The Rams play in the Super Bowl Sunday and are 55-26 during the last five seasons. Their front office uses an approach that could help the Vikings build their roster and elevate out of the mediocrity of recent seasons.
The Rams haven’t drafted in the first round since 2016. Their next first rounder, as of now, is scheduled for 2024. Put the word scheduled in bold face if you like because with the Rams things happen with personnel acquisition—before the season, during training camp and even close to Super Bowl time.
This is an aggressive front office with a philosophy that believes it’s better to acquire proven impact players (like quarterback Matthew Stafford, wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. and linebacker Von Miller) than gamble on first round prospects. The roster has been constructed with key personnel who came via trades, free agency and draft picks beyond round one.
By not drafting in the first round, the Rams avoid the big salaries such players command. The savings is used to pay a bevy of stars on the roster that includes those mentioned above and others like defensive tackle Aaron Donald, cornerback Jalen Ramsey and offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth.
Superior scouting can pay off big with draft choices beyond the first and second rounds. The Rams’ poster boy for that is wide receiver Cooper Kupp, an NFL MVP candidate selected on the third round out of Eastern Washington.
Don’t get the idea the Rams trade away most of their draft choices in their wheeling and dealing. They often receive draft picks in return, and they also are awarded compensatory picks from the NFL for letting their free agents walk away. Part of the Rams’ successful roster construction approach is stockpiling draft choices.
Rams GM Les Snead isn’t afraid to make mistakes in the draft, or with free agents or via trades. Sometimes he and his front office colleagues are working on deadlines in crisis situations—drawing some similarity to the pressures of Wall Street where new Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah worked before building a career in the NFL.
It will be interesting to see if he uses a versatile and comprehensive approach like the Rams in the days ahead. Rick Spielman, his predecessor, was aggressive in stockpiling draft choices, too. He was spot on with some draft selections after the first round, taking Dalvin Cook and Brain O’Neill in the second round, Danielle Hunter in the third and Stefon Diggs and Ezra Cleveland in the fifth. But the Vikings haven’t done much over the years with mega free agent signings or trades. It’s been a long time since a Brett Favre or Jared Allen walked through the front door of the practice facility.
Worth Noting
Coach Jim Dutcher expects most of his players from the 1982 Golden Gophers’ Big Ten title team to participate in their 40-year celebration February 22, 23 and 24. It looks like 10 of the 12 will get together, including all the starters except for guard Tommy Davis who likely will be in France.
That starting group had just one native Minnesotan, center Randy Breuer. When Dutcher coached in the 1970s and 1980s at Minnesota, there were years when the state high school programs didn’t have a single Division I prospect. That’s in sharp contrast to the new millennium with the state now having a national reputation for producing quality D-I talent—sometimes the best in the country in Chet Holmgren, Jalen Suggs and Tyus Jones. “It’s worlds different,” Dutcher told Sports Headliners.
The 1982 group has been invited by Gopher head coach Ben Johnson to watch practice February 22 and then have dinner with the team. At halftime of the February 23 game against Wisconsin, Dutcher and his players will be honored. The next day the coach will host brunch at an Edina restaurant.
Johnson has faced the most difficult rebuild in memory at Minnesota. The first-year coach started the schedule with one returning player from last season and a roster of newcomers put together in hurry up fashion last spring. The Gophers, 11-9 overall and 2-9 in the Big Ten, have impressed with their competitiveness after going into the fall with the lowest of media and fan expectations. “He’s done an amazingly good job for his first year,” said Dutcher whose 1982 team was the last at Minnesota to win the league title.
Dutcher, 88, will attend granddaughter Liza’s wedding in San Diego next October. Father Brian Dutcher is head men’s basketball coach at San Diego State where assistant coach Mark Fisher coaches from a wheel chair after being diagnosed with ALS in 2013.
Bill Fitch only coached two seasons at the University of Minnesota, 1968-69 and 1969-70. He bolted for an NBA career that began with the expansion Cavaliers. If he had remained at Minnesota, he could have made the Golden Gophers Big Ten champs and a force on the national scene.
The Hall of Fame coach died earlier this month and I mourn his loss. I covered him during his Gophers days and we talked a few times by phone in recent years. Bill had a sharp tongue for his players and a quick wit for the media.
The Gophers had a shoot-first guard named Ollie Shannon who Fitch inherited after taking over the program. Ollie thought his shooting range was pretty much anywhere on the court. After a game in which Shannon almost cast a shot from mid-court the sarcastic coach told the media, “There goes Ollie running one of our options (from the playbook).”
Lou Nanne will provide TV analysis for the 58th year at the state hockey tournament next month. He is also doing four TV games this season for the Wild.
Nanne was captain of the 1968 US Olympic hockey team. Do the Americans have a chance of winning a medal this winter? “I definitely think they have,” he said.
Gopher athletic director Mark Coyle’s expected contract extension through 2028 is welcome news for fans “rowing the boat” because it helps assure a tight relationship with head football coach P.J. Fleck.
Surging Tom Hoge from Fargo, who finished second last month at the American Express in La Quinta and won Sunday’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, will be a headliner at this summer’s 3M Open in Blaine. “We fully expect him to play the 3M,” said Hollis Cavner who runs the Minnesota PGA Tour event.
Celebrity players at the AT&T included Bill Murray, the comedian, star of Caddyshack and St. Paul Saints investor. The showman wowed the crowd with a no-look putt.
Senior PGA rules official Mark Dusbabek, the former Gopher football player from Faribault, worked the tournament.
The Tapemark Minnesota PGA Pro-Am is set for June 10-12 at Southview Country Club. The event was successfully run for decades by the Klas family and this year will be the 51st annual.
With the ongoing pandemic, CORES program organizers are uncertain about a March gathering in Bloomington. CORES is an acronym for coaches, officials, reporters, educators and sports fans.
The dual meet between top-ranked Penn State and No. 2 Iowa last month averaged 363,000 viewers, making it the most-watched wrestling broadcast in Big Ten Network history. The previous record was 343,000 viewers, also set by the two wrestling powerhouses in January of 2020.
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