[BobCarl]

I gotta say, as big of a deal as the Senior Bowl is to the Rams it's really disappointing how we're getting no coverage of it from out local reporters. I know the Pro Bowl is going on at the same time but they can't send anybody?

your post needs to be blasted to all of the Los Angeles media ...

and the team needs to invite a trusted reporter or two to sit in on some of the interviews and scouting sessions...

these things can help strengthen the bond with the local fans

[Hacksaw]

I'd rather the Rams keep their prospects to themselves.

[BobCarl]

I'd rather the Rams keep their prospects to themselves.

Good point, I don't want the Rams to show their hand .... but at the same time it would be nice to see the personnel leaders and scouts working hard trying to fill needs, searching for BPAs as well as getting to know the possible prospects of our opponents.

[AltiTude Ram]

As posted already, Awesome the Rams have a no stones unturned staff on the job.

Snead/Coaches and scouts are there and taking notes as well as conducting a thorough interview process.

The only people missing the boat are the media. The Rams have several Pro-Bowler players....which is nice!

[BobCarl]

The only people missing the boat are the media.

the fans here on this site is part of the 1% of fans that know something deeper than the three household names on the team ... the 99% won't care about the Senior Bowl.

[Elvis]

A rams version of this story would be nice...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/foo ... 15e52c1222

Senior Bowl offers a glimpse into the Redskins’ NFL draft scouting process

By Kimberley A. Martin January 26 Email the author

MOBILE, Ala. — Doug Williams watches each play and player intently, scribbling notes in pencil on his Senior Bowl roster as the first practice session bleeds into the next.

It’s his scouting shorthand. Nothing elaborate or particularly detailed. Just quick, to-the-point observations intended to help the Washington Redskins personnel executive easily identify potential NFL difference-makers in a sea of college stars.

Boom. 82. Great catch.

Great movement skills.

He’s flexible. He’s loose. Got good feet.

Drive on the ball. Boom.

“Now when you start looking at the guy [on film], that play comes back to you,” Williams, the Redskins’ senior vice president of player personnel, explains later in the lobby of his hotel.

Less than a month removed from the 2017 regular season, NFL coaches flock to Mobile to get their first up-close look at dozens of draft prospects. But for the Redskins, the college scouting process began in August with their road scouts.

[A broken elevator, Doug Williams and a Redskins’ rout: Al Michaels recalls his first Super Bowl broadcast]

Williams, a prolific passer and star quarterback at Grambling State back in his day, often references the words of his legendary Tigers coach, the late Eddie Robinson.

“Coach Rob used to tell us all the time: The credit goes to the man in the arena,” he says before another round of evening meetings that last late into the night. “The scouts on the road, they’re in the arena. So during my time being in the office, I get a list of the guys that they’re looking at, so I watch tape and go from there. But coming down here, you see some of the guys that they’re writing up or scouting, then you get a chance to see them firsthand and get a feel for how they feel about a player.”

Senior Bowl week provides NFL talent evaluators another chance to observe how players perform on the field and how they conduct themselves during practices and in interviews as teams try to determine which possess innate leadership skills and physical gifts.

Members of the Redskins’ staff take in practices at Ladd-Peebles Stadium from preferred perches. Team President Bruce Allen sometimes sits alone, about 20 rows up the bleachers, at one end zone. On Wednesday, he was joined by Coach Jay Gruden for a few hours; on Thursday, Kyle Smith, the Redskins’ director of college personnel, scouted practice next to Allen.

Williams often can be found sitting among members of the scouting department. On Wednesday, for instance, he, Smith and several pro and road scouts sat together in the bleachers along the press box sideline.

“We don’t sit there and discuss players. We just watch,” says Williams, a former college coach, Super Bowl XXII champion and MVP, and longtime NFL scout and personnel executive.

A few days of observing practices and conducting late-night meetings with players won’t provide substantial insight into a player’s draft value. It does, however, confirm findings obtained during the college season and serve as a starting point in a four–month process that concludes with April’s NFL draft and the signing of undrafted free agents this spring.

That process continues next Saturday, when area scouts return to Ashburn and Washington’s scouting department begins its college meetings.

Inside the war room

Eighteen men cram into a single room for two weeks, taking turns describing their observations. A projector sits nearby. So does a long table littered with an assortment of snacks.

“Stuff you shouldn’t be eating,” Williams jokes.

Aside from a lunch or bathroom break, the group is confined to that room from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. for the next 14 days.

Williams used to be a “big coffee guy” but not anymore. He has gone cold turkey, giving up that vice three weeks ago. But he provides plenty of treats to keep him and the rest of his staff alert and happy: chips, cookies, candy, gum, peanuts.

The days are long and draining. But the payoff comes when their evaluations add talented players to the Redskins’ ranks.

The group breaks down players by position. Those in the room take turns discussing what they saw in Mobile, at the East-West Shrine Game and the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl, plus whatever intel the scouts gleaned throughout the year during conversations with various college coaches, including strength and conditioning assistants.

The goal is to come to a consensus on where the team should put players on its draft board.

As is the case with any NFL team, tension can arise in a room filled with opinions.

“That’s why they call it the war room,” Williams says, smiling. “I stand up for my opinion, and I think every scout should stand up for their opinion. At the end of the day, when we walk out the room, it’s not personal. It’s personnel.

“It’s a team selection,” he added. “Me, Kyle, Jay and Bruce [make the decision], with input from the guys. The decision, whether it’s good, bad or indifferent, we’ve got to live with it.”

But, Williams cautioned, they won’t let a small sample dictate a player’s standing.

“You don’t want a one-play, two-play wonder,” stressed Williams, who was promoted in June to supervise the team’s scouting department.

“You want a consistent player. And leaving [Mobile] doesn’t change the way we do things.”

The Redskins did, however, make one significant change to their scouting process.

Making the roster better

Right after Washington concluded its 7-9 season with a 18-10 road loss to the New York Giants on Dec. 31, Williams’s department turned the page on 2017 by turning its focus to free agents.

Unlike in previous years, when Washington arranged its board starting with Rounds 1-7 of the draft and then NFL free agents, the scouting department separately finalized its NFL free agent board in December and assigned grades to a selection of college players.

The decision was spurred by conversations between Smith and Williams.

“Kyle and I talked about it,” Williams says, explaining the reasoning behind tweaking the process. “He came up with the idea that we’ll come in and set the free board. That way, when we come back in the second time, we don’t have to deal with the free agents.”

The benefit?

Time, Williams says succinctly.

“It takes a bigger workload off of the scouts trying to do them all at once when you come back,” he says. “…We think they’ll be a little bit more efficient because now we can just concentrate on all of the draft guys and the time that we spend will be just on draftable guys, not on the free agents.”

Williams declines to discuss team needs (“I’m not going to get into that, because that’s not fair to the team,” he says), but stressed the key to success is simple: Get better.

“When we broke training camp, I said I thought this was a pretty good roster, and it was. We got decimated by injuries. I can’t do anything about that. But I still think we had a pretty good roster,” he says, adding that the Redskins are “much better” than what they were three years ago because of several factors, including free agency and the maturation of several players.

“Going into 2018, and if everybody is healthy, we’ve got a pretty good roster. Now, what you do with that pretty good roster is make that roster better.”

There’s plenty of uncertainty surrounding the Redskins, and the biggest question is who will be at quarterback. Starter Kirk Cousins, a pending free agent, could return if the front office chooses to tag him for a third straight season or the sides work out a long-term deal. But the salary — $34 million for one season on a franchise tag and $28 million with the transition tag — could prove prohibitive.

Williams says he doesn’t feel pressure, per se, in his new role. But the new title comes with the same challenge all NFL general managers and personnel directors face.

“Trying to get it right,” he says. “This thing ain’t nothing but a crapshoot. And everything is a gamble. But you want to be able to walk away and say you cashed in.

“Nobody’s going to hit the jackpot all the time, but I think we walked away with a little change in our pocket if you look at it from a casino standpoint. And we want to make sure that we continue to do that. That’s what should concern anybody in my position — a director, a personnel guy. Make sure we pick the right guy.”