The Los Angeles Rams are in a drastically different situation than they were two years ago when they defeated the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI. Los Angeles is also in a better situation than they were during a nightmarish 5-12 season. The ever-changing narratives surrounding the Rams are indicative of how the regime of coach Sean McVay and general manager Les Snead seem to always be fluid.
To that end, Pro Football Focus recently grouped all 32 NFL general managers into tiers, with Snead coming in at "Tier 2," which is described as "clear vision, mostly sound process, sometimes focused on windows." That feels like an appropriate way to evaluate Snead.
"There was a perceived market inefficiency in how teams were valuing early-round draft picks, and perhaps the Rams took advantage en route to a Super Bowl but are now comfortable hitting the reset button and retooling for another run," PFF wrote of Snead.
Specifically, "sometimes focused on windows" feels especially relevant to the Rams. Snead and the Rams are slated to have a first-round pick next year for the first time since 2016, when they selected quarterback Jared Goff. Even then, the Rams made a major trade to move up and select Goff at No. 1 overall. Under Snead, the Rams have also made megadeals -- giving up notable draft capital -- to land the likes of quarterback Matthew Stafford, cornerback Jalen Ramsey and pass rusher Von Miller, among others.
What will be interesting moving forward is to see whether Snead and McVay were comfortable saying "F them picks!" only in the context of their last window, or if that's how they will operate once again when a new Super Bowl window opens up.
The Rams have struck gold on some mid-to-late-round picks under Snead, such safety John Johnson and receivers Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp. Does that make Los Angeles more likely to keep future first-round picks and attempt to land more blue-chip stars, or more emboldened to trade first-round picks again once they believe another Lombardi Trophy is within their grasp?
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