Inside the Draft Room: All Quiet on Day One

Inside the Draft Room: All Quiet on Day One

By Myles Simmons

[www.therams.com]

Throughout the 2017 NFL Draft, Rams insider Myles Simmons will be seated in the team’s draft room to give you an inside look at the process of picking Los Angeles’ 2017 rookie class.

Thursday night was a quiet one in the Rams draft room.

As general manager Les Snead said in his press conference with Sean McVay after the conclusion of the first round, “We knew this was the year probably not to give up picks to go get a player late” — meaning the club’s higher ups knew they’d likely be observers on Day 1.

Still, there’s a buzz in the room as the clock strikes five o’clock pacific and the NFL Draft begins. To set the scene, Sead, head coach Sean McVay, EVP of football operations Kevin Demoff, and senior assistant Tony Pastoors are seated at the front of the room. Ahead of them are four screens* — two in the middle displaying the club’s draft board, one on the left showing the NFL Network, and one on the right showing ESPN. Above the big-screen TVs is the club’s official selection clock, displaying the time left for each pick.

It’s not silent, with conversations going on throughout the room between the personnel and football operations staff. But it is quiet enough to hear commissioner Roger Goodell say on television, “The Cleveland Browns are on the clock.”

Scouting assistant Michael Pierce is on headset with the Rams representatives in Philadelphia. When they find out what’s happening in Pennsylvania — be it a selection or a trade — they relay the information to Pierce, who then announces it to the room.

It’s 5:12 when Pierce tells the Rams draft room Texas A&M defensive end Myles Garrett is the Browns’ No. 1 overall pick — two minutes before the two TVs show Goodell making that same announcement to the public.

Two minutes after that, at 5:16, Pierce tells the room what is perhaps the biggest surprise of the night: The Bears have traded the No. 3, No. 67, No. 111, and a third-round pick in 2018 to move up to No. 2 overall. It’s a move met with some “Ooos” and “Ahhs” but not much else as Chicago picks North Carolina quarterback Mitchell Trubisky.

And so it goes for the rest of the first round, which takes three hours and 34 minutes. As McVay said in his press conference, he and Snead had their heads together as the end of the first round approached, with the pair going over possible plans for the No. 37 selection on Friday. Snead also acknowledged that there are plenty of possibilities for the second round, be it trade up, select a player at No. 37, or trade down to acquire an extra pick.

But once Pierce tells the room the Saints have selected Wisconsin offensive tackle Ryan Ramczyk, McVay enthusiastically proclaims, “The fun starts tomorrow now, baby.”

And so it will, with Friday’s Round 2 beginning at four o’clock.