ recent personnel moves.
May 22, 2016 at 9:44 pm #44513znModeratorThis was a good audio.
It’s long but in the end worth it.
I found out stuff from it I didn’t know before.
,,
May 23, 2016 at 4:41 pm #44548znModeratorHow the Sam Bradford trade helped the Rams land Jared Goff
Brett Smiley
http://www.foxsports.com/nfl/story/los-angeles-rams-jared-goff-sam-bradford-052316
Heading into the 2015 NFL season, the Rams didn’t set out to trade quarterback Sam Bradford, according to Rams general manager Les Snead, who appeared recently on the Peter Schrager podcast.
Instead, Snead said the Rams’ intention was to explore a restructuring of the contract that would pay Bradford about $13 million, until Snead said “deleting [Bradford] is not the answer,” and trade rumors started swirling.
So the Rams engaged in trade talks with a few teams and ended up striking a deal with the Eagles, shedding Bradford’s salary while adding Nick Foles, but more importantly acquiring a 2016 draft pick from Philadelphia. Snead said (53:00 on the podcast): http://theramshuddle.com/topic/audio-snead-interview-more-than-an-hour/
“Rarely do you see starting QBs swapped. One of the reasons for us, it helped from a financial standpoint, from a cash standpoint.
“And also we did know this: Grabbing that extra second-round pick — whoever was going to be our QB last year, if it didn’t work out, whether it would have been Sam or Nick, we did know it might be time to start looking again, and we knew by getting that extra second-round pick it would give us ammo to be able to maneuver in the draft.”
That second-round pick (No. 45 overall) ended up becoming part of the package of picks the Ram sent to the Titans.
“Having the two twos in this draft was very, very beneficial,” Snead said. “I think that was definitely a core part of it, the meat of the thing. A big part of the foundation of that trade.”
Of course, the Rams also sent the Titans their first- and third-round picks in 2017 in the deal. Would the deal have happened without that second? Maybe, maybe not.
But we do know who that No. 45 pick turned into for the Titans: 2015 Heisman Trophy winner Derrick Henry, running back out of Alabama, who will forever be linked to Goff along with the to-be-determined first-rounder in 2017.
May 23, 2016 at 5:45 pm #44555znModeratorIs Los Angeles Rams GM Les Snead Motivated By Fear?
–X–
Rams GM Les Snead spoke with FOX Sports’ Peter Schrager in a pretty interesting interview last week.
Even without the benefit of hindsight, you can list any number of reasons why Todd Gurley was a great pick by the Los Angeles Rams in the 2015 NFL Draft, several of which were recently illustrated by our own QBKlass.
Speed, vision, power, acceleration, improvisation, fear.
Wait. Fear?
Yes, fear.
As it turns out, fear was one of the main motivators behind the drafting of Todd Gurley according to Rams General Manager Les Snead.
Snead joined FOX Sports’ Peter Schrager last week for an hour long conversation that covered a wide range of topics including, but not limited to, the confidence of Rams rookie QB Jared Goff, the Sam Bradford-Nick Foles trade; the haul from trading the #2 pick in the 2012 NFL Draft to Washington; and how the fear of Todd Gurley ending up elsewhere in the division was a driving force behind the Rams drafting him 10th overall last year.
Snead was in attendance with his son during that fateful Auburn-Georgia game when Gurley ended up injuring his knee, a pretty unsettling sight for the Rams GM to witness not only because it was difficult to see a potential career-altering injury happen to such a great talent, but also because the Rams were already considering taking Gurley in the upcoming draft. In fact, Gurley was second on their draft board behind then Oregon QB Marcus Mariota at the time. Given there was no way Mariota was going to be available, and with Snead anticipating the Rams’ draft slot to be somewhere in the middle of the first round, they were entertaining the thought of Gurley landing there and becoming a great value pick. But now, with the uncertainty of Gurley’s injury, he though maybe they should focus their attention elsewhere. Though, on his drive back to the airport, Snead had a nightmarish vision associated with the thought of Gurley’s draft stock now taking a huge hit and the possibility of him sliding further in the first round.
“Holy cow”, he thought, as the picture began to come into focus. “The Seahawks, they’re gonna end up winning the Super Bowl, and they’re gonna get to pick Todd Gurley.”
What would THAT look like, by the way?
Ew.
However, the nightmare didn’t end there. It was only the beginning of a landscape of horrors.
That’s kind of where my mind was going with this thing. And then from that point forward he could end up going to Arizona, and now we’ve gotta play him twice a year, or he’s gonna fall to ‘San Fran’, and we’ve gotta play him twice a year, so finally we thought, ‘why don’t we just take the guy’?
That’s the kind of generational talent that Snead felt Todd Gurley possessed, even after having just witnessed him lay on the field for several minutes with what appeared to be, and amounted to, a fairly significant injury.
Now the wheels were in motion. There was no way Snead was going to wake up in a cold sweat for the duration of his employment with the Rams after having let Gurley get away. He could not let this nightmare of Todd Gurley gashing the Rams’ defense over and over again come to fruition. It’s even possible that Snead wanted to avoid repeating the mistake that led to losing out on (now Seattle Seahawk) Bobby Wagner – in that you now have a guy you envisioned wreaking havoc for your team, wreaking it on your team instead. Whatever the case, Snead had to get Gurley on this team, and it had to get done quietly. It had to get done quietly because Snead didn’t want other teams to even suspect that the Rams were in the market for a running back in the ’15 draft. And as most Rams fans can attest, it was a successful covert plan. Most fans were looking for the Rams to solidify their offensive line in the draft, and many mocks at the time had the Rams taking Ereck Flowers or Andrus Peat to shore up an offensive line that ranked 31st the year before. When it came time for the Rams to turn in their card, however, Ereck Flowers had already gone to the Giants – but Andrus Peat was still there for the taking.
Nope.
The Rams wasted no time making the pick and quickly scooped up Gurley leaving the ESPN panel covering the draft in moderate shock. Said ESPN panelist Louis Riddick, “The only question I have with this pick is, who’s blocking for him?” Well, Snead had the answer to that question and others similar to it when he was at the podium later that day fielding questions from the media about their selection while basically being scolded for not addressing the offensive line. “Well, we do have six more rounds to go here” was the response, and taking 3 offensive tackles in Rob Havenstein, Jamon Brown, Andrew Donnal; plus a guard in Cody Wichman, was the resulting action. The Rams would also dip into the subsequent supplemental draft and take OT Isaiah Battle from Clemson, forfeiting their 5th round selection in the following year’s draft.
Problem addressed.
By taking the approach of building the trench in front of arguably the best RB to come out of the draft in a decade, the Rams positioned themselves to develop an offense capable of bullying opposing defenses – and as it turns out – give their 2016 first round pick some level of comfort in his transition to becoming a Franchise QB.
That plan was originally meant to benefit Nick Foles; but things work out the way they do.
May 24, 2016 at 3:47 pm #44604znModeratorThis is the 4th article based on that interview, and each article has a completely different content. That’s how much there is in that interview.
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Les Snead: Rams knew Nick Foles trade might fail
Chris Wesseling
The Los Angeles Rams have been trying to solve their quarterback riddle since early in the 2015 offseason, when general manager Les Snead insisted that “deleting” Sam Bradford was not the answer.
Less than a month later, Bradford was summarily shipped to Philadelphia along with a fifth-round draft pick in exchange for Nick Foles, a 2015 fourth-round pick and a 2016 second-round pick.
Appearing on FOX Sports’ The Peter Schrager Podcast last week, Snead insisted that he had no intentions of dealing Bradford until teams starting calling to gauge his quarterback’s availability. The Rams’ preference at the time was to reduce Bradford’s salary after back-to-back ACL surgeries, with the opportunity to earn money back via playing time bonuses.
“And initially you’re like ‘Hey, we haven’t really thought of (trading Bradford),'” Snead said. “Who’s the answer after him? We’re really looking to try to get something done contractually. Those few teams kept calling and calling, now we’re talking about it internally. Eventually, we made the move. You very rarely see starting quarterbacks swapped. One of the reasons for us was it helped us from a financial standpoint.”
As it turns out, the 2016 second-round pick acquired from the Eagles carried more value than Foles. In fact, Snead revealed to Schrager that the team’s brass was not convinced Foles was the answer.
“We also knew grabbing that extra second-round pick, whoever our quarterback was going to be last year might not work out, so it would be time to start looking again,” Snead explained. “We knew by getting that extra second-round pick it would give us the ability to maneuver more in the next draft.”
The Rams went on to sign Foles to a two-year extension last summer, but protected themselves by allocating the bulk of the financial commitment to the 2016 season. By the middle of November, the former Pro Bowl MVP had lost his job to Case Keenum. By the time the offseason kicked off, Foles was persona non grata in Los Angeles.
Realizing there was no chance of competing against the stacked Cardinals and Seahawks without a viable quarterback, the Rams sent a treasure chest of picks to the Titans for draft’s top spot.
If not for the second-round pick originally acquired in the Bradford-Foles trade, Snead might not have pulled off the blockbuster trade for Cal star Jared Goff.
“I do think having the two twos in this draft was very beneficial,” Snead added. “… I think that was definitely a core part of it, a big part of the foundation of that trade.”[/quote]
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