McVay, Kromer, Snead … 10/16 … vids & transcripts

Rams General Manager Les Snead – October 16, 2019

(Opening Remarks)
“I’ll start with our first trade that we made with Cleveland in (OL) Austin Corbett. It starts with our draft prep in the 2018 draft. We liked him coming out, I know we sent (Run Game Coordinator) Aaron Kromer to go work him out, visit with him privately. Then he goes through his rookie season and there’s a regime change there where (Browns General Manager) John (Dorsey) is still there and (Browns Head Coach) Freddie (Kitchens) gets promoted from offensive coordinator to head coach, but a new offensive line coach comes in. I’m actually just discussing some things with John that have nothing to do with Austin. But, he did mention – because of our (T Joe) Noteboom injury – ‘Hey, would you have an interest in Austin?’ So that’s how some of those things come into fruition. We were going to put ‘Note’ (T Joe Noteboom) on ‘IR’ (injured reserve), unfortunately, and we had a spot at ‘OL.’ That’s someone we appreciated the versatility coming out and said, ‘Hey, let’s try to work something out.’ It takes a little bit of 2018 draft prep, it takes an unfortunate injury to ‘Note’ and it leads to that.

Let’s get to the two other trades that – poor Austin Corbett, nobody’s here to probably talk about Austin, even though he was the No. 33rd in that ’18 draft. I’ll go back to the ’19 draft of where – if we go again, a telescopic view of how this happens and some context. We did know coming into that draft that, from our corner situation, we had two unrestricted free agents. We didn’t know in that draft there was a subset of corners that were quality players that we liked, subjectively. Again, you always say time will tell. There’s a projection element and then there’s a development element. Then, you’ve got to live up to the projection, per se. We were predicting that where we were drafting, based probably a lot on the quality of some of the front seven players in last year’s draft – again, that’s the right appeal. But, you felt like when we went to pick, at some point, there was going to be a corner available that we liked and might be wise to, again, add young, youth based on the uncertainty of going into the season with two players that are unrestricted free agents. Then, interestingly, we get to preseason – a lot of these calls begin occurring even in the preseason because we had, again, three proven players, three players that we ended up keeping that had really good preseasons. One player that we cut, actually, was claimed, so we ended up keeping six – let’s call it – younger players, with little less proven because of, again, that uncertainty with this corner situation. The calls probably began at the preseason, ‘Hey, would you release one of those or trade one of those younger players?’ Again, this is all building up to where it ended yesterday. Those teams have always felt like our corner situation was somewhat strong – or at least deep – whether it was an unproven player or a veteran player.

Here’s how it unfolded again with (former Rams CB) Marcus (Peters). I’ll start with this with Marcus – any time you’re a ‘GM’ (general manager) and you call a player like him and tell him that you’re trading him, you actually walk down the hall and there’s a moment where you go, ‘Okay, I wish I would’ve never taken this job’ because that’s not a call you want to make. Unbelievable how Marcus handled it – extreme professionalism. He was in downtown L.A. and I said, ‘Hey, I know a lot of people here would like to say goodbye, starting with (Head Coach) Sean (McVay) and your coaches. I understand and respect your emotions. If you’d like to maybe just get on a plane and move on to the next chapter.’ He said, ‘You know what, I’m going to get up there a little bit later and say goodbye.’ I can tell you this about Marcus Peters – he’s one of the most authentic human beings I’ve ever met. He’s going to continue making impacts both on the field and off the field. Nothing but respect for that human being. It’s always tough and I’m pulling for him. In this whole determination as you go through – again, starting with last year’s draft, all the things that we have to do from a telescopic standpoint of figuring out the present and the future – was that we might not be able to give him a second contract. Instead of unloading maybe one of our unproven, younger corners, with interest in Marcus it might be time and best for us to move him so that he can start his next chapter and we can start ours.

Somewhere even before this all started, obviously, (Rams CB) Jalen Ramsey’s situation became apparent that he didn’t want to be a Jaguar. If you have teenagers in the room – I remember when it first came out. My teenagers kind of like to get into that type of scenario. I remember watching the Thursday night game and they were all in there. I believe it was against Tennessee and he had this really good game and I told the kids, ‘Well, not getting Jalen Ramsey.’ But, they were taking it like, ‘Wait I minute, he played really good – that’s pretty cool.’ The narrative after that game is no way the Jags should trade Jalen Ramsey and things like that. I knew (Jaguars General Manager) Dave (Caldwell) and I – any time an opportunity presents itself, as an organization, you’ve got to determine, ‘Hey, should we seize that opportunity? Is it the right time for us? Is it a better time for someone else?’ You always reach out and keep tabs. Dave and I have a long working relationship, so that always helps. Ultimately, when we were able to move Marcus and, let’s call it, increase our salary cap room because of that move, it did actually make us a viable player in trading for Jalen Ramsey. So that’s a little bit how the day started. It didn’t just happen yesterday morning, it probably started in the 2019 draft and probably even in ’18, that led in to 2019. We liked (Rams CB) Darious Williams in the draft. Didn’t draft him, tried to get him as a college free agent, failed there. He was cut sometime early into the ’19 season and we claimed him and added him for depth because you’re always trying to add players. It’s a combination of what they did in college and what they’re doing in the NFL. With that being said, that’s a telescopic context, not made for TV explanation of how yesterday went and how it ended.”

(On if this season opened his eyes and made him look further down the line to start thinking about the future)
“As a general manager, it’s different, right. Sean and I have two very different jobs. He’s dialed in on the microscopic right now, he’s dialed in on preparing for the Atlanta Falcons. I think, as a general manager, you’re always trying to analyze, figure out, along with collaboration with many staff members. Okay, here’s what tomorrow looks like and that’s as simple as an injury to Joesph Noteboom, an injury to John Johnson that is unexpected, but expected in that you always know that any team, not just us, is going to get bad luck. And then, there is that element of telescopic look of, okay, here’s what’s coming, are we going to address situations by resigning players that are on their last contract? Or if we don’t resign, are we going to fill that need from within or hole from within? Can it be addressed in the trade, free agency? All of that takes preparation in August, September, October, November. The difference is, you can’t necessarily look at just one game, let’s call it a negative result of one game and now that’s the reason you make a decision. That’s what we do in probably in front offices, but is more of a cumulative approach.”

(On what goes into calculating if a trade is worth giving up a first-round pick)
“That’s a really good question, interesting formula. If you look at how we’re done it in the past. What we try to do here is, how to maximize, how to utilize the methods to acquire the best players for the Rams at a specific moment, in a specific situation. By that I mean, there is a difference in a first rounder and a fourth rounder, or even a fourth rounder and a seventh rounder. You’ve got be realistic, there is even a difference right whether you claim someone at the cutdown because you’re claiming someone who actually didn’t make a 53 (man roster) versus claiming someone during the season because they’ve actually made a 53 (man roster). How do you maximize the methods that we are able to acquire the best players? Obviously, draft picks being a very key component in that. We look at our formulas as this, we’ve done it in the past. Depending on the phase of where you’re at, how many core players you have and things like that. Are we building? Are we close to breaking through? Have we broken through? Are we contending? If we are contending, how do we keep contending? Consistency is the most important thing. I think those stages come in to play and you’re always going to ask yourself the question of, is it best to utilize draft picks to either move up and get who you actually, you obviously would assume would be a player with high potential or a higher projection, but again it’s still a projection, or are you going to use your picks to move back, acquire more picks to again, continue to acquiring players that still has a projection element to them and you’ve got to develop them or are you going to use them with players who’ve either proven their projection, more know commodities? Really good calculus formula, that’s really the basis of how we go about doing it.”

(On if he had a chance to talk to Ramsey and his agent before the trade)
“We actually did do that once. Once we came to a handshake agreement, we did let Jacksonville know we would like to, not necessarily talk to Jalen, again that’s all part of the process, but to talk to his representatives and give our long-term view and get his that’s definitely part of the conversation, these type of moves.”

(On if everyone liked Ramsey)
“Yes, Definitely.”

(On if he anticipates Ramsey will get a contract extension next season and if there is a timeline on it)
“No, no timeline on that. We did put a timeline a little bit in place with it. I don’t want to give to many details on that. Again, we are just meeting Jalen today. Obviously. He to date, has earned a chance to probably giet a nice contract for the job he does and the position he plays.”

(On how it’s different than when trading for Peters and decided not to extend him)
“I think the biggest difference is two different players, that would be the biggest difference. Ultimately, there is going to be similarities in that situation as we finish this season and go through the next season, see where we are at as a team, how the defense is playing, things like that. What pieces do we need, I call, make pillars for, a little bit longer haul?”

(On if Ramsey will play this Sunday’s matchup against the Falcons)
“Here’s what’s interesting, don’t know how much he has been doing. our athletic performance group has talked with the Jacksonville Jaguars. He is interesting. We’ve got to get him here and assess and analyze, okay, wait a minute, he’s flying from. Jacksonville to L.A. today, flying back to Atlanta on Friday. Then we will spend time in Atlanta and fly to London on Thursday. We’ve got to be very intentional on how we utilize him. Atlanta and then what that does for the London game with Cincinnati, especially considering the travel. That’s to be determined. Again, that’s another calculus equation. We’ll let (Rams Senior Director, Sports Medicine and Performance) Reggie (Scott) and (Rams Director of Strength Training and Performance) Ted (Rath), and their crew. I told them today, ‘Hey, I’m sure you will give us a very intelligent and wise assessment.”’

(On never shying away from getting outspoken players with big personalities as long as they are of the caliber and how comfortable he is with Ramsey being able to fit to the Rams’ framework)
“Very comfortable. One of the assessments of that is when you do research on them, you realize – first thing I want to know is do the love football? Is this the chapter they are focused on and do they love winning? Ultimately, we’re all going to go through some situations that you’re going to have some outbursts, but a lot of times with the research, it was maybe because of a loss or a bad play or things like that. These are young kids, so they don’t have the emotional intelligence that I’ve acquired, but didn’t have probably at Jalen’s age.

(On if he anticipates OL Austin Corbett taking over a starting role or if he will be in more of a backup role)
“Right now, we will fill our starting role from within. I’ll let Sean discuss that. I know there’s definitely a plan there and Austin doesn’t know the system. I think right now, he’s a player we would have potentially drafted and I think we would look at him as getting that player a year later. At that point, it’s on us and himself to learn the system and teach the system and develop more.”

(On what makes Ramsey unique as a cornerback in this league to invest that much in him)
“It’s been probably well said since we did the trade. His positives is he has a skillset. My teenagers asked me, there’s an element of mom, dad, God gave him length, right. So, when you have length, you can get your hands on people at the line of scrimmage that some people can’t just because mom, dad, God didn’t give them the length of other players. He can run, mom, dad, God gifted him with agility and then short-air quickness. I’m pretty sure, a level of confidence that, yeah, put me over there on the best player and I’ll do my best to slow him down for the day. There’s only a few players like that. He happens to be one of them. Not saying that there are not a lot of good corners out there, but since he’s been in the league, he’s shown the ability to be able to get on an island. If you look at some of the receivers he’s played against, whether it was in Pittsburgh a couple of years in the playoff run, whether it was against (Texans WR) DeAndre Hopkins, things like that. You’ve got a good subset of case studies to go watch and it was actually fun studying him. You come away very impressed with how he approaches the game in pass and in the run, tackling and covering and you’re very impressed with mom, dad and God and what they gave this kid.”

(On what gave them the motivation to pull the trades off yesterday)
“Yesterday, Austin Corbett was the injury to Joseph and then, teams have been connecting with me on corners for a while now. Again, it was really, probably attacking some of the guys who weren’t playing. And then, there was an element of would you ever do this guy? We probably had some stipulations on Marcus because (he was) very influential in our building. We liked him. If I gave the details, which I normally don’t, would be some teams said, ‘Well, would you take on some of his salary?’ It was an easy no in that. We respect Marcus so much that there’s no way we’re going to make a phone call and say, ‘Hey, we’re trading you, but oh by the way, we’d like for you to renegotiate our contract, so you can help us go out the door.’ Couple of teams eventually with needs said that they would do it. Then, it became okay do we do this? You have to sit down and again, self-assess, think about the now, think about the future. Once we came to conclusion that it could be the best thing for Marcus and the Rams and I always say the Rams first and Marcus because that’s the way it goes unfortunately sometimes. Then, that did open the door for our ability to acquire Jalen. The course said that it was probably really good timing. This might not have been able to happen had he had a bad Thursday night game and they traded him the next day.”

(On if Young was also a player that he liked)
“Yeah, he was right down the street. With we’re pretty thin at linebacker and we knew that he can run. It was interesting as your talking through (CB) Marcus (Peters) thing that they brought him up and how you act is that as I’m talking to (Ravens General Manager) Eric (DeCosta), their general manager, I knew we had liked him in college. We had some affinity for what he could do in college because he was right down the road. I knew he had started a good bit of games, so we call it ‘blue man.’ I can punch blue man and filter out his plays and I got (Director, Pro Scouting) Ray Agnew, ‘Hey, run down and see if (Special Teams Coordinator) Coach (John) Fassel would appreciate him.’ Again, because of the (LB) Bryce Hager injury a couple of weeks ago, we had been talking about, ‘What if he can’t go, do we need to get a linebacker?’ It was nice timing on Kenny as well.”

(On if there was a risk when trading Peters and not yet having secured Ramsey or if he had a good sense that Ramsey would be coming to the Rams)
“Obviously, Sean and I talk a lot more about these big picture, telescopic situations more than with the assistant coaches, but I do know that I sat down with (Defensive Coordinator) Coach (Wade) Phillips, with (Cornerbacks Coach) Aubrey (Pleasant), with (Safeties) Coach ‘E’ (Ejiro Evero) – defensive backs staff and we talked through the scenarios. You did have to talk through playing the rest of the season, playing (Falcons WR) Julio Jones and (Falcons WR Calvin) Ridly without Marcus and with who we have if this couldn’t happen because nothing’s certain. Especially in situations like that.”

(On getting to the point where he liked what he heard from the questions he asked)
“Well, the neat thing is we’ve got a backup quarterback that you can just walk right down the hall and have a conversation with him, so that helps. It’s more than that. It goes back to what we did on him coming out, and you do that on every player even though that year is when we traded up for (QB) Jared (Goff), so you know you’re not getting a Jalen Ramsey or you really would have thought we were nuts if we did all that and picked a corner. You still do your do diligence then. You still have people that are connected to him that started back then and you continue doing the vetting process.”

(On getting LB Dante Fowler in addition to Blake Bortles)
“We got Dante, we have Jacque McClendon director of player engagement. There’s a lot of Jacksonville ties here.”

(On the stage of the CB Marcus Peters deal and where he was with CB Jalen Ramsey and if it was a gamble)
“You have to take those separately, you have to discuss Marcus Peters without the insurance of Jalen. That had to be done, that’s the only way to do it because there’s no certainty.”

(On there not being certainty, but was he confident that he would be able to get Jalen Ramsey)
“What I did know is the intel that I had from Dave was it could be time for them to move, versus a week or two ago they were holding pat and were going to keep him. That’s what I knew is there was a possibility to do that. That was the only piece of evidence. I’m well aware there were a few other teams involved and again it’s a market and it’s competitive. So, can you actually beat those teams? If they were willing to trade. I did have enough discussions with Dave that the timing could be right to make the move.”

(On Owner Stan Kroenke’s feedback during these discussion)
“You definitely got to take these to him. They were at the owners meeting him and (COO) Kevin (Demoff). You talk through very similar how I opened it. He’s been aware of some of this from the beginning in terms of it’s not just a one-day discussion. It’s okay we do have uncertainty there, are we going to re-sign anyone that we have? If not, how are we going to approach not necessarily ’19 but at that point we’re at ’20 is it via the draft, is it via the trade, via free agency? If you didn’t re-sign anyone you knew you’re either going to go from within or figure it out from there. It wasn’t like we just sprung it on him.”

(On the decision to trade first round pick and related to confidence in the teams young offensive linemen)
“I think the answer’s yes. Anytime you draft a player whether it was ’19,’18, ’17 or even next year’s draft and they don’t have experience at whatever position they are there is going to be an element where you have to get the individual experience and obviously the collective group, position group that they’re a part of experience playing together. Anytime you draft someone that is the goal. Like we acquired (OL) Austin Corbett, going back to the original paradigm, there’s methods to acquire players and you try to acquire the best players for the Rams. Specific positions at specific times.”

(On how this effects how aggressive they might be going into the trade deadline)
“You’re asking a lot (laughs). I do think it does affect okay there’s not a lot more we could probably do. I think when you get a reputation that you’re willing to make moves… two people do make cold calls, right? It is some interesting ideas being floated. You always have to assess those.”

(On his overall assessment of where the team is now)
“I think I answer it – we won three straight, we lost three straight. Because of regency bias, three straight losses you kind of feel those more than the three straight wins. Ultimately, that’s the past, it’s occurred, it’s our reality, it happened. Depending on what record you had in the first six games it shouldn’t affect the next 10 – it’s up to us. Let’s call it ‘make the math work in our favor or where you want it to be’. It’s not happening today. We can’t increase a win or get another win in that category today. We can’t do it at 1 pm on Sunday, probably going to happen around 4 pm on Sunday. The key being this there’s a lot of things we can do, that we can control, to prepare to play a role against the Falcons and then go from there.”