Where Does Les Snead Stand With The Rams Going Into The 2021-2022 Season?

[Merlin]

There are differences from the Patriots model, for sure.

What similarities do you see?

I’d say; consistent leadership, releasing players who aren’t contributing, finding FA players with chips on their shoulder, draft and scout the underestimated.

I’d also say the Rams seem to focus on culture and making it all about winning football. This is probably the hardest one to stay focused on, and one the Rams need to work harder than the Patriots due to location...but so far so good with the faster pace of LA, outside of football.

Those seem strong similarities WE DO HAVE and ones central to the Patriot model.

Definitely those things you list. Rams have one of the best winning cultures in the league because of McVay. I see him as a rare head coach but even those guys are greatly affected by their front offices. And he's also young which means he is impatient (I think that's a fair correlation) and has a lot to learn. Inevitably. No coach is perfect that's for sure.

So the impatient side we see it take effect with Goff. A normal coach who gets that sinking feeling that his QB the organization chose is capped at let's say the "good" level will have a very limited set of options. But a coach like McVay who is a no-shit rockstar is telling the front office what to do. And that's not a bad thing btw. The Rams front office is not a visionary group. They're not hardcore about winning. The vision and the compete you see coming out of Rams Park since McVay was hired is mostly McVay. IMO.

I think he is an accountability coach. He's the type of coach who is constantly pushing and pushing guys to get better and there is a fatigue that can build with leaders like that. Belichick has the same effect which is partially why he doesn't retain guys. His magic is about building players with great fundamentals and situational awareness and setting them up for wins with great gameplanning. Which are all things McVay preaches and is good at. Where you get the deviation with the Rams is due to McVay's impatience, as well as the front office. IMO the way things are set up right now when McVay wants something they scramble to get it for him.

And I get why. They don't want to lose this guy. Neither do I. But now that he's cashed in his "I didn't pick that QB" card maybe he can settle in and start doing the most important thing that the Pats did which is win championships.

 

[Merlin]

Agree with the above.

But to touch on the article who is really responsible for contracts ultimately? Does Snead say "We should sign Gurley, Goff, Ogeltree, etc before we have to because it'll be cheaper" or is the cap gurus of Demoff and Pastoors that have pushed for that? Hell, who decided to pay Jeff Fisher two more years of guaranteed salary months before firing him? They also extended Snead at the same time and ruffled Fisher's feathers as he didn't know they were doing that. Someone has spent a LOT of Kroenke's money for coaches and players to play somewhere else or to fish in Montana. Salary cap issues aside cause those can be massaged and worked around somewhat but the actual cash being spent has to be an issue at some point.

I have no idea what the decision making was and each of these guys are different so that's why it's crucial they understand where they erred in their approach (which I think was coming from a good place of rewarding players who deserve it).

Look at Ogletree. Fish loved the guy. Fish and Snead drafted him. Fish gets fired. But the front office is still operating on Fisher marching orders and signs Ogletree. Wade and maybe McVay too gets him on the field for a practice (guessing here) or gets deep into his actual FILM which Fish never seemed to look at, and sees him and is like "REALLY??" Months after signing he is flipped to NY.

At that point they should have examined their business model. Where did we err. Was it Snead operating on old marching orders? Was it Demoff wanting to lock up a staff favorite without talking to the new staff? Each situation is different but it starts by getting to the bottom of where in the process you are fucking up.

Then how do we fix it. Internal memo that nobody gets signed early? Well that could work but with a great player you better have a great plan going in if that is your approach. That's what I would do. IMO what the Rams are lacking in the Pats model is that one final piece, where you move guys who want to be paid two years early.

But what about AD someone will ask. Well I do think AD is a bit of an outlier. When they scouted this guy in person they went out to practice at the Pitt staff's suggestion hours before practice started and saw AD out there waiting. They knew damn well this guy would never put his feet up even with a big paycheck. But as you look at the other guys there were signs and concerns like with Gurley they knew his knee was a potential time bomb and also knew it had bothered him though he may have been masking how much. Key is going back and trying to learn from the mistakes and not make them again.

 

[Rams77]

I agree on your assessment of Mcvay and Snead. The only weaknesses I see with Mcvay is he under values the role of the Oline and he is unable to evolve his system which is now very predictable and defensible. Besides that he has excellent head coach qualities and value.

Snead's massive mistakes are covered up by Donald and Mcvay. There is a significant ignorance in Snead's risky approach. It lacks a failsafe mechanism of developing early round players as cheap starters and also sticking to consensus scouting vs his own inner scouting circle.

Snead reminds me of the person that keeps going farther in debt by taking out more loans to pay off current loans. Eventually it will catch up and you will be a bottom feeder for years. But all the vacations and short term fun in his mind will justify the long term demise.

I think people are ignoring the elephant in the room which is the fact that Mcvay's offensive system is not only predictable and becoming easy to stop, but it also requires significant talent to operate. Talent that we don't have the means to fund without massive restructures and screwing future seasons. Not to mention the likely dropoff in defensive talent due to being broke.

Spot on on your assessment of McVay failing to evolve his system/predictability . Like you said-he overestimates his OLine-the system might actually still be really effective with better Lineman (especially RT and C and RG) and a better Oline coach. McVay is a great motivator and teacher thats where his special ability lies. He relates well with players and coaches. He needs to really evolve this offseason-the elephant in the room like you said is the inability to generate fear in the run game like when Gurley was Gurley. Akers/Henderson are nice but not the special back Gurley was. We also need a Watkins or Cooks type WR. Still he needs to add a lot more wrinkles to make the passing game more effective get receivers open