audio link: snead interview

[Anonymous]

AUDIO:

[rp3]http://cdn16.castfire.com/audio/303/2117/16883/1052236/hillandschlereth_2012-07-03-153836-6701-0-0-0.48.mp3[/rp3]

John Kincade and Mark Schlereth speak to Rams GM Les Snead and Schlereth answers listeners questions on the NFC West as part of Hill and Schlereth's NFL Summer.

NFL Summer: Sizing up the NFC West

By Mike Sando
ESPN.com

http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcwest/post/_/id/69232/nfl-summer-sizing-up-the-nfc-west

ESPN has kicked off "Hill & Schlereth's NFL Summer" with a look at the NFC West this week.

An interview with St. Louis Rams general manager Les Snead gets things going. Snead keeps the usual offseason excitement in perspective by pointing out how the Rams' status as the NFL's youngest team comes with a price: inexperience.

This audio clip transitions away from Snead to Mark Schlereth's thoughts on the division.

Schlereth picks the San Francisco 49ers to win the NFC West with a record around 11-5 based on their championship-caliber defense, Alex Smith's improvement and the personnel upgrades the team made on offense. He thinks Smith is the best quarterback in the division right now. He also thinks the rest of the division got better this offseason.

Schlereth apparently disagrees with my contention that the Seahawks could have "hidden treasure" at wide receiver. He calls into question Mike Williams' credentials as a No. 2 receiver while downgrading the position overall. I don't think the Seahawks are counting on Williams (his roster spot does not appear assured, in my view). But if some of the younger players fail to develop -- Golden Taint comes to mind -- Schlereth could be right about the position overall. Sidney Rice's durability is another legitimate question mark.

We should have additional segments to post as the week continues.

 

[Anonymous]

[textarea]AUDIO:

[rp3]http://cdn16.castfire.com/audio/303/2117/16883/1052236/hillandschlereth_2012-07-03-153836-6701-0-0-0.48.mp3[/rp3]

John Kincade and Mark Schlereth speak to Rams GM Les Snead and Schlereth answers listeners questions on the NFC West as part of Hill and Schlereth's NFL Summer.[/textarea]

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THE SNEAD PART (starts right off and lasts 7 1/2 minutes)

What do you think of the roster?

I know we're the youngest roster, and I like what we've done, but with youth there's inexperience. Like what we've done but these guys are going to have to go to battle and become experienced.

Brockers?

Can't judge yet. Underpants olympics so far. Bust rate very high on defensive linemen. Brockers is young, redshirt sophomore coming out. But he's a natural leader, he puts in the work and studies, so for a 21 year old kid he's mature. Everyone sees that with him.

What does it mean to find "Fisher types"?

19 year experienced head coach, he knows what he wants. But he's not set in stone about this or that scheme, at the end of the day he wants talented players. He'll say "that guy can help us, we'll adjust the scheme."

Any consideration of drafting RG3 & trading Bradford?

First time he and Fisher went over the roster they opened with the Bradford discussion and were both on the same page. Both thought he was a franchise qb and that they needed to develop him. It was a relatively short discussion. Okay we have that piece let's move on. That decision helped them acquire a lot of picks for the future.

One word to describe how you would like the 2012 Rams to play?

[He can't do one word.] Play urgent, play fast, play enthusiastic...at the end of the day momentum is the word...everyone, opponents included, says they have mementum going forward. They start to win a few in a row and the NFL world notices and goes oh oh, this is a very young team with positive momentum going forward.

Looks good on paper...one big perceived weakness has been your offensive line. Some injuries there, some guys who haven't worked out. How is the line coming together?

That's going to be an interesting one. Snead has known some top OL coaches, like Alex Gibbs. Knows what a good OL coach can do. Well Rams brought in Paul Boudreau from Atlanta. He saw PB work with a bunch of players who maybe weren't the most heralded but the sum of the parts was better than the individuals. Rams will have to rely on that so they can be consistent. As for consistency, he thought that last year the team struggled with just being on the same page. And they had a lot of injuries on that OL. Obviously that's big in trying to be consistent. The OL is developing and once they get into the preseason and get in pads that's where we'll see them gel and see where we're really going to be.