Snead, McVay recap third and final day of 2020 NFL Draft

ROD-BOT · Apr 26, 2020

Snead, McVay recap third and final day of 2020 NFL Draft

Rams general manager Les Snead and head coach Sean McVay offer their final thoughts on the 2020 NFL Draft.

www.therams.com

Snead, McVay recap third and final day of 2020 NFL Draft

Rams general manager Les Snead and head coach Sean McVay met with local media Saturday evening to put a bow on the 2020 NFL Draft. Here is a recap of some of the most important topics they covered:

Addressing eight different positions – RB, WR, OLB, S, TE, S, LB, K, OG – with nine picks by the end of Day 3

Snead said it wasn't necessarily the goal to spread out their approach in that manner, but when the Houston Texans called and presented an opportunity for the Rams to move back and acquire a pair of additional seventh-round picks, they felt it was the right move. It allowed them to get linebacker Cody Johnston, kicker Samuel Sloman and offensive guard Tremayne Anchrum, who Snead felt the Rams may not have been able to get had they just stayed put.

Such a spread-out approach reflects the competitiveness of the team, according to McVay.

"All these players give us the ability to do that with a unique blend of things coming together, where they added value and they happen to fulfill needs as well," McVay said.

As for earlier in the draft, the intent was to get players who could potentially step in to fill roles of the players they lost in free agency, according to Snead. However, sometimes with the way the draft board falls, it forces a team to go from Plan A to Plan B.

The Rams found themselves in that situation when Purdue tight end Brycen Hopkins was still available after they traded back with the Texans to pick No. 136.

"We really like our tight end room right now, but we had him highly rated and felt like he could come in and carve out a role early but also later," Snead said. "We didn't have to make that pick, but sometimes when you make those types of picks, there's an element of drafting in a microscope, but also with a telescope and you feel like, 'Hey, the guy can make plays.'

Confidence in the offensive line

While some experts believed Los Angeles would look to address its offensive line early, it instead waited until much later in the draft to do so, using its final pick to take Clemson offensive guard Tremayne Anchrum in the seventh round.

Snead said that approach reflected their confidence in the younger offensive linemen the Rams have taken in previous drafts.

"When Sean mentioned yesterday trading for Austin Corbett, it was just a couple of years ago that he was the 33rd pick in the draft," Snead said. "Even this year, we wouldn't have been able to pick an Austin Corbett. We've been adding those players, and fortunately or unfortunately a lot of them got to play last year, with David Edwards and Bobby Evans in particular. They got a chance to play when we were really going to spend a year developing them as backups. We felt confident that if we continued grooming and developing these players, they'd have a chance to become a very solid offensive line."

Other positions to address?

It's too soon to tell. Snead said they planned to let the draft settle, then sit down and look at their roster.

Part of the reason for the patient approach is because Snead said they will do what they've done every year – evaluate the roles of young players who didn't see the field much or at all as rookies, then were elevated into larger roles to address needs.

The example Snead used was defensive tackle Sebastian Joseph-Day, a 2018 sixth-round pick who was inactive for all 16 games and three postseason games in 2018, then helped fill the void left by the departure of Ndamukong Suh by taking on a bigger role in 2019.

"So that's what we've discussed about some of our younger players that may have less playing time, but you're always going to look to see, 'Hey, how can you make a more competitive or add someone to be more competitive any time you get that chance.'"

wolfdogg · Apr 26, 2020

I seriously do appreciate the positive spin tbat snead adds regarding corbett, however, lets add some context.

First, just because he was drafted 32nd overall in 2018 doesnt mean he'd be drafted that high this year. In fact, at the time, he was rated by mayock as tied for the 5th best guard while nfl.com had him tied for 6th, so you could say he might have been over drafted. Now consider that it was the browns doing the pick, of course we can say he was over drafted.

Fast forward to this weekend where snead says we wouldnt have been able to get corbett. Hes letting us think that cobett was unattainable because we would have had to trade up considerably.

The reality is that the 2nd guard drafted went to the Seahawks at 69 and he had a highr rating than corbett. Other guards at the last pick in the 3rd and at tbe top of the 4th also had higher grades. Even cushenberry who was unfortunately taken right before us, was rated higher. Suffice it to say, the rams probably could have selected Corbett this year had they stood pat in the 3rd round.

At this point im still optimistic about corbet despite the question mark but I find sneads comments interesting because it makes me wonder if he said this to make fans feel better, himself feel better, or he actually believes it.

TexasRam · Apr 26, 2020

wolfdogg said:
I seriously do appreciate the positive spin tbat snead adds regarding corbett, however, lets add some context.

First, just because he was drafted 32nd overall in 2018 doesnt mean he'd be drafted that high this year. In fact, at the time, he was rated by mayock as tied for the 5th best guard while nfl.com had him tied for 6th, so you could say he might have been over drafted. Now consider that it was the browns doing the pick, of course we can say he was over drafted.

Fast forward to this weekend where snead says we wouldnt have been able to get corbett. Hes letting us think that cobett was unattainable because we would have had to trade up considerably.

The reality is that the 2nd guard drafted went to the Seahawks at 69 and he had a highr rating than corbett. Other guards at the last pick in the 3rd and at tbe top of the 4th also had higher grades. Even cushenberry who, as we know, was unfortunately taken right before us, was rated higher. Suffice it to say, the rams probably could have selected Corbett this year had they stood pat in the 3rd round.

At this point im still optimistic about corbet despite the question mark but I find sneads comments interesting because it makes me wonder if he said this to make fans feel better, himself feel better, or he actually believes it.

Well Corbett was a fail in Cleveland and then was not consistent or promising at all last year for us. I understand the whole development thing, but Corbett with two training camps and two different teams had plenty of time to solidify his game. Ask anyone outside our group think three headed monster of Mcvay-Snead-Kromer and they will tell you Corbett looks like a bust. In fact PFF and a large portion of the Ram fan base would say that. Evans and Edwards are also suspect.

But anyways, lets see how it plays out. I've spoke my truth man. Gonna sit back and hope these dudes are right.

ScotsRam · Apr 26, 2020

TexasRam said:
Well Corbett was a fail in Cleveland and then was not consistent or promising at all last year for us. I understand the whole development thing, but Corbett with two training camps and two different teams had plenty of time to solidify his game. Ask anyone outside our group think three headed monster of Mcvay-Snead-Kromer and they will tell you Corbett looks like a bust. In fact PFF and a large portion of the Ram fan base would say that. Evans and Edwards are also suspect.

But anyways, lets see how it plays out. I've spoke my truth man. Gonna sit back and hope these dudes are right.

I dont agree that Evans and Edward's look suspect. I thought they looked very promising indeed, understandable rookie growing pains aside.

FrantikRam · Apr 26, 2020

TexasRam said:
Well Corbett was a fail in Cleveland and then was not consistent or promising at all last year for us. I understand the whole development thing, but Corbett with two training camps and two different teams had plenty of time to solidify his game. Ask anyone outside our group think three headed monster of Mcvay-Snead-Kromer and they will tell you Corbett looks like a bust. In fact PFF and a large portion of the Ram fan base would say that. Evans and Edwards are also suspect.

But anyways, lets see how it plays out. I've spoke my truth man. Gonna sit back and hope these dudes are right.

Even if you were right, which you're not (saying Evans and Edwards looked suspect is sketchy - they were rookies and both showed promise).

It's not like the Browns reached too much on Corbett - he was unanimously thought as a day 2 pick - so why are you so sure that anyone the Rams could have drafted would have been better? We're not.

Conversely, we have five players that have played only one or two seasons.

Do you not believe that players improve? While the OL performed poorly overall, there were games that they played incredibly well. Which shows the promise.

OldSchool · Apr 26, 2020