First, Snead is awfully good at what he does. And it goes way beyond him finding talent. It is creating and organizing and employing the right scouts in the right way to uncover these guys. He's obviously a very good manager. His scouts speak about how much Snead makes them part of the process including on draft day.
Second, analytics. The Rams are a cutting edge team. They try stuff, and they invest in new technologies. Jourdan has spoken about it and interviewed some of Rams analytics people. For people like me anyway, it was fascinating. What they're trying to do it to identify traits down to nuanced specifics that precisely fit what the coaches want for each position. Then they test them on players that play those positions very well, and then refine them further, and then use them to spot players that may be getting overlooked. Without doubt Harris and Garrett are but 2 products of analytics.
Third, philosophy. Snead believes in development. So does McVay. You find the right athletes, then you find great teachers as coaches, then you use patience, and you give these athletes time to develop before you throw them in the fire. This way you can use 1st round picks to package for star veteran players, and then use lower picks to pick up these athletes that need more development. The trick, however, is that this really only works if you have good solid starters everywhere already. If you don't, then you're always trying to find guys to fill slots who can help right now. That's not development. It's amazing what one year on the PS can do for a guy that allows him to compete against the best talent, to learn from the best coaches, and to train and get bigger and stronger.
