Report: LA Rams Making Significant Changes To Front Office

Pro Football Talk had an interesting report on Monday in which Mike Florio references a “a source with knowledge of the situation” that claims some significant changes are coming to the Los Angles Rams’ front office:

The Rams will now look at ways to improve their front office.

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Don’t be surprised if they add to the front office, supplementing G.M. Les Snead, possibly with someone who would occupy a higher position on the organizational chart.

It’s an interesting tidbit now that Snead survived the staff turnover this offseason following the firing of former Head Coach Jeff Fisher and new Head Coach Sean McVay.

One thing that sailed by in Fisher’s tenure was many fans’ assumption that Snead held something close to customary personnel duties and decision-making responsibilities. I think that assumption wasn’t just misguided but perhaps entirely wrong. Multiple rumors have suggested that Rich Snead (no relation to Les) actually had more of the personnel heft under Fisher. Rich Snead spent 13 years with Fisher with the Titans most of them as the directory of player personnel; Rich was hired by the Rams in 2010 as the Rams’ senior player personnel analyst.

The impression then is that Snead was less of a conventional general manager and more of a project manager, overseeing Director of Player Personnel Taylor Morton and the entire personnel department’s duties, managing relationships with other front offices throughout the league and assisting VP/COO Kevin Demoff in advancing the franchise’s business expansion.

It’s part of why, despite the misguided sense that Snead deserved to be fired over the Rams’ ultimate personnel decisions over the last five years leading to a 4-12 2016 season following a blockbuster trade up to #1 in the 2016 NFL Draft to select rookie QB Jared Goff that rolled out the league’s worst offense, the Rams opted to retain Snead’s services as GM. It’s not coincidental that Florio’s source mentions the effect a front office hire would have on Demoff and Snead’s responsibilities in that area:

Making an addition to the front office more likely is that COO Kevin Demoff will now be focusing more on getting the stadium built on time and within budget, and less time working on football matters.

This is a franchise that hasn’t held its football output as its top priority in many years. That hasn’t changed with a $2.6-billion dollar multi-use complex on the calendar for the next 32 or so months. With Demoff iterating last offseason that the Rams are now a content production company with the football games just being an extension of that, there’s little reason for fans to believe those priorities have changed.

The bottom line is that Rams fans should hope that any front office changes, and the hiring of McVay, can allow the Rams to succeed in their most cherished priorities of developing the business and expanding the brand for both the franchise and the NFL as a whole while at the same time producing winning football, something the Rams haven’t done since before Owner Stan Kroenke and Demoff took the franchise over.