Paton Pulls Out; Snead Slides In

By Anthony Bafaro

Left to Right:  COO-Kevin Demoff, GM-Les Snead,
and HC-Jeff Fisher

With Fisher in charge of roster personnel and Demoff taking care of the contracts, the Rams were looking for a GM that could run a scouting department and meld well with the front-office personalities already in place.  Those parameters eventually cut a field of many down to two: Falcons’ Head of Player Personnel, Les Snead, and Vikings Head of Player Personnel, George Paton.  Snead was the first candidate contacted when the elongated interview process began and was called back for a second interview after the Rams hired Fisher.  Paton was a late addition to the list and interviewed after Fisher became involved. 

On the morning of February 11^th, Jim Thomas reported that the job was “Paton’s to lose.”  Within 24 hours, Paton announced that he was pulling out of the running and accepting a promotion with the Vikings to Assistant GM.  That is how Les Snead became GM of the Rams.

Is this unsettling to anyone else?  Paton was hand-picked by Fisher, right?  The Rams already had a legion of candidates when they hired Fisher.  Then he came in, looked at the list, and said, “Yeah, that’s nice, but let's interview George Paton.”  Then they cut it down to two finalists as if it was some realty show finale or presidential primary, and just as they were about to announce the winner, Paton pulls out.  So not only did we lose out on our top pick to an Assistant GM job, but our de facto GM has to come in knowing that he was a backup-plan, mostly by request of the head coach.

Snead has spent the last thirteen years in the Falcons’ personnel department, surviving an ownership change, eight coaching changes, and the incarceration of former number one overall pick Michael Vick.  He was promoted to Head of Player Personnel (HPP) prior to the 2009 season, one year after the Falcons hired Thomas Dimitroff as GM.  Of the 21 players drafted during Snead’s three years as HPP, 20 are still on the roster and 7 are starters.  That’s amazing, especially to Rams fans, who have endured four years of Devaney’s dismal retention rate.

There was a lot of second-guessing surrounding the 2011, draft-day-trade to acquire Julio Jones.  The Falcons moved up to the 6^th pick by trading their 1^st round pick (27), 2^nd round pick (59), and 4^th round pick (124), plus an additional 1^st and 4^th in 2012 to the Browns.  Dimitroff was the GM, so he owns the move, but Snead would have been a big part of deciding how much Jones was worth.  That’s a lot to give up for the 2^nd wide-receiver taken—too much maybe—but when you hit on nearly every pick for two years in a row, you have picks to spare.  When you’re efficient and effective on draft-day, you can afford to take risks and “overpay” for a player like Jones, who, by the way, had 1,015 yards from scrimmage and 8 touchdowns in his rookie year.

Snead may not have been the first choice, but he looks to be a sound one.  His entire career has centered on talent evaluation, and he’s proven to be skilled and/or congenial enough to adapt with different coaching demands.  He was part of an expedited, post-Vick rebuild and has had unprecedented draft success since becoming HPP.  Only time will tell whether his successful history as a personnel-man will translate to success as the Rams GM, but at onset, it appears that the franchise may have found a winner by default.

Bradford - Good or Bad???

              I know that people are going to disagree with this topic even before I write it, so I want to preface it by saying that I am not a Bradford-hater.  I like the guy and think he has a good amount of potential.  However, I have a big problem with how Rams fans give Sam Bradford a free pass on the team’s struggles.  I think Bradford’s rookie season was overrated, and he hasn’t really proven himself for a man who signed an insane $50 million dollar contract which is the last of the big money rookie deals in the NFL. 

                Let’s first look at 2010.  In 2010, Bradford had the second most passing yards by a rookie since Peyton Manning.  He also set rookie records in 2010 for most attempts and highest completion percentage.  In my opinion, Bradford had one of the most overrated rookie years by anyone in the league, ever.  I saw a very bizarre statistic that I thought put some clarity on Bradford’s so-called wonderful rookie season.  The stat ranked all of the quarterbacks in the history of the league that were top 5 in attempts and aged 22 to 24.  There are 23 quarterbacks that fit this criteria.  Bradford ranked 21^st in yards per attempt out of these quarterbacks.  So what does that mean?  He completed an insane amount of attempts on dump-off passes that padded his completion percentage.  This also means he had trouble reading defenses.  If QB sit in the pocket and cannot find open receivers down field, they will dump the ball off.  In 2010, Bradford threw the ball a lot—so much that he set a rookie record for attempts. 

                With attempts comes yards.  I think “yards” is the most overrated stat in football.  If a team is struggling or down, they have to throw the ball, and as a result, they get yards.  Teams that throw a lot, like the 2011 Patriots, are inversely the worst rushing team in football.  Teams like the 2011 Broncos, who were the worst passing team in football, were the best rushing team in football.  I think this stat doesn’t hold as much water as one would think.  I don’t want to get into the quality of teams the 2010 Rams beat with their 7-9 record or the fact that Bradford choked when playing for a playoff spot in Seattle, but his 2010 was overvalued.

                Now let’s look at 2011.  Bradford had a bad year across the board.  He was hurt first and foremost.  The Rams receiving core was painfully bad and played that way throughout the season with little high points.  Accordingly, his stats were painful to look at.  His QB rating, TD’s a game, TD/INT percentage, completion percentage, and fumbles were all worse in 2011 than 2010.  Rex Grossman, arguably one of the worst starting QB’s in football, had a better QB rating, completion percentage, and yards per completion than Sam Bradford in 2011.  I think people forget that Bradford also played in 10 games in 2011, which makes it 26 games for his career.  That is a good amount of games for a starting quarterback.

                So why the free pass given his atrocious 2011?  Is it his age?  Is it the Rams have such a poor receiving core?  Is it that he was very popular and proficient in his college career?   The answer is yes to all.  I have heard at nauseam that Bradford just needs good receivers to throw to and he will be fine. This is the argument that really bothers me.  It’s the argument that if a player struggling but just had a great line, a great back, great receivers, and a great tight end, then our quarterback would be fantastic.  What other decent quarterback wouldn’t be good in that kind of scenario?  Give me a break.  Quarterbacks have more pressure than any position in any sport.  So why do we continue to give Bradford a complete free pass with no pressure by local media when it comes to the Rams losing? 

Bradford is a good-looking kid who was very popular at Oklahoma and nationally.  There are obviously a large amount of Mizzou fans that are also Rams fans.  Seeing Bradford in the Big 12 and playing so great in Mizzou’s backyard for years had all of Rams nation going crazy for the Rams to get such a highly-touted quarterback with the number 1 pick who most of us were already familiar with.  St. Louis wants Bradford to be the man—plain and simple.  He has all the intangibles on his side with the pedigree, history, familiarity, fame, and national attention that points him to be a star without having to even throw a pass.  This is the type of player the Rams are desperately seeking for a star-less team.  I think Rams fans are so blinded by the star potential that we blame his struggles on a crappy receiving core.  Do I think Bradford would do better with better wide receivers?  Absolutely.  But in this pressure filled position (i.e., being a quarterback in the NFL), I want him to find a way to perform regardless.  This might be a little unreasonable but I think some of the team’s struggles need to be on Bradford’s shoulders and not on every other Rams player.

Written by Jon Wekerle