Veteran linebacker Bobby Wagner didn’t hire an agent when he hit free agency for the first time this offseason, after playing for a decade in Seattle. And that led to some confusion when he began the process of searching for a new team.
Wagner signed with the Rams in March, but only after texting General Manager Les Snead to say he was interested and having Snead question how he could know that he was really hearing from Wagner and not getting hoaxed.
“Everybody thought it was a fake,” Wagner told the Los Angeles Times.
Snead confirmed that he was questioning, “Is this real?” But once he was able to verify that Wagner was actually the person texting him, he was very interested. Snead said he had wanted to draft Wagner with the 50th overall pick in the 2012 NFL draft, but that the Seahawks took Wagner at No. 47 overall, and that ever since then he has thought very highly of Wagner. It wasn’t until the Seahawks decided to release Wagner this offseason that Snead got a chance to sign him.
Wagner said he thinks he has something more than his identity to prove as a Ram.
“I’m hungry to prove that there’s still something out there for me to do,” he said, “and prove that I’m still the best of the best.”
When Wagner takes the field tonight against the Bills, he’ll look a little different in a Rams uniform. But he plans to make the kinds of plays we saw for a decade in Seattle, so everyone knows it’s really Bobby Wagner.