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Inside Rams’ scouting of Robert Rochell: Matching ‘eye-popping’ data with film, projections with Jalen Ramsey
By Jourdan Rodrigue Jun 7, 2021
The third day of the draft is usually a big dart-throwing project, as teams try to add players who may — or may not — one day be contributors on their roster. But for the Rams, establishing a rate of success when picking these later-round prospects — and then developing them from fourth-rounder or later to role-player in the lineup — is crucial to their team-building model. How do they identify these prospects — and how do they match their data and analytics team’s findings with what their scouts are watching on film and experiencing when interacting with players in person?
In this three-part series, The Athletic goes behind the scenes of the Rams’ process, focusing on their first three draft picks of Day 3: Defensive tackle Bobby Brown III, cornerback Robert Rochell and tight end Jacob Harris.
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — The Los Angeles Rams drafted cornerback Robert Rochell at No. 130 this spring, 611 days and 30 completed evaluation reports after they first began scouting him at Central Arkansas.
“We were doing some summer work, especially on guys from FCS schools — small schools. Usually, there is going to be some word of mouth and he came on my radar,” said area scout Cedric Jones, who was a lead on Rochell for the last two years.
“We turned on the film, and (first up) was Western Kentucky. Right away, you could see those physical traits.” Jones said. “And then you start seeing his ball skills.”
Rochell used to play quarterback and receiver in high school, at Fair Park in Shreveport, La., and Jones said it was pretty clear that Rochell is “used to having the ball in his hands.” The Rams, under general manager Les Snead, love drafting former quarterbacks who switched positions (Cooper Kupp, Cam Akers, Tutu Atwell among others). Jones was hooked. He dug deeper.
On one play, Western Kentucky tried to draw Rochell across the field via a dragging receiver. Jones planted, flipped and adjusted to the intended receiver, then closed on the ball and hit the receiver so hard the ball came loose. Excitedly, Jones scribbled something down in his notes for later — something that would come up in meetings about Rochell, as the scouting personnel and data analysts began to match and cross-reference their notes on 2021 prospects in collaborative meetings the following year.
In fact, behind the scenes, the Rams were about to draw up a pretty huge comparison for Rochell, specifically where his athletic traits and how they match them in their system were concerned — a comparison reserved for only a few players over their last five years of analysis. That comparison would, in the month or so leading up to the draft, get defensive coordinator Raheem Morris so excited about Rochell as a prospect that he deemed the rookie corner as one of his “pool party” picks (and one of the few non-front-7 guys on his personal list) — or, a pick who, should the Rams draft him, prompt Morris to dive into the pool at the Malibu draft house.
“Since 2015 — that’s when we started our internal scouting system, called ‘JARS’, we have 5,000 different defensive backs that we have (measurables) on,” said Jake Temme, who is a data and analytics manager for the Rams. “And within our internal mechanism for doing weight-adjusted/athleticism (measurements) — called RSDI (Rams Standard Deviation Index) — he was in the top 10 percent for the cornerback position.”
In that five-year data span, the Rams, said Temme, found there were just four players who satisfied all of the following conditions they use to evaluate defensive backs within their database (which Temme discovered by programming a query of these conditions into the system): The player was drafted, the player was 5-foot-10 or taller, the player was equal to or heavier than 180 pounds, the player jumped 40-plus inches vertically in testing and the player broad-jumped 10 feet or more and the player ran a 4.40-second-or-less 40-yard-dash when averaged between six different times collected between official and unofficial recordings.
“Those four players are Jalen Ramsey, Obi Melifonwu, Derwin James and Robert Rochell,” Temme said. “Pretty rare guy, athletically, to get that late in the draft … I think, in particular, when you’re talking about a guy who we had a ton of scouting on, who then satisfies the physical conditions that we’re talking about — he was really exciting to be a Day 3 guy, a guy who we had basically circled after taking Ernest (Jones) at No. 103, saying, ‘This is a guy we’re going to target tomorrow.'”
Before we get carried away at the comparison to Ramsey, remember: The Rams’ data process combines specific measurables, some of which are pulled from athletic traits, some from testing numbers and some from other variables to basically build a numerical model of a player, then they collaborate with scouts to match those data points to what is on tape and in a player’s background (including Snead’s favorite “intangibles”). They aren’t at all saying Rochell is “the next Jalen Ramsey” but …
“Jalen is elite,” Jones said. “And when you put (the numbers) side by side, Robert has some of those similar physical traits that Jalen has.”
One interesting detail, though, was a similarity they saw between how Rochell, who is 6-foot-2, and Ramsey, who is 6-foot-1, use their frames to add length when playing either a receiver or the ball.
“You’re looking on film and sometimes it’s kind of hard to tell — you’re looking, and (suddenly) you’re like, ‘Damn, that kid looks long,” Jones said. “He measured in at right about that 6-foot-range. But looking on tape, he looks every bit of 6-foot-3-ish. You see those long arms. … He uses every bit of his length.
“He’s able to disrupt releases on the line of scrimmage from receivers. You see those arms there. All of the sudden, you see the fluidity he moves with up in space. So you’re like, ‘Whoa.’ Then, when the ball is in the air, you see that vertical leap — and he elevates the play above the rim to pluck the ball out of the air. That’s when it’s eye-poppin’, and those traits really start playing.”
To describe how Rochell can operate in a vertical space, national scout Marty Barrett borrowed a phrase from his wife and daughters, who all either coach or play competitive volleyball: “Touch point” or the highest point a person can reach when height, jump, arm, fingertip and spatial awareness are all taken into consideration.
“I think you saw the measures play out, with Robert,” Temme said. “Whenever you watched him play, if you watched him go up for, like, a 50/50 ball — and he won a ton of those, got his hands on a ton of footballs — I think you start to … (believe) that this guy is a special athlete because of what you saw on film, because of how you saw him go sideline to sideline and be able to reach stuff that you didn’t necessarily feel like other corners could.
“He’s really good at isolating the boundary, raising up and getting his hands on the football.”
As the analysts, scouts and various cross-checkers and personnel people held prospect meetings, Temme got a kick out of the fact that Rochell and Ramsey were “comped” via many of their measurables and had some fun with the presentation of those findings.
“We were (meeting) over Zoom, and so I can just throw a picture in the chat,” he laughed. “So I could just throw a picture of those measurables — put Jalen next to Robert and stack them together. Someone will end up seeing it in the chat and pulling it up, having it resonate — maybe somebody’s all jacked-up because of the Jalen comp.”
Rochell was invited to the Senior Bowl but did not draw glowing reviews from analysts when matched up against a few of the top receivers there. Jones says that Rochell was dealing with an injury during that time and believes that Rochell would have been drafted a lot higher if he were healthy/competitive during that all-star event. Being a small-school prospect also likely limited his reach within draft rooms. Only nine non-FBS players were selected in the 2021 NFL Draft; the Rams picked up two of them.
So, as the third day of the draft unfolded, Rochell was still on the board. Jones and Temme were off-site (as was Snead), while head coach Sean McVay and Morris were at the draft house.
The scout and the data analyst anxiously watched the Rams’ draft board materialize as the fourth round continued. After picking defensive tackle Bobby Brown III at No. 117, Snead traded back with the Jaguars from No. 121 to No. 130.
Temme chewed on his nails. Finally, the Rams sent in Rochell’s card at about 10:10 a.m.
“We were hopeful that he would last those nine extra picks that we moved back (via Jacksonville) to No. 130,” Temme said. “That’s brutal. There’s a lot of energy, a lot of feeling — it’s palpable … you’re kind of feeling that energy between people.”
The Rams believe that Rochell will quietly grow into one of the leaders in this draft class. Jones, who spent a great deal of time digging into Rochell’s background, says that he’s “a mature kid” whose family leaned on him at a young age after his father passed away, and believes others will similarly gravitate toward him.
But Rochell also needs to adjust to the NFL, a jump that can sometimes be difficult for smaller-school players because of the juxtaposed size, speed and all-around talent of their opponents. Jones believes that putting Rochell in a room with Ramsey will be one of the best things that could happen for him as he develops. Ramsey’s attention to detail is what the Rams will also need from Rochell, who must grow his technique to match his promising traits if he wants to work into the starting rotation at some point.
“He’s going to have some good player models to see how to play the game at a high level,” Jones said. “When you have a guy like (Jalen) … you see day in and day out what it takes to be able to play that position at a high level. He can get the verbal (advice) from Jalen, but he’s going to get real, live examples.”
Rochell demonstrated coverage versatility on tape but did not play a ton of nickel in college — now, he may be asked to learn that position as well as shoulder duties on the perimeter because, within the Rams’ system, all players in the secondary do scheme to unlock Ramsey in some way.
“In particular, we say we have the best in the business with Jalen,” Jones said. “Well, we want to move him around the field for matchups. When you do that, you gotta have other guys back there also who are able to move and interchange.
“Robert is one of those special guys … with both length and those physical traits … we see him being able to move around and be one of those pieces that you can plug in all over the field. Be versatile and show that flexibility that we have.”
Added Temme, “We bet on people, not players. And Robert the person is a guy worth betting on. … The big picture on Robert was that he’s a person worth investing in. When you take that into consideration with the physical traits, he’s a really exciting bet relative to the acquisition cost …
“We have a high belief in our coaching staff, a high belief in our player development infrastructure that the right people are going to translate time and time again. That’s what we put our stock in.”
(Photo: Michael Wade / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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