Snead appears on solid ground following draft

Rams GM Les Snead appears on solid ground following NFL draft

Gary Klein

http://www.latimes.com/sports/rams/la-sp-rams-draft-analysis-20170504-story.html

A few hours before last week’s NFL draft, Les Snead and Sean McVay paced the deserted fields at the Rams’ Thousand Oaks practice facility.

They were engaged in separate phone conversations. Snead, wearing earbuds, walked slowly along the sideline of the field closest to the players’ parking lot. McVay, about 60 yards away, marched purposefully with his phone to his ear on a field nearer a hillside trail.

The Rams general manager and coach eventually retreated to join staff in the team’s draft room, where they spent much of three days shoulder to shoulder discussing strategy, reviewing their constantly updated board and making picks.

And when they met with reporters after selecting eight players, they sat side by side at a table and delivered comments that indicated a budding professional respect, if not a full-fledged bromance.

Snead, 46, described bonding with the 31-year-old McVay as “a unique experience …

“Because he’s a rare guy. … He can come into a room and he can fire you up. There’s energy, you want to go to work, you want to be the best, and he’s a big part of that. That’s invaluable.”

Said McVay: “Thank you, Les, that’s very nice of you to say. I think it’s a lot of the same.”

The Rams drafted two wide receivers, a tight end, a fullback, a defensive lineman, two linebackers and a safety.

Will they help fuel a turnaround for a franchise that has not made the playoffs since 2003?

How this draft class performs this season and beyond remains to be seen.

But one thing is clear: After surviving the aftermath of former coach Jeff Fisher’s firing, Snead appears to be on solid footing.

Unlike the Buffalo Bills, who hired coach Sean McDermott in January and then unceremoniously fired Doug Whaley as general manager the day after the draft, the Rams appear willing to give the Snead-McVay pairing a chance.

Snead, like Fisher, signed a two-year contract extension before last season. This year’s draft was his sixth with the Rams.

“The sixth is my favorite,” he said when asked how this year’s experience compared to others. “Concise, clear. It’s a tribute to Sean, it really is.”

The relationship between Snead and Fisher reportedly devolved to the point of toxicity, according to a report on Sports Illustrated’s Monday Morning Quarterback website last December. Snead and Fisher disputed the report, but Fisher was fired less than a week later after an embarrassing loss to the Atlanta Falcons at the Coliseum that dropped the Rams to 4-9 en route to a 4-12 finish.

Since McVay’s hiring, Snead has taken pains not to compare McVay to Fisher, other than to note that the coaches’ musical “playlists” are different.

But his comment about this year’s draft being his favorite was curious, if not revealing. Last year, Snead engineered a historic trade that enabled the Rams to move to the top of the draft and select quarterback Jared Goff with the No. 1 pick.

It was a stunning move that commanded the football world’s attention for more than two weeks. And it delivered — the Rams believe — a franchise quarterback who can lead them for the next decade.

This year without a No. 1 pick was better?

It certainly was lower profile.

The Rams’ first two picks, tight end Gerald Everett in Round 2 and receiver Cooper Kupp in Round 3, played at South Alabama and Eastern Washington, respectively.

Neither program is in the draft realm of a Power Five conference school such as USC, which has produced a record 501 NFL picks, but Snead and McVay sounded confident that both could contribute immediately.

Snead watched Everett and Kupp — along with Boston College cornerback John Johnson (Round 3), Texas A&M receiver Josh Reynolds (Round 4), Virginia Tech fullback Sam Rogers and Tulane defensive tackle Tanzel Smart (both Round 6) — during Senior Bowl workouts in Mobile, Ala., in January.

“The Senior Bowl is a great tool,” Snead said, “because what happens is you get to see, with Cooper and Gerald Everett, they can go there at South Alabama, Eastern Washington and go play with some of the Power Five guys, some of the best seniors in the class and you can see them rise to the occasion or not.”

Snead and McVay also saw Everett and Kupp at the NFL scouting combine in February and during private workouts on the road the week before the draft.

“Being able to see them up close and personal, watch the way that they move, they’re able to catch the football,” McVay said. “These are both guys that can separate and catch the football.”

Rams rookies — including fourth-round pick Samson Ebukam, a linebacker from Eastern Washington, and seventh-round pick Ejuan Price, a linebacker from Pittsburgh — report next week for a minicamp in Thousand Oaks.

McVay and the coaches will put them through their paces. Snead will observe.

“I’m learning a lot from him in terms of how he evaluates,” McVay said of the general manager. “We’re getting on the same page with how we want to see this team, and what’s going to be conducive for that long-term success that we’re striving to create here.”

Snead and McVay worked together through free agency and now the draft. The initial product of their partnership will not be known until the 2017 season has ended.

All is calm.

For now.