The draft is only one avenue for acquiring talent to fill out a roster. To judge a GM success you should look at the quality of talent they have on their roster over time. I think when you review Snead's performance based on the talent on the roster it has been very good. Even in 2022 the roster was filled with enough talent to make some noise but the massive amount of injuries kept us from the playoffs.
You also have to look at roster building with an eye on the cap. When you think you have a shot to go all the way you make different decisions in terms of contracts than you do when you are in a rebuilding/reloading mode. Clearly the Rams had a short term focus around a window of time 3-5 years where they could compete at a high level. When that window starts to close you have to change directions which is what the Rams are doing now.
The true test for Snead and to McVay will be how effectively they reload/rebuild this franchise. I suspect they will focus on acquiring young talent, which is cheap, while eschewing new big contracts. Once they have lots of young talent on the roster and the Big contact vets are near the end of the Line (Donald, Kupp, Stafford) they will switch those contracts out over time. Even when they do that there will still be lots of dead money to eat but it will be eatable as they will still have non-guarantied years with only the remainder of the prorated signing bonus causing the dead money.
As a long time Ram fan I always want to win but I am also excited to see how Snead and McVay navigate this transition to building another playoff caliber roster. I don't think we will see and F them picks for a while.
