Inside The Draft | Behind The Grind Ep. 2

the draft is the beginning of certain players Futures with the Rams in the NFL things happen fast in the NFL so one of the easiest ways to learn from others is reading and sometimes learning from others who did great things that give the Rams an edge one of my favorite authors that really relates to the NFL to football is Jim Collins one thing that's very interesting that he teaches is what he calls this flywheel where if you do these actions and you just do them over and over again that's going to compound executing the flywheel the first thing we're going to try to do with the Rams is identify and then select people to give the Rams an edge that's with our second rounder that's with our third rounder fifth sixth seventh that's what our college free agents the very next thing on our flywheel is really how do we immerse these individuals who give us an edge how do we bring them into the building as individuals and work together symbiotically the Rams it's an organism it's alive but people are bringing it to life so how do we help them realize that you're actually part of this ecosystem this organism to build this competent Collective we're just trying to engineer a dynamic explosive anti-fragile competent football team that has a chance to compete for championships might be for the division it might be for the conference it might be for the Super Bowl when the Seas get uncomm it's those moments is what the flywheel does is it's that map to go oh by the way we're going to get this ship to shore [Music] hey if we drafted you want to come play for us oh 100 oh man then we're gonna do it go into the Rams Los Angeles Rams select [Music] we're about to draft a lot of prep is done going into this set date in April the element of building something to last there's going to be different phases that you're in there's no secret right we we were definitely in a phase where we had a very competent core growing into their Prime together the week of the draft and the dialogue that comes with it looks a little different than the months that we're proceeding you're able to be a bit more pointed in your questioning you're going to get some specific responses that are really going to allow the fog to clear would you draft him late think five six seventh round I think I've articulated if you drafting to go A to B fast got a chance the best part about the way in which less leads this group is that he allows them to be themselves it allows them to own their piece to the puzzle and beyond that it's up to each of us individually to ensure that we come through at the end of the day once we identified these people at some point they'll be the Matthew Stafford Cooper cup Tyler Higby you know Aaron Donald players like that who have been here a while and they'll pass the torch and and the form that is always being able to pass the torch at the right times and that's the the art of the equation we're talking about steps Investments he wants to recommend some guys I like them time will tell La is the home of Epic storytelling the Rams really lean into that opportunity the draft film sets the tone for us and we establish the tone and tenor of who we are and what we're made of this year a Hollywood Blockbuster celebrity infused opportunity to tell our story The more organic the better Cheech Marin Brian Cranston and Aaron Paul Josh dumel as well as Diplo All featured within the film really bringing their respective labs to life fans expect for us to acknowledge in an honest and authentic way that last season was was tough and so you can't breed hope and optimism in this off season without addressing that head-on and so going back into the lab acknowledges there's work on our side to be done yeah yeah I'm a big fan of you guys oh thanks yeah what a successful show that was though I would equate it to going into a season you know you're good right you just gotta knock wood that everybody stays healthy we gotta knock wood people see this show for sure is there a way to crack through the hundreds of shows out there absolutely yes how are you good how about you good man I was asking the coach that said organizational needs or physical ability I mean what is it it's always been one lead calculus formula it's like it's a little bit of a blend a little bit of a blend yeah hey man great meeting nice to meet you pleasure too thanks have a good time good year there's nothing like being on set there's a certain electricity that fills the air this lab is as much a concept as a place to win the future you start by studying the current chemistry what's awesome is we just had this conversation with les and Sean about the formula for the draft so good while I'd love to be able to snap my fingers and say these things take no time to produce these are months in the making locations upon locations that you're shooting at and here we go folks three two go take one mark yeah and then you know a couple movie stars that I've seen in movies that I've watched when I was younger none too much is it easy being an actor probably probably easier than being a pro football player the amount of lines you have to memorize yeah I wanted to be a pro football player three two a lab can be about many things or rest in recovery all of which are vital to player performance sleep well Jordan um I'm going after he says how did you you get in here so Josh here easy you know he said he played he said he played it's not bad again don't look at me he said he played good job [Music] folks get out here very safe okay the Los Angeles Rams has really invented this unique tent pole outside of a typical space and thinking about how we can draft and then take advantage of an incredible draft venue and a draft headquarters it's differentiated it's unexpected and so for this third year we've really built upon the last two years of setting up in a venue that's pretty fabulous yet useful and functional the Draft House this year the draft lab which is a really intimate experiential play and it's combined with being able to get in front of fans and influencers and communities that are all in Los Angeles as we build upon the types of events that we do here so in addition to this house serving Partners Suite owners influencers and more it's really about conducting business and making sure that we have the right setup for the NFL draft this is ready I'm dropping this switch we're going to have that ready I don't know where that one's going yet probably there so we got plenty of space to bring it across one two three four yes and then five back in this room and that's what I'm trying to run out to now for the Draft House we do a full extension of our Network to this home we've got a couple vendors that come in and assist us so I'm making sure that they are able to function and work efficiently without hitting any snags designing the network that we're going to deploy yeah this one's got to get transitioned a lot of the challenges we run into are really just wiring configurations there's a lot of wiring we're wiring up a phone that connects over to a hub monitor which you can plug into get on our Network we have an ndi Solution that's going into a decoder so that they can watch our draft board at each one of these stations and then we connect that to our firewall and our switching Network which we deploy throughout the house to build our draft room as our primary location anytime we're leaving the comfort of our home network there's added pressure absolutely if the internet were to go down and we were about to be on the clock and we're on our Wireless backup that certainly adds pressure I'll be sitting here on eggshells for the duration of the draft but at the same time hopefully I'm sitting in the back corner on my computer because if you don't see us running around that means things are set up properly and we've prepared tested and implemented a successful event I have a sign that says the draft isn't until April a lot of prep is done going into this set date pretty straightforward for draft day we got 11 picks currently one second the two in the third as we uh get into maybe the black hole there in the fourth we got about a 90 pick the window in which we're just squatting right now we've talked about the life cycle with Sean we talked about chapter one being hiring Sean and our first Super Bowl losing it called chapter two while trying to avenge that loss and getting there and actually winning it and now we've nicknamed this chapter three of like okay we've been the two Super Bowls what's next all right quick show of hands how many people here have been with the Rams when we've picked 36 or higher yeah I would have no clue what this organization would do if we actually had a first round pick the really interesting thing right now we have 44 players on the roster I think as we start to talk a little bit more about what day three looks like only signed players you want to be around don't just sign somebody because there's a roster Target number it's a lot of preparation for that moment in the beginning of their or certain players right Futures with the Rams and the NFL when we talk about the draft we talk about dreaming big talking about what players can become what the team can become it's the same on the business side with what we've done with the draft lab the draft has become an integral element where everybody is involved in the draft can't say enough about the work that you guys have done and there's no year that we can take even more advantage of it better than this one you know to be able to get it figured out and I give a ton of credit to you guys for making this smooth and seamless and having the communication and the clarity be what we're hunting up I am so excited for what this team can become I think some of you have heard me say this and it will sound crazy but I promise you it's not I am more excited about this team going into 2023 at this point in the year than I was for last year's team going into 2022. foreign [Music] [Laughter] I think it's fair to say that each trade-up scenario isn't exactly the same in trade-up scenarios discussing whether or not we move up for some of the players that we had bucketed and considered as potential impact ads what do you really think it begins to make sense I wonder if you call Washington it has a way of working itself out yeah that element you got to prepare for is there anyone that you would trade up for and then at that point you got to wait and see how it unfolds I was wondering if y'all were uh you want to come back to 36 are you going to pick hey coach good how are you you know what we no we wouldn't do the the next year too uh again I don't mind talking about next year but yeah this year picks would be better is anyone Within Reach willing to dance with us in a trade so that that's the the part that's fun because you just don't know if this if these guys go yeah I've been talking with O'Connell I think they're trying to get out would that still make the most sense for us hey this is Les Rams this is where it gets interesting you allow the board to play itself out at which point you're able to even see uh with a little bit more 20 20 vision and at that point in time you're able to see it all take shape in a way that allows you to actually take action and feel like you have a firm grip on on a lot of that move damn that really eliminates our abilities to go up then doesn't it I don't know what the world thinks we need it seems like they say we need everything the way that it did how tempting was it for you guys to discuss what to do versus the amount of needs that you had at that time there were certain guys that we had discussed that that would definitely Merit that now how it unfolds and whether you can do that or not but it didn't come to fruition yeah what was interesting no no team really moved out of the first to the second and I know there was probably a few other things that we're trying to get there but for whatever reason this year usually it happens once or twice late part of the first round it didn't happen I wouldn't say the vision for how you use a guy and how it comes to life I think we're playing it right there pick 36 that's the base race right trade somewhere hey if we trade back and one of these guys is there you know what I'm saying but I mean I know Ryan's liked it what you're going to really do is work through the scenario if you trade back there's an element of now you're collecting these draft picks a lot of people projecting him to God there's no name to them there's no genre of flavor skill set it's just oh that's a draft pick that thing's very valuable it's on paper collecting more just means you're going to get more shots TCU may be the guy if you pick the 36th day oh I like this guy as we're sitting there at 36 thinking to ourselves all right there's this bucket of a handful of players that we feel like could help make an impact and improve our roster let's begin the dialogue around whether or not those are moves we want to make he may go first of these ol right now this guy's a clinic in the Run game right I know he can play The Run I know he can run block we may prepare to the best of our abilities and say sometimes they fall right to you and you go wow aren't we brilliant we didn't make the trade up a lot of times they'll go before you got to get over the emotion and then sit there hey you pick or are you ready to trade back so you're usually not just sitting so what's your gut tell you we've done a lot of work on him the only thing that I would say that I think is a good thing is this was your intuition right after last night let's make the pack let's get this guy on the call come on Texas Christian Steve yep hey this is Les Sneed Los Angeles Rams how you doing well let me ask you this you want to be a Los Angeles Ram if we draft you yeah yeah all right then well I'm gonna put you on the phone with your new head coach Sean McVay congrats my man congratulations hey coach how you doing man you excited I'm ready to go coach that's awesome are you with your family right now oh that's awesome well congratulations we've got a lot of people excited can't wait to get to work with you man enjoy this what a what an awesome day for you he's emotional man um but the 36th pick in the 2023 NFL draft the Los Angeles Rams select the neat thing is you do know he can play two guards in a center spot that just makes you more valuable and we'll try to figure out the best five and go from there [Applause] let's go the end of the day we have a lot of positions each time you go to pick is there's probably a player at all of those positions available and at that point you go okay this player at this position fits our job description the most and let's try to pick that player and then move on to the next pick that's awesome studying some of these guys ultimately the goal at each pick is to select the best football player and typically if you do that it's going to work out for the best that really is the North Star coming up on each pickpoint is wanting to get that guy if you were to say like actual positions oh what do you think is if one of those two were there I'd say do that just go back to back and let's take the best player and don't feel needs the day two selections we wanted to ensure that we were leveling the competition up across our entire roster players that we firmly believe are in position to compete for starting roster spots whether it's Edge interior it's you know it's you know it's like who compliments LG in your mind and is also a better person long term I think addressing the rusher whoever you guys think is the best is a smart thing let's go sometimes go with your gut he's going to work his ass off and see well yes and that's your favorite all right let's do it let's go Tennessee okay hello hey Byron less need Los Angeles Rams hey you ever dreamed of playing in the NFL do you want to play for the Rams yes sir all right man we're gonna draft you the Los Angeles Rams out of high school didn't sign with anyone ended up working Dollar General then walking on at a junior college in Georgia and at the end of the day he ends up getting to Tennessee there's a story there that wow this guy was hungry expiring Young that's what you do Charming less balance each other out so well what less means to Sean throughout the regular season is what Sean means to less throughout the lead up to the draft my favorite football players Wake Forest I just don't know if this is where we pick him but the way it's been going less one thing I appreciate is the conviction on something if all these guys go who are you going to be the most pissed about to watch the dynamic on draft day unfold see Sean listening to lesson to allow him the luxury of you know some more confidence to to pull triggers and to to go ahead and make decisions a little bit more straightforward you feel strongly about it one percent so let me ask you this what are we talking about then if you feel that much love and so does he he loves him right I mean this is a consistent buy-in it's set up to be a super collaborative process it's an open space compared to kind of your traditional draft room and the room is really set up for exactly that is there anybody that would go with another player before away from the defensive side so there's a unanimous my thing is this room very Furious if we lose this guy but we've done a nice job adjusting all day and it's worked out you know what let's just let's end on the good nose let's do it come on Kobe okay this is Les Snead Los Angeles Rams yes sir hey if we drafted you want to come play for us oh 100 oh man then we're gonna do it he's built similarly to Aaron Donald and has a very similar Style game where there is a an element of get off right now in a short area that can give him an advantage on the ol and get an edge football it's on the turf OB Turner comes up with the pig skin and bounces his way to the sideline the success for us is getting the draft board right it's unreal how many little data points influence where a guy ends up on the draft board if I were to go back and look at how many hours we spent just truly just looking at the board and tweaking it being able to see that final result up on the screen and knowing how much work from our entire team went into putting that together was a really fulfilling moment yeah warning your Scouts mentioned smart tough competitive what you guys were aiming for here how do each of these guys that you picked embody that you know what's really cool is we've always tried to embody it we sat down and had a conversation with Aaron Donald and we were talking about this is kind of the blueprint play with some younger players less experienced players on on defense per set and you know it was awesome we looked you tonight and said here's the deal I'm good just make sure they care that that's always resonated with me but I think we've always tried to do that if you want a simple algorithm of people you can bet on probably in life they didn't know the football field or people who actually are passionate about doing what they do and then working to try to go be good or great car battery roll be in the market for a quarterback tomorrow on day three and is that kind of what the plan might have been going in that Saturday would be the day you might do that we're actually thinking we're gonna be the first team ever to carry one quarterback the whole year that's it Gary pictures on the roster right now it's interesting we're not going to punt I don't know who's kicking off be fun to watch it was a gap of 90 picks between our final third round selection and our first fifth round selection a five minute clock so it's gonna go faster too we were able to acquire some draft capital in between there to address some players and add some players that we had a lot of interest in [Music] I can so I need to call this cat do you want to do it so it's it's 89 and 128 for 73. okay perfect that's good thanks there was one player that really jumped out in comparison to the rest that we wanted to make sure we didn't lose out on him for yes didn't we just come up try to come up for that guy somehow it goes wrong yes but you'll you'll win you don't do that oh I'm in agreement with that they were asking about QBs early though we're past the strengths and weaknesses this is a yes or no day the part that's fun if we stayed Pat we're picking this player and then there's that element you got to prepare for is there anyone that you would trade up for you got to wait and see how it unfolds to any of those players fall to Within Reach so what do we want away from this point for us what you wrote the 127th pick for the 2023 NFL draft the New Orleans Saints have selected Jake hayner quarterback we know we know what we're doing hey Stetson this is Leslie Los Angeles Rams you want to come play quarterback for us I would love to all right then hey we're gonna uh draft you and uh with this pick and I'm gonna pan you over to coach McVeigh hey coach and we're excited to get you fired up got an all Georgia quarterback room now so yeah looking forward to getting you going man got a lot of respect for you as a player and uh it's gonna be a lot of fun all right man congratulations thank you with the 128th it's the quarterback Georgia the amount of work that goes into a three-day culmination is a little bit crazy but I think that's one of the fun things about this job is that you really are doing months and months of work to hone down what ultimately becomes the draft see I would always watch SEC Defenders against George's Oil because they got a good ol and it's like damn this that's about they everybody said he was the damn walk-on this guy's actually a weapon fires to the end zone touchdown One play man out there and it's caught Stetson Bennett touchdown Georgia he may be able to go touchdown Georgia oh my Stetson Bennett [Music] no doubt you got 161 for 189. we've got six picks it's gonna go fast when we started at 161. yeah like I think this guy would be really good for us less we're going to nail them too we're controlling the draft here soon it's really cool how much expertise there is in the room there's really not a single question that lesser Sean can ask that's not answered within five seconds the decision making becomes super solid because of that collaboration so how do you see Georgia fit into that instead of all four who's got the best ability this guys thank you may hit some home runs yeah I think I would rather have the home run here Kenny actually really loves him he's been wanting to draft so this is a hell yeah what's your good time [Music] let's do that the amount of work you guys have put in at this point trust that oh we're on the clock yeah you got three minutes imagine if you had to make a play call oh you can be in this too long this is a business and right young man has a skill how can that skill be useful to us but I do think in that moment especially when you get on the phone somewhere along the way each of those young men started playing maybe flag football then eventually they they put on shoulder pads and helmets and they were way bigger than their probably the shoulder pads and helmets were probably taller than their body and then next thing you know their middle school high schools you think of all the hours really that went into okay wavy maybe maybe actually getting that phone call Nick Warren Davis hey pooka Travis hey this is Les Snead of the Los Angeles Rams whenever they get that call there isn't there is an emotion there that they were trying to thread the needle of right being in the 0.001 of high school kids that play football to get that call and to get that opportunity you've been watching the draft all right then here's what we're about to do if we draft you right here you want to come play football with us you want to come be around you want to come play for us going to the Rams [Applause] at the end of the day we got jobs available and there's a lot of young men who this is their dream to get a job in the NFL and we'll try to do our part aligning their dreams and our jobs did John this is less need Los Angeles Rams we're about to take you with the last pick of the draft here so you want to be a ram all right ma'am I think at the end of it all you look at the group as a whole and you feel like we've certainly added quality depth to our roster while at the same time adding a number of players we feel like I can you know compete for not only starting spots but also some significant rotational spots feel certainly confident that the level of competition throughout our roster has certainly been elevated no no I'm just gonna have a tough time remembering all these pictures a lot is that how many we make yes it is oh wait that's the whole draft right not today we're a much more competitive football team by the nature of these four team players our guys are doing a great job in the process of adding cfas and um for the 44 guys that we've had in-house right now we'll add to that and make sure that everybody that we're on boarding we feel like has a legitimate chance to make our football team more competitive and a real chance to make the roster as soon as the draft is over and you start that CFA process with the you know the agents and stuff your phone's going going nuts that's how we roll you know we're a young team we got the lowest amount of people on the roster I mean we might have about 40 guys on roster right now so I mean chances that guy's gonna come here and really compete it's awesome it's a chance to be a mini GM and take control because they give you that control of the process there's a lot of decisions to be made in a short time frame in some respects I'd say an equated to playing quarterback you got to drop back in three seconds and be accurate with your decisions like I I like them but I walked away going this kid talks a lot you know he's going to get a lot of reps because we've only got those three spots we're trying to push as hard as we can here oh my gosh yeah I mean look look at the roster all right yeah appreciate you girl I'm going ahead of La I told you about that weather now better be playing in L.A you spend a lot of time trying to negotiate truly the opportunity that the young man may have uh coming to the Rams the opportunity to make our team is real I'm not okay have I ever be asked you when money gets involved and the decisions are made it is it is hectic and the phone calls The best scenario and best opportunity is where you should go man it's not always about the money I think that's the interesting part for a lot of these young men is that how do you make a decision when you're 19 20 21 years old somebody offers you a hundred thousand dollars guaranteed money and another team offers you 10 grand the signing bonus is short money you want us you want to be on somebody's at the roster every year we've had somebody live to have the roster hope you did a good job of completing passes in this free agency period and we're able to get some guys that will not only make the ram to make our team better but for those that don't they get an opportunity to have careers in other places we're officially post draft we have to take account of what the Los Angeles Rams now have 14 new additions in this draft let alone the 26 undrafted free agents you got a lot of work to do half of this roster is new Sean McVay said it on draft day he drafted an entire team gonna be a hot training camp it's going to be competitive it's going to be bloody it's gonna be fun a lot of those guys aren't going to make it here but they're going to leave their Mark here trying to make it here and that's going to make the guys that do stay here a lot better for us these guys have brought the right energy to both players in coaches every single day that excites me they got to find what you're selling I'm just telling to go right make you feel that burst you have he think he's going deep hey man that's a hell of a job man Sean was always learning from the coaches that's what struck me most about him it's an amazing honor to be inducted into the Cradle of coaches it really means a lot to me it's like you could tell immediately he was gonna coach

Channel: Los Angeles Rams

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Keywords: nfl, football, rams, la rams, los angeles rams, rams behind the grind, behind the grind episode 2, rams btg, rams btg ep 2, btg, behind the grind, rams draft, rams 2023 draft, rams 2023 draft house, rams 2023 draft recap, rams nfl draft 2023, rams draft 2023 reaction, les snead f them picks, les snead interview, les snead press conference, les snead draft, les snead rams, les snead on stetson bennett, les snead sean mcvay, sean mcvay, sean mcvay draft, rams behind the scenes

Id: JDKwoAgORQ8

Length: 34min 9sec (2049 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 07 2023