It is rare to see a major front office shake up ahead of the draft but like the Cleveland Browns did last year, the Rams have fire four scouts including their director of player personnel. Scouts Danton Barto, Evan Ardoin, and Sean Gustus were fired along with Director of Player Personnel Ran Carthon. Carthon had been associated with Rams GM Les Snead since Snead was the Director of Player Personnel in Atlanta serving as a member of the scouting staff.
Snead brought Carthon with him in 2012 when he got hired in St. Louis. Carthon was in charge of not only the scouts that looked at draft prospects but in the in game scouts as well. This shake up means that the Rams are going all in on the cultural shift they started once they fired Jeff Fisher back in December and it also points to the fact that Snead knows this season has to be in some form a success if he’s to keep his job.
By acknowledging that his front office strategy hasn’t worked up until this point he’s buying himself some time to re-calibrate how he will build the team going forward and the types of players he’s willing to draft and sign. His many draft failures have been documented to this point and its refreshing that Snead is aware his approach wasn’t working.
The Jared Goff trade aside, Snead and his scouts have whiffed on several picks as well as free agent signings so it was either shake things up or face the axe himself sooner than later. The Browns would seem like an odd team to emulate but when Sashi Brown joined the staff he also shook up the personnel department and changed the front office culture of that team. Yes, they went 1-15 last year but his strategy was to collect as many picks as possible and not spend stupid money as had been their move since returning to the league in 1999.
Brown was one of the key figures in the book Moneyball. By no means is Snead going to copy that same approach because he doesn’t have to rebuild the Rams from the ground up, but he at least saw that if you want to fix the product on the field you need to change the culture from the front office down. No replacements have been announced yet so it isn’t clear what type of front office Snead wants but this was probably for the best.
This season is crucial not just for Snead, but for the team going forward as Goff is on one of the hottest seats a second year quarterback can be in and Sean McVay has to prove he’s just as adept at coaching as he is in a press conference.
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