The Rams create a value board rankings all the prospects giving tm each a draft grade. They then cross off players as the picks come in during the draft. Snead makes moves up or down according to his board. If there are five players with similar grades with 3 picks to go he might trade down a couple of slots knowing he'll still get an equal player plus adding a pick. If there's a player a few picks ahead that he really wants he'll go up as high as needed to grab that target. I think trying to pick which player position will be targeted gets very hard to predict. It's easier to guess which player, regardless of today's draft board, he and McVay like and guess how they could position themselves to draft such a player. Let's say they love Vea. Could be. He's a monster run stuffer and perfect NT for our D. Snead may have him going in the early teens. Maybe he will need to give up a fourth and sixth plus the #23 to get him. He goes over these scenarios with McVay and Wade. He then needs to know what to offer and to whom. He knows the other GMs and needs to work his magic in a relatively quick time. But, he's good at this. Very good. But it could be he's grading a totally different target. Maybe a rusher, an OL, a ILB. We have quite a few needs. What we don't know is which young players can move into a starting position to fill apparent holes. We don't know which FAs we will sign. This includes our own guys. If we sign a Poe for instance we probably won't trade up for Vea or Payne. My guess is that we will plug most holes before the draft and literally pick BPA while moving up and down to maximize targets.
