By title, Les Snead is the general manager of the Los Angeles Rams. He’s held that role since 2012 after working in the Falcons’ front office, and he’s been a huge part of the Rams’ resurgence in the last five years.
But he’s not the only one making roster decisions. He works closely with Sean McVay to build the Rams’ roster, and the two of them have had very few missteps in their time together so far.
So when NBC Sports’ Patrick Daugherty ranked every general manager in the NFL, he lumped Snead and McVay together – and he put them at the top of the list. He ranked the Snead-McVay pairing as the best general manager in the league, ahead of Bill Belichick, Brandon Beane, Andy Reid/Brett Veach and John Lynch/Kyle Shanahan. So Snead and McVay weren’t the only GM-coach tandem on the list.
Here’s what Daugherty wrote about McVay and Snead.
The Rams’ most recent first-round pick was Jared Goff in 2016. The Rams’ most recent game was a Super Bowl victory. Bill Belichick stockpiles draft picks. You never know when a service academy long snapper might be available. Sean McVay and Les Snead pay premiums for established talent. The return on investment has been wildly lucrative despite the high upfront costs. 44 regular season victories in four years heading into last season. Three playoff wins. A conference title. The only thing missing was a Lombardi. McVay and Snead believed they were one player away so they went out and paid their usual price: Two first-rounders and a third for Matthew Stafford. And, oh yeah, Goff, too. The calculation was correct. Stafford made the plays Goff never could and the Rams added 12 regular season victories, four postseason triumphs and, yes, a Super Bowl to their five-year haul. There is room to improve. Of the draft picks the Rams do make, too many are Belichick-ian vanity projects. Tutu Atwell says hello. But as is the case in New England, these are small gripes. This is a group as adept at winning in the boardroom as it is on the field.
Some of the best moves made by Snead and McVay since they joined forces in 2017 include the selection of Cooper Kupp in 2017, the signings of Andrew Whitworth and Robert Woods that same year, and the trades to acquire Matthew Stafford and Jalen Ramsey. There have been countless other, too, like the underrated moves to land Austin Corbett, Leonard Floyd and Darious Williams.
The moves that look bad in hindsight are the extensions given out to Todd Gurley, Jared Goff and Brandin Cooks, which didn’t work out as they hoped. But at the time, the contracts given to Goff and Cooks were easy to get behind – even if Gurley’s wasn’t.
