Over his 15 years with the Falcons, Rams general manager Les Snead experienced the joys of going to the playoffs and reaching three NFC Championship games and one Super Bowl.
He also was in the front office during the most chaotic time in franchise history, when quarterback Michael Vick was sent to federal prison for his role in a dogfighting operation and when Bobby Petrino walked out on his squad 13 games into the 2007 season.
All of those lessons helped pave the way to Super Bowl LIII for Snead and the Los Angeles Rams, who’ll face the New England Patriots at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 3 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
“It kind of organically happened,” said Snead, who left to become the Rams general manager after the 2012 season, on Wednesday.
Snead, a native of Eufaula, Ala., who worked in the football office at Auburn, was with the Falcons from 1997 to 2012. He started out as a pro scout and was promoted to director of player personnel in 2009. He worked under personnel men Ron Hill, Rich McKay and Thomas Dimitroff. He also worked with Pro Football Hall of Fame general manager Bobby Beathard, who was a consultant for the franchise.
“I wouldn’t be here without Dan Reeves hiring Ron Hill,” Snead said.
He took all of the lessons he learned from the Falcons with him to St. Louis and then to Los Angeles.
“Rich is head of the competition committee, one of the smartest guys that I’ve ever been around in terms of teaching you the big picture,” Snead said. “Wade (Phillips) was interim coach at one time. Emmitt Thomas was interim coach there at one time, another Hall of Famer.”
It was Dimitroff who promoted Snead in 2009.
“Thomas coming in and getting a little bit of a New England DNA was invaluable,” Snead said.
The successful period under former Falcons coach Mike Smith helped Snead, too.
“When Thomas and Smitty came in and we went from a team that had never had back-to-back winning seasons to five straight,” Snead said. “At the end of the day, if that never occurs, if we don’t draft Matt Ryan and have those five seasons, I’m never a Ram.”
The success of the Falcons was important to the Rams.
“Because that successful program is what (chief operating officer) Kevin (Demoff) and (owner) Stan (Kroenke) were looking for,” Snead said. “It had nothing to do with me individually. The cumulative impact of let’s call it, all of those people and people that I’ve left out unintentionally, mean so much.”
The Vick years saw a championship-game appearance against the Eagles in 2005, but the 2007 season tested the resolve of the entire organization.
“You go through adversity in this (business),” Snead said. “Those are the years that you don’t recommend on anyone. You do learn a lot. You got through some fires and you actually learn poise because you know you’re going to need poise.”
Snead is receiving a lot of credit for increasing the Rams’ talent pool, while coach Sean McVay and defensive coordinator Wade Phillips cultivated and blended the talent into a championship team.
Taking on players with sketchy reputations was a big gamble.
“It’s a credit to the GM Les Snead,” said cornerback Aqib Talib, who started his career in Tampa Bay and is with his fourth team. “He doesn’t just grab anybody. He grabs guys who can come in the locker room and hang out after work. That’s what we do. Les brought the right group of guys in. This is definitely a special group.”
It was a bumpy start with the Rams for Snead, who worked initially with coach Jeff Fisher. They built the foundation of the team by drafting key players in defensive tackle Aaron Donald, running back Todd Gurley and quarterback Jared Goff.
After Goff got off to a horrid start, Fisher was fired in December 2016, and Snead thought he would suffer a similar fate. He even had a good-bye speech prepared.
But the Rams elected to keep Snead, who hired McVay. It was a major gamble as Snead made McVay, the youngest coach in the NFL at age 30.
McVay turned the team around in one season and went to the playoffs after the 2017 season, but the Rams were upset by the Falcons in the wild-card round.
That was the catalyst for a round of offseason moves designed to push the Rams over the top.
“After contending last year, we sat back and said we definitely felt like we could do this and we could do this consistently for a little while,” Snead said. “But we won the division last year, and we were eliminated (after the) wild-card round. So, how could we get better? I think the moves this year were to improve, that wasn’t good enough.”
Snead took the loss to the Falcons hard.
“That feeling after (losing to) Atlanta was hollow even after the sweetness of the breakthrough so to speak,” Snead said. “That’s what … those moves meant.”
The Rams secured a bye for the playoffs, and after winning the NFC title on the road, next season they want the top seed.
Snead added cornerbacks Marcus Peters and Talib, signed defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh and traded for wide receiver Brandin Cooks. In-season, the Rams traded for defensive end Dante Fowler and picked up discarded running back C.J. Anderson.
The Rams landed Suh with a one-year, $14 million deal and signed Cooks to a five-year, $81 million deal.
The Rams had some extra cash because Goff is still playing on his rookie contract.
Suh, a five-time Pro Bowler, had been released by Miami. Snead said Suh took less money to sign with the Rams.
“I won’t speak in numbers, but he’s accurate,” Suh said. “I want to win.”
» Read: AJC's complete coverage of the Super Bowl in Atlanta
There was a method to the moves.
“We are not collecting talent, we are building a team,” Snead said. “There is more to a team than just a skill set on the football field. Can our culture lead to them thriving?”
Before the 2016 draft, Snead stole a page out of Dimitroff's general-manager manual. He was with the Falcons when they made the bold move up to trade from No. 27 to No. 6 to land wide receiver Julio Jones in 2011.
The Rams made a similar big leap up from the 15 spot to No. 1 to draft Goff.
“Les is an adept talent evaluator and team builder and has shown that he is willing to make decisive decisions to acquire players,” Dimitroff said. “The success that the Rams have had and the way that team has thrived under Les and Sean McVay’s leadership is a testament to their hard work and relentless work ethic.”
The move to acquire Goff is starting to pay dividends for the Rams.
“Quarterbacks are judged on winning games, winning playoff games and getting to this moment,” Snead said. “So, you’d have to say the answer is yes (the trade up was successful). But you can also say that none of us are there yet. We haven’t finished this off.”
The Rams believe Goff will grow and continue to thrive under McVay.
“Being picked (No. 1) overall and putting a franchise on your back, it’s not on his back, but that’s going to be the perception from handling that to handling an interception, to handling a two-game losing streak,” Snead said. “In that position, quarterback, you better be able to not let the negatives effect the next play, games or practice moments. That’s a big part of what Jared is.”
Snead is fine with sharing the stage with others.
“I’m just one individual,” Snead said. “We’ve got a lot of great people coaching, playing, athletic performance, nutritionist and athletic-engagement people, ownership, front office and scouting. Everybody did their job.”
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