Rams general manager Les Snead is in attendance at this week’s Senior Bowl to complete some prep work for the 2016 draft, but Snead has more on his plate than most GMs around the league this year, as his team prepares to pack up and make the move from St. Louis to Los Angeles. Gary Klein of the Los Angeles Times spoke to Snead about the relocation to L.A. and a number of other Rams-related topics, so let’s dive in and check out a few of the GM’s more noteworthy comments.
On playing in the Coliseum while waiting for the Inglewood stadium to open:
“The Coliseum is such an historic place; that will be neat for our players. I think our players will really enjoy being outdoors. And judging from the initial ticket [deposits] and having a relatively full Coliseum, any pitfall there is, all those things will outweigh it by a long shot.”
On any concerns about how moving to a large market like L.A. will affect players:
“I’ve definitely thought about it because it’s a larger market with more distractions…. I do know that some of the teams have been very, very successful in L.A., on the field, on the court and in the rink. So it’s proven that you can be a professional athlete and be young and still thrive…. I definitely think it would be prudent to go out and visit some of those teams and see how they handle it and go from there.”
On the possibility of re-signing quarterback Case Keenum, who is a restricted free agent:
“That is a goal. We’re not going to let him go somewhere else.”
On keeping Nick Foles as a backup “at something like $12-13MM”:
“His contract is not exactly that. I don’t want to get into the exact numbers, but it’s about half of that [Ed. note: Foles is owed a $6MM roster bonus and $1.75MM base salary in 2016]. There’s a lot of things that get written about contracts. The answer from a salary standpoint is, yes, he’s easily keepable.”
On the possibility of drafting a quarterback early this spring:
“You definitely have to prepare that you might do it.… Sometimes with QBs we’ve seen some very successful ones go in the second round, and the third round seems to be hot of late. I’m thinking of Russell Wilson. I’m thinking of Kirk Cousins [fourth round]. So the thing about the draft is, because it’s become a nice entertainment segment … there’s so much attention on the first round, especially at the QB position, that sometimes the third-round QB, it’s ‘Oh, he’s a third-round QB.’ But the long story short on all of that is we’ll definitely scout QBs, and we’ll definitely look at the trade market and free-agent market.”
On whether the Rams’ offensive line is mostly set:
“The answer is yes…. Last year we went into [the draft] needing [offensive linemen]. Four of our five starters from the 2014 team, when we went to draft, still weren’t on our roster for various reasons. We needed to draft, develop some guys and let them grow together … we think we’re on our way to see it come to fruition.”