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What the Rams Want in Their No. 1 Pick
Posted 11 hours ago
Myles Simmons Rams Insider @MylesASimmons
The Los Angeles Rams are — almost — on the clock.
In just a few days, the NFL Draft will commence in Chicago, and L.A. will get its first draft pick in over two decades. Plus, in true Hollywood fashion, that selection will lead off the entire show.
The Rams made a football decision to trade up with the Titans based on a number of factors, starting with the ability to add a player who can help the club compete year-in and year-out.
“We’ve always said this: if we think there’s a guy there that can really put us over the top — or help us get over the top and mainly stay over the top long-term — then go grab him,” general manager Les Snead said. “And sometimes, you can’t let him come to you because he won’t get there.”
When Los Angeles and Tennessee announced the trade on April 14, Snead said the Rams had about 95 percent of their pre-draft work done for deciding who they wanted at No. 1. The GM added the two weeks between the deal and the draft wold be spent figuring out that final five percent. But at the moment of the transaction, both Snead and head coach Jeff Fisher largely knew exactly what they would like to see in their top pick — both on and off the field.
“Well, obviously the physical ability,” Fisher said. “He’s the top of his draft class — top of a number of draft classes with respect to his ability.”
“I think [at] No. 1, you need to have a special skill set that’s going to allow that skill to translate into production on the field,” Snead said. “But there’s an off-the-field element to it — how that player is going to represent the franchise. Because, guess what, if you get picked No. 1, that’s going to stay with you forever.”
Because of that, the player’s character can be important in the decision-making process.
“Does the guy have the mindset to handle — even though we don’t put the pressure on him — to handle the pressure of being that pick?” Fisher said. “You have to take that into consideration as well.”
One perhaps underrated factor is how the player will also fit in with the club’s established locker-room culture.
“No matter how old you are, [if] you got picked No. 1, you come in the locker room, everybody’s looking at you,” Snead said. “So you’ve got to be able to handle yourself there and, I call it, be a team-blender and not a team-divider.”
A team-blender?
“Because he’s the No. 1 pick, he’s been individualized to a certain extent, been put on a pedestal to a certain extent,” Snead continued. “So when he walks into that locker room, guess what — he comes off that pedestal. No. 1, it really means nothing. ‘I’m a part of the group.’ And there’s qualities in humans that can get us all marching in the same direction. That’s the chemistry we’re looking for.”
Especially as a quarterback, how a player can both adapt to and help set a team’s culture can be vitally important when it comes to how comfortable the group feels around one another. It’s a part of football that is inherently human.
“We’re in an age of video games and making trades. You may play a game against your buddy and make trades, five minutes go and you do another one. That’s just not real life because this is a group of 53 men and all of them have individualized lives,” Snead said. “You’ve got one singular goal for the group, and you’ve got to come together to get that goal accomplished. One man, two, three, a side of the ball — whatever you say — can’t get it done by itself.”
In line with that philosophy, just because a player is the first overall pick does not mean he has to be in the starting lineup right away.
“I always say this whether they’re No. 1, No. 10, or No. 40 — the 40th player may be more ready to play than the No. 1 pick,” Snead said. “Usually, [you] pick someone No. 1 not really based on what happens opening day, but really, you’ve got a vision for three, five, seven, eight years down the road.
“That’s why you make the No. 1 pick,” Snead continued. “And just because you pick him there doesn’t mean he’s got to take the first rep during the season. You put him out there when that player’s ready.”
As for who that pick may be, it’s clear that the choice at No. 1 will be one of two quarterbacks — Jared Goff of Cal or Carson Wentz of NDSU. The team is remaining mum on publicly announcing who that pick will be, but Snead and Fisher have praised both Goff and Wentz leading up to Thursday.
“They both have the ability to be franchise quarterbacks,” Fisher said. “They’re both different — unique styles. But at the end of the day, they win. They’re productive. They’re great leaders. They have great minds. And they’re both equipped to take the next step and be successful.”
“Both of them are going to have successful careers in the NFL,” Snead said. “They both have a certain level of foot quickness and athleticism that make them mobile in the pocket. And they both have strong arms, and those arms come strong in different ways.
“So they’re similar but their flavors are different,” Snead continued. “But I think their similarities are what’s going to make them difference makers in this league.
And in just a few days, we’ll see who the Rams pick to be their difference maker in Los Angeles.
Agamemnonhttp://www.marinij.com/sports/20160425/will-rams-choose-goff-or-wentz
Will Rams choose Goff or Wentz?
By Jon Wilner, Bay Area News GroupPosted: 04/25/16, 6:38 PM PDT | Updated: 5 hrs ago
The quarterback debate at the top of the NFL draft — should the L.A. Rams select Marin Catholic High grad Jared Goff or Carson Wentz? — is the latest iteration of a process that has played out many times over the decades, from Peyton Manning vs. Ryan Leaf and Aaron Rodgers vs. Alex Smith to Andrew Luck vs. Robert Griffin III and Jameis Winston vs. Marcus Mariota.
The public discourse usually focuses on the tangibles, on arm strength and size and mobility and completion percentage and touchdowns.
But at the highest level — the Goff and Wentz level — physical attributes are less important than a quality that cannot easily be measured, according to two of the most successful evaluators of quarterbacks in NFL history.
For Bill Polian, the former Colts executive who picked Manning over Leaf, and Ron Wolf, the ex-Green Bay boss who saw potential stardom in a little-known Atlanta Falcons backup named Brett Favre, the evaluation is ultimately about mental strength, not arm strength.
“The most important thing is the will to win,” Wolf said. “After that, the other attributes fall into place … What’s inside of a guy? Some have ‘it.’ A lot of guys don’t have ‘it.’”
The trick, of course, is identifying “it,” for the evaluation process is fraught with deception and dead ends.
For every Manning, there’s a Leaf.
For every Luck, there’s a Griffin.
For every John Elway, there’s a JaMarcus Russell.
“It’s more art than science, which is why experience helps,” Polian said. “A lot of it is detective work.”
Just as there are busts-in-waiting at the top of the draft — Tim Couch was a No. 1 pick — so are there diamonds in the later rounds: Joe Montana went in the third, Tom Brady in the sixth, Johnny Unitas in the ninth.
Last season, six quarterbacks had a passer rating of 100 or more. Only one, Arizona’s Carson Palmer, was a first-round pick.
“There are so many different things involved in it, and quarterbacks come in all different shapes and sizes,” 49ers coach Chip Kelly said. “There’s somewhat of a prototype, but then if you follow that the whole time, you don’t take a Russell Wilson.”
Polian, a six-time NFL Executive of the Year, pinpointed three criteria that guided his quarterback evaluation process:
Courage in the pocket.
The willingness to remain patient under intense pressure and deliver the ball accurately into a narrow window.
Nimble feet are a bonus, but Cam Newton-esque mobility is hardly essential.
“Tom Brady isn’t a threat to run,” Wolf added, “but he has the wherewithal to step around in the pocket and make things happen. Same with Manning.”
Processing speed.
Quarterbacks, like fighter pilots, must analyze large amounts of information against an ever-shifting landscape, then act quickly — and efficiently — on the recalled information.
The area of the brain responsible for the process, the central executive, cannot be measured by the Wonderlic Cognitive Ability Test given to prospects at the NFL scouting combine.
“The Wonderlic is a benchmark, nothing more,” Polian said.
While evaluating Manning prior to the 1998 draft, Polian and the Colts ordered up a series of intelligence tests and psychological evaluations. They talked to Manning’s coaches and his professors, all in an attempt to understand how his mind worked.
The entirety of the feedback — “It was all marvelous,” Polian said — made Manning the clear choice over Leaf.
Competitive greatness.
For Wolf, this is the “it” factor.
For Polian, it’s “the ability to will a team to success when the odds say no.”
“It’s unmeasurable,” he added, “except with the naked eye.”
But you have to know where to look.
“The people who tell you are the (college) coaches,” Wolf said. “Are they keeping the ball in the quarterback’s hands when the chips are down, or taking it out of his hands?”
Polian recalled scouting Luck during his final year at Stanford — the year Manning was hurt and the Colts tumbled into the No. 1 pick.
He noted that Luck was at less than his best against Cal, at least for three-and-a-half quarters. But with the game on the line, Luck directed a 14-play drive that resulted in the game-clinching field goal.
“When he had to get it done, he did,” Polian said.
“I’ll never forget what one of our assistant coaches said to me during that season. He said, ‘For 13 years, we’ve gotten on the bus knowing that we had a better than even chance to win. But now (because of Manning’s injury), we don’t have that.”
“Isn’t that the best description of what an exceptional quarterback does for an organization.”
Which quarterback in the 2016 draft — maybe it’s Goff or Wentz; maybe it’s Paxton Lynch from Memphis — is the most likely to fill that role?
Chances are, it’s the one who best performs the tasks not easily seen.
“You can’t sustain greatness without intangibles,” said Jon Gruden, the Monday Night Football analyst and former Raiders coach.
“How do they throw into tight windows? How do they throw under duress? How do they rally their team? How do they perform in critical moments? That’s why you have to spend a lot of time studying.”
Agamemnon
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