With George Paton staying in Minnesota, the Rams now have one finalist for the position of G.M. And they’re trying to close the deal.
Jim Thomas of St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the Rams are “entering contract talks” with Falcons director of player personnel Les Snead.
Thomas previously reported that Paton and Snead were the two finalists for the position.
It’s widely believed that the G.M. will be essentially working for coach Jeff Fisher, with Fisher having final say over the roster and all other football-related moves.
Done deal per Rotoworld.
Good hire.
Why have a GM then if Fisher has total control? Doesn’t make sense.
Wonder how that”s gonna work out? The GM reports to the coach?
The Packers’ hiring of Mike Sherman to fill both the head coach and general manager positions illustrated the danger in allowing one man to control the football operations side of a franchise.
Sherman repeatedly traded multiple picks for the opportunity to move up in the draft, which left him little margin for error. Then he became enamored with the players he selected, refusing to waive them when they obviously couldn’t perform at the NFL level.
And, by mortgaging those extra draft opportunities, he gutted the team’s depth and saw a huge dropoff in proficiency when a starter went down with an injury.
Ironically, Green Bay had hired Tom Braatz as its GM some years before when the franchise realized that the “one-man-handling-two-jobs” model was a failure (other than during Vince Lombardi’s reign).
Why Ron Wolf reverted to that format when he stepped down is beyond me, especially when Sherman had no prior experience on the managerial side.
That said, Jeff Fisher might be the type of objective personnel evaluator who would admit his own mistakes and cut his losses if necessary.
For those comments above, it’s simple really. Les Snead is brought in to help evaluate talent and takes care of the business side of the football decisions, i.e. negotiating contracts. He’s going to be the salary cap guru. Fisher has final say on all football related decisions including cutting players.
Les Snead?
Why do I feel a need to say “gesundheit” now?
As an additional comment about Les Snead, think of when Bruce Allen was the “GM” of the Oakland Raiders. He wasn’t there to make football decisions, he was there to manage the salary cap and make the business side of the football decisions when it came to dealing with players.