I got this same impression too, DD.
Rams did their homework in depth, watched the tape, and weighed the intangibles, as they are called, behind closed doors.
It's better that way. The outside-the-box Rams eval doesn't spark interest and catch fire with other teams.
And I heard Snead clearly when he said that the Rams had developed deep profiles on three players they wanted with their first pick. That, coupled with what he also said about keeping their interest under wraps made a lot of sense amid the trade up, trade down, buzz about picking Latu, noise.
How many mocks by draft gurus or board members saw Verse as our top pick?
And now that it's in and he's a Ram, we're learning in depth the reasons why.
Let everybody else draw their own conclusions. Let everybody else think he's a 4-3 whose skills won't translate to a 3-4. What they see as limitations, we see as versatility. Where they look at athleticism, we're seeing that plus grit, desire, determination - in Verse's words, he's hungry.
Genius. Pure genius, Snead.