Normally, teams are looking to copy anything and everything they can from Super Bowl champions. The copycat league of the NFL can often lead teams to chase trends instead of getting ahead of them. It also can lead to overpaying free agents from those championship teams.
The Los Angeles Rams seem to be setting an interesting trend that many are unlikely to follow. In a league where more information is always better, the team has announced that GM Les Snead and head coach Sean McVay won’t even make the trip to Indianapolis for the NFL Combine.
The two attended last year’s very limited event. In 2020, McVay was there for a day before flying back and Snead stayed behind. A tweet about the Rams decision references Snead’s “F Them Picks” shirt that he wore to the Super Bowl parade:
The Rams say Les Snead and Sean McVay are not going to attend the draft combine. F them picks indeed.
— Greg Beacham (@gregbeacham) February 27, 2022
While Los Angeles has traded away a lot of draft capital, the team is still expected to have eight picks in the upcoming draft due to compensatory picks.
The Rams will send their medical team along with a few others from their front office and coaching staff but the big decision-makers won’t be there for interviews or to take in the on-field workouts.
With the Combine possibly moving locations, including possibly to Los Angeles, after this year, it will be interesting if Snead and McVay start a trend or not. We do know the reaction from most of the rest of the fan bases, including the Cleveland Browns, if their top decision-makers didn’t go would be quite negative.