GM Les Snead Says St. Louis Rams 2013 NFL Draft about
‘Wants’ Not Needs
The 2013 NFL Draft could signal the dawning of a new day for
a St. Louis Rams franchise that has been down on its luck for the better part
of the past decade. This past season saw the club finish with its best record
in that same time period with plenty of young talent leading the way. Instead
of focusing in on needs and filling gaping holes in their roster this time
around, the Rams may opt to draft some players that they want rather than
strictly players that they need.
General Manager Les Snead was quite successful during his
first offseason with the team and he has some sound reasoning coming into his
encore effort as well. The GM said: “Sometimes when you ‘need’ something, you
become desperate. When you’re desperate, you can make bad decisions.”
There in lies the problem that plenty of rebuilding
franchises fail to understand. Just because a team has a glaring deficiency
doesn’t mean it must be address right away or with reckless abandon. Last year
the team had plenty of holes to fill so it was much easier to add players and
plug them in anywhere because there weren’t much strength on the roster. Now
that the rebuild has a year under its belt, there won’t be as much roster
turnover and there are fewer pressing areas of need for the team.
One area where they want and need category could overlap
however is at the safety position where the Rams are quite thin. Snead is happy
that the draft doesn’t have the same problem as he said: “It seems like every
year, the quote is: ‘It’s not a deep draft.’ I take the opposite approach. I’ve
never seen a thin draft. This is your chance to go improve your football team.
You take the glass half full. This year, you could find a larger group of
safeties come in and be starters (out of the draft). So it’s got ebbs and flows.”
Along with the need at safety, the Rams certainly have some
concerns at wide receiver and tight end, all along the offensive line, and
outside linebacker. Snead talked about his mentality when it comes to
addressing those areas saying: “You’re almost like, ‘If we really want that
(position filled), we’re gonna have to either get him in free agency or it’s
gonna run dry after the second round (of the draft).’”
Snead has already shown that he is more than capable of
finding starters beyond the glamor rounds of the draft including wide receiver
Chris Givens last year who was a 4th round selection. Also kicker Greg Zuerlein
and punter Johnny Hekker were tremendous additions to the team and came in the
6th round and undrafted respectively.
There’s no doubt the Rams are taking the proper mentality
into this year’s draft. There will be no reaching, no desperation, and that
will lead to more sound decision making in the end. The strategy of drafting
for want over need certainly paid off in 2012 so let’s hope the results
continue in 2013.
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