I don't think it's that simple. For one thing, you are assuming they are successful drafting BPA while having no idea what their board actually looks like. For another, I think it's really hard to compare how Snead worked with Fisher vs how he works with McVay.
I assume that there is a bit of a collaborative effort taking place and that Snead and the scouts stack the board and then go to the coaching staff work out needs. While lots of folks give lip service to BPA, that only truly happens on teams with multiple needs OR very few needs--and even then, they don't just blindly follow the BPA dogma. For example, they are not going to take a QB if they have one they like under contract.
While I do agree with you about developmental players and their actual utility given the four or five-year window to free agency, I think the Brian Quick example is not as rock solid as you think. Hindsight is always 20/20 and no place is better for that than fans posting on message boards. People love to mention Alshon Jeffery. You know who they never mention? Stephen Hill, AJ Jenkins, Ryan Broyles or (moving further up the draft) even Kendall Wright or Michael Floyd. This just in, the draft is not an exact science. Quick is still in the league and who knows how big a detriment playing for the offensive Neanderthals that Fisher had in-house did to his career?
I think a big difference now is the type of players that McVay is looking for. I think there is more of a premium on intelligence than there ever was with Fisher, and that is a good thing. A big problem with Tavon is he as dumb as a box of rocks. I think many people who stuck with the Rams post-LA move remember what it was like trying to replace Az-Zahir Hakim with Terrence Wilkins-- who could never come close to grasping the Martz offense.
As far as last year's draft, to me they got exactly what they went in looking for out of the first couple of picks. They came in knowing that they had to acquire weapons and protectors for their young QB. They got some of that done in free agency with Whitworth, Sullivan, and Woods already under contract. So Snead knows the new coach strongly prefers a couple of targets with their first couple of picks. I think he and McVay had probably come to some agreement on who those players could possibly be given where the Rams picks were. I think the top four guys in play (based on plenty of anecdotal information before last year's draft) were Evan Engram & Gerald Everett as playmaking TEs and JuJu Smith-Schuster and Cooper Kupp at WR. I surmise they realized it was not likely Engram fell to them at #37. At that point they know there is only one TE on the board who fits what they want--Everett. There is not another player at that position anything like him on the board. They can take Smith-Schuster and hope Everett falls, or they can take Everett and hope that either Smith-Schuster or Kupp is still there in the 3rd. But they also realize that they might value Everett more highly than some of the immediate teams that follow them in round 2 but have serious doubts he makes it down to pick #69. So they do the next best thing--they move down a few slots and pick up an extra 4th round pick (who turns out to be a solid WR prospect) and then take the guy that they know is the last of his type of playmaker at TE left on the board at #44. They still get one of the WRs they want with #69 (who turns out to be pretty darned good) and later move up in the 4th to grab a LB who may well start this year as well.
Call me crazy, but this looks like pretty effective teambuilding to me. Not really sure what master plan you would have done differently outside of taking one pick in a vacuum and claiming that it's a reach.
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spagsbacker
it is exactly like Brian Quick, posters will predict a break out year before each season, only to be left wanting.
Snead hoped Engram dropped, and when he did not, their plan b was to draft the next best tight end instead of wisely drafting the next player on their board. The Rams are most successful when drafting best talent regardless of position.
go rams
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/2018 07:02AM by badgerdms.
