Monday Morning MD--Behind the Scenes of the Rams Draft Room

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RamBill

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Monday Morning MD

by Dr. David Chao
May 12, 02014

http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/Monday-Morning-MD-3360.html

The 2014 NFL draft is over, but the historical significance may last quite a long time. Michael Sam, the first openly gay football player, is now a member of the St Louis Rams.

NFL Network’s Michael Silver was present in the St. Louis draft room and witnessed it all. He shared his unprecedented access and revealed how head coach Jeff Fisher decided on the selection of Sam.

Silver also tweeted a limited picture of the actual Rams draft board. This picture is quite revealing and shows a lot about how a draft room works.

sam-2686.jpg


Pictured is Sam’s draft day summary magnet. The photo also happens to show the information of Demetrius Rhaney and Kenneth Bishop, the two players selected after Sam. These listings are used by teams to provide quick access to player information.

I was fortunate enough to be in a draft room during the majority of my NFL career as a team physician. Certainly, every team and every general manager run their respective rooms differently. I don’t pretend to be a scout or talent evaluator. Below are just some of my first-hand observations.

Typically, there are two main draft boards with two sets of magnetic listings for each player. One draft board usually ranks players as best available by talent. The other lists them as best available by position.

When a player is drafted, one magnet listing is moved to a board that lists all drafted players in sequence with his new team shown next to it. This is what appears to be shown in Silver’s tweet. The other magnet is moved to a board that lists each individual team’s draft picks.

Upon closer inspection, the magnet listings display school, position, year in school, height, weight and all relevant Combine or Pro Day testing numbers. There are also character and medical grades.

Medical grade is also indicated on this magnet when appropriate. On Rhaney’s magnet, a yellow “M” is clearly visible. This typically means there is a medical issue. The color yellow means “caution.” Red typically means either “do not draft” or “draft after serious consideration.” I have used a similar color system in identifying the top medical issues for this year’s draft.

The prominent use of this special designation for medical grades reveals the importance of health issues. Often, if two players grade out similarly, the medical grade becomes the tiebreaker.