Rams Announce Changes in Personnell Department/Wagoner

[den-the-coach]

Rams Announce Changes in Personnel Department
Posted by nickwagoner on May 16, 2013 – 9:21 PM

<a class="postlink" href="http://blog.stlouisrams.com/2013/05/16/rams-announce-changes-in-personnel-department/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://blog.stlouisrams.com/2013/05/16/ ... epartment/</a>

- With the 2013 NFL Draft finished and the scouting department looking ahead to next year, the Rams announced some major re-shuffling and changes in their scouting department on Thursday afternoon.

Below is the release from the team with all of the changes:

ST. LOUIS – The St. Louis Rams have added six new members to the team’s personnel department, and two additional personnel executives have been promoted, General Manager Les Snead announced Thursday.
“Our Player Personnel department has done an outstanding job teaming with our coaching and football operations staffs the past two player acquisition periods in 2012 and 2013, including unrestricted free agency, the draft and with waiver wire claims,” Snead said. “These promotions and additions will make us even stronger going forward as we finish our task of building a consistent winner in a rapid and tenacious manner.”

Taylor Morton, who spent last season as the team’s Director of College Scouting, was promoted to Director of Player Personnel. Morton joined the Rams in May of 2012. With extensive experience in both pro and college scouting, Morton spent 12 seasons as an area scout with the Atlanta Falcons responsible for both the southwest and southeast regions. Prior to becoming a college scout, Morton served in pro personnel as an advance scout for the Falcons’ opponents. Also, Morton has coaching experience after coaching eight years in the college ranks with stints at Auburn University, Hinds and Pearl River community colleges in Mississippi.

Brad Holmes will serve as the new Rams’ Director of College Scouting. Holmes joined the Rams’ personnel department in 2004. He served as the National Combine Scout, covering the Midwest area. He worked as an area scout responsible for the Southeast region for six seasons before Snead promoted him to national scout in 2012.
In addition, Snead has hired Ted Monago as a national scout. Monago joins the Rams after spending the last 12 years in the Chicago Bears personnel department. From 2001-2012, Monago served as an area scout for the Bears before being named as an executive scout in 2012 and was responsible for the Southeast conference. Prior to working in Chicago, he worked as an assistant coach at Williams & Mary, where he was responsible for outside linebackers and special teams.

The Rams have also added scouts Danton Barto, George Foster and John Zernhelt, and Snead hired Brian Hill as a scouting assistant and Barrett Trotter as football operations/scouting assistant.

Barto, Foster and Hill recently completed internships with the Rams before their promotions. Barto, who played at the University of Memphis and in the Arena and Canadian Football Leagues, is a former head coach in the Arena League.
Foster was a first round pick of the Denver Broncos in 2003 and played six NFL seasons with the Broncos and Detroit Lions. He also spent time with Cleveland and Indianapolis during his playing career.

Zernhelt has spent the last 36 seasons in coaching at both the professional and college levels. He coached tight ends with the Tennessee Titans from 2006-12, and he was the head coach at The Citadel in 2004.
Hill coached at Baldwin-Wallace College in Ohio as a student and graduated in 2011. He held various football operations and scouting positions with the Browns, Chiefs and Titans prior to joining the Rams.
Trotter played quarterback at Auburn University and attended the Rams’ rookie minicamp in 2012 as an invited tryout player. Most recently, he worked as a graduate assistant at Arkansas State University.

 

[den-the-coach]

This is not easy for me Gentlemen, but I have a serious man crush on our General Manager Les Snead! Maybe it's just because it's been so long since the Rams have had someone who actually knows something about football.

 

[LesBaker]

This is not easy for me Gentlemen, but I have a serious man crush on our General Manager Les Snead! Maybe it's just because it's been so long since the Rams have had someone who actually knows something about football.

A lot of us do. The guy is proving to be an excellent hire and his "don't be afraid" mantra is kick ass.

I don't want to start one of those ugly threads where people take sides on this new regime versus the old one but I am glad the team was so bad because it put them in a position like this. Had the previous guys gone 7-9 or whatever and gotten another year we wouldn't be seeing this type of team restructuring.

Fisher would be in Miami, Snead would be somewhere else, possibly Cleveland or still in Atlanta, we wouldn't have had that #2 pic to trade which means there would be less talent on the roster and frankly I'm not sure there would be much talent at all.

It's been an ugly ride but it will pay off.

 

[Ram Quixote]

A lot of us do. The guy is proving to be an excellent hire and his "don't be afraid" mantra is kick ass.

I don't want to start one of those ugly threads where people take sides on this new regime versus the old one but I am glad the team was so bad because it put them in a position like this. Had the previous guys gone 7-9 or whatever and gotten another year we wouldn't be seeing this type of team restructuring.

Fisher would be in Miami, Snead would be somewhere else, possibly Cleveland or still in Atlanta, we wouldn't have had that #2 pic to trade which means there would be less talent on the roster and frankly I'm not sure there would be much talent at all.

It's been an ugly ride but it will pay off.

The cause-and-effect angles always intrigue me.

A lot of fans were pissed that Linehan was given a 3rd season but without the debacle of 2008, Zygmunt isn't forced into retirement. Shaw doesn't eventually retire. Imagine if Linehan was fired after 2007 and Zygmunt hired his successor?

There are 2 events in Ram history that have altered everything that followed:

1. Carroll Rosenbloom leaving everything to Georgia. That led to her and Shaw reinventing the wheel of the Rams' personnel evaluation for 30 years. They put unqualified HC's (Malavasi, Robinson, Knox, Brooks, Martz and Linehan) in charge of personnel. You wanted to know how the Rams failed with the Dickerson trade? That's how.

2. The "retiring" of Dick Vermeil. His departure elevated Zygmunt and put Martz in a position to fail at personnel evaluation. A team of great potential was pissed away.

 

[Thordaddy]

A lot of us do. The guy is proving to be an excellent hire and his "don't be afraid" mantra is kick ass.

I don't want to start one of those ugly threads where people take sides on this new regime versus the old one but I am glad the team was so bad because it put them in a position like this. Had the previous guys gone 7-9 or whatever and gotten another year we wouldn't be seeing this type of team restructuring.

Fisher would be in Miami, Snead would be somewhere else, possibly Cleveland or still in Atlanta, we wouldn't have had that #2 pic to trade which means there would be less talent on the roster and frankly I'm not sure there would be much talent at all.

It's been an ugly ride but it will pay off.

The cause-and-effect angles always intrigue me.

A lot of fans were pissed that Linehan was given a 3rd season but without the debacle of 2008, Zygmunt isn't forced into retirement. Shaw doesn't eventually retire. Imagine if Linehan was fired after 2007 and Zygmunt hired his successor?

There are 2 events in Ram history that have altered everything that followed:

1. Carroll Rosenbloom leaving everything to Georgia. That led to her and Shaw reinventing the wheel of the Rams' personnel evaluation for 30 years. They put unqualified HC's (Malavasi, Robinson, Knox, Brooks, Martz and Linehan) in charge of personnel. You wanted to know how the Rams failed with the Dickerson trade? That's how.

2. The "retiring" of Dick Vermeil. His departure elevated Zygmunt and put Martz in a position to fail at personnel evaluation. A team of great potential was pissed away.

In fairness to Martz the worst cluster of draft choices he made were where he pretty well gave the pick to Lovie

 

[den-the-coach]

In fairness to Martz the worst cluster of draft choices he made were where he pretty well gave the pick to Lovie

In fairness to Lovie Smith he was not responsible for the likes of Guard Travis Scott, WR Marvin Wynn, WR Eric Crouch or pipe smoking Claude Terrell to name a few. Martz had final say on draft choices so if he allowed his coaching staff to dictate his fate, well, that's why he's now retired from coaching.

 

[-X-]

In fairness to Martz the worst cluster of draft choices he made were where he pretty well gave the pick to Lovie

In fairness to Lovie Smith he was not responsible for the likes of Guard Travis Scott, WR Marvin Wynn, WR Eric Crouch or pipe smoking Claude Terrell to name a few.

True. There was no clear-cut decision-maker during those drafts.
Lots of dissention and arguments during those drafts for damn sure.