(East Los Angeles, CA) [From The Editor’s Desk]: Here is our second Rams’ Transcript covering the 2023 NFL and Los Angeles Rams Draft Day #3.  We’ve also included the list of draftees. On Saturday, the Rams had (11) selections from Rounds (4) through (7) and the 259 player limit on draft-able picks. Let’s take a good, and long look at what the GM, Les Snead and Head Coach, Sean McVay had to say to the very inquisitive media who were present for the daylong coverage and reporting.

And, here is the full list of the Day 3, rounds 4-7, picks: Stetson Bennett, QB, Georgia, 4th rnd, #128; Nick Hampton, Edge, Appalachian St. 5th rnd, #161; Warren McClendon, O-Tckl, Georgia, 5th rnd, #174; Davis Allen, TE, Georgia, 5th rnd, #175; Puka Nacua, WR, Brigham Young, 5th rnd, #177; Tre’vius Hodges-Tomlinson, Texas Christiaan, 6th rnd, #182; Ochaun Mathis, Edge, Nebraska, 6th rnd, #189; Zach Evans, RB, Mississippi, 6th rnd, #215; Ethan Evans, Punter, Wingate, 7th rnd, #223; Jason Taylor II, Safety, Oklahoma St., 7th rnd, #234; and Desjuan Johnson, DL, Toledo, 7th rnd, #259.

 Rams Transcripts – Head Coach Sean McVay, General Manager Les Snead – Saturday, 4/29

(On drafting Georgia QB Stetson Bennett)

[Snead]: “Oh, you know what was awesome on that? Georgia has got a good offensive line so anytime you’d go to watch defenders in the SEC you’d go, ‘Oh, let’s watch Georgia. They’re the best team. They’ve got a good offensive line and it was interesting. You just come away going, ‘Wow, I thought people said that guy was just maybe, whatever kind of manage the game-type QB.’ But what you did is you just go, ‘Whoa wait a minute. Look at that guy move. Look at him buy some time. Look at him anticipate some throws.’ And just you come away thinking, ‘Wow, he was a weapon for Georgia.’ And I made a joke internally that he’s got a bad PR agent because his image is not maybe being, let’s call it a talented player, was probably a little false.”

[McVay]: “Yeah, I think his journey…people take for granted that this guy is just a really good football player. Because of the background and the way that he became the starter at Georgia is a little bit unconventional and it wasn’t the five-star route, but I think it minimized the athleticism, the ability to create off-schedule. He’s a natural thrower of the football. He can play with great anticipation, throws the ball with accuracy, plays within the timing. I think (former Georgia Offensive Coordinator Todd) coach Monken, who’s now with the Ravens, they did a great job where it’s an easier eval because you can see a lot of the concepts that maybe you would ask him to execute. And he’s around great players, but he elevated those guys. He sees the field well. You can seize processing things quickly and he’s a lot better athlete than people give him credit for. And I think there’s an edge to him that’s a positive. You want some competitors that have some stuff to him that things don’t always go well, they’re unfazed and they can kind of move on and be able to reset themselves. And credit to Les and really (Quarterbacks Coach/Pass Game Coordinator) Zac Robinson and (Offensive Coordinator) Mike LaFleur and really his scouting staff where they had identified Stetson early in the process and we wanted to have an all-Athens UGA quarterback room and that’s what we’ve got right now. So it was all good.”

(On how excited they are to have a young quarterback that they can mold as a backup and perhaps an eventual starter?)

[McVay]: “Well, I think you’re excited. I was talking to Zac Robinson about that. He’ll do a great job of being able to help him develop and looking forward to working with Stetson, but I think what a great opportunity for him to come in and learn from a perennial All-Pro, a great football player who’s been doing it at a high level. And it’s not exclusive to just the great things you see (QB) Matthew (Stafford) do on Sundays, but the level of preparation and professionalism that exists throughout the course of the week. His rhythm and routine, the way that he just seamlessly, naturally interacts with guys. I think there’ll be a lot of good things that Stetson will be able to see what it looks like. And I think there’s nothing more powerful than modeling the way, but we’re excited about being able to work with him and then we’ll figure out how we add because you still want to be able to have more than two. And whether that’s through CFA or however that ends up working out, but Stetson’s a good football player and we’re excited to get to work with him.”

(On amassing offensive linemen, edge rushers and other positions and if it’s about finding combinations or competing against each other for time right away)

[McVay]: “I think it’s both. I think what was really good is we talked about it last night, you end up adding 11 players, we thought it would be nine last night, but you had 11 players that there’s a vision for how they come in and compete and I think you want to be able to continue to create that competition. We were thinner at certain spots, but I don’t think it ever led to us feeling like you’re reaching. You were able to really identify and stay true to the way these guys had the board slotted and the amount of work that went into that, but they also accommodated a lot of those needs so you were able to check both of those boxes. We got a lot better in terms of the depth of our football team. Now how these guys come in and earn their opportunities, what that looks like, but there’s a handful of these guys that are going to come in and have legitimate chances to be starters on opening day, but that’s all going to be earned. We’ve got some guys that are in-house that we expect to take steps in the right direction, especially a handful of those guys that are going into their second year that got their feet a little bit wet as a result of the amount of injuries. And so when you look at it from a positive lens, I think that’ll be a good thing, but we’re a much more competitive football team by the nature of these 14 players. Our guys are doing a great job in the process of adding CFAs (compensatory free agents) and for the 44 guys that we’ve had in-house right now, we’ll add to that and we’ll see if we’re close. I don’t think we’ll be anywhere close to 90, but you don’t have to be. The way that you’re looking at it, we want to be able to get these guys reps where you can evaluate them and make sure that everybody that we’re onboarding, we feel like has a legitimate chance to make our football team more competitive and a real chance to make the roster.”

(On if adding 14 players was a realistic target heading into the draft)

[Snead]: “I don’t think we ever said, ‘Let’s set a number and try to reach it.’ What we did know is we had a lot of picks and a lot of them on the third day, and a lot of the picks, five, six, and seven. So it could have gone either way. I think we even did it, probably… You’re always moving back, using up, but sometimes it’s, ‘Hey, let’s use the ammo to go get a player that we identify and things like that.’ There was never a number, but we were well aware that we had a lot of picks so let’s try to make the most of each one of them every time we went to pick.”

[McVay]: “I think what made it helpful was the amount of guys that you liked when you’re getting ready to pick as opposed to alright, hey, we feel really good about this bucket and that enables us the flexibility to be able to move back, add some more players for the totality of your roster but because these guys had a great feel for kind of bucketing players that we liked and filled a certain genre that we were looking for, that enabled us that flexibility. And then there’s certain exceptions when you feel like, alright, (RB) Zach Evans is a back that has some special traits and so then you go up. But for the most part, we were able to kind of stay consistent to the plan. I don’t know if 14 was ever the target, but it was when we sit here with you guys after the draft, you’re going to feel a lot better about the projection of your team. They got to come in and there’s still a lot of work to be done, but we are excited about this process and now looking forward to really getting to work.”

[Snead]: “I know this, if we ever get back to where we just have seven picks, man, that’s going to seem like it’s a boring day (laughs).

(On if it was a frenzy in the draft room today)

[Snead]: “It was actually fun. You were well aware after you made the pick in the fourth round that you had some space. But we were definitely well aware that wow we have what, six, seven picks that we’re going to be within 30 picks of each other. I know we moved around… I don’t know how it goes, but it was fun to have these pods of players to go, ‘Oh we’d love to land…’ I think I have a list where I said, ‘Wow we got the players we wanted,’ and of course there’s some guys on the list where, ‘Oh we’d have liked to have gotten him.’ But that’s the nature of the business when you do that. But I know this, the tally of players that we got that we wanted is greater than the ones that we lost during those rounds.”

(On if any particular calls or conversations stood out to them today)

[Snead]: “Man, let’s see. There was some really, really, really good ones throughout the day. So I don’t know if I can…I think Sean and I talked there was a few where you were like, ‘Wow they sound like they’re very poised on what was going on.’ And then I’m forgetting who, and I can’t remember, but I do know there was one player where I go you know what, he’s having a tough time talking to the coach now because he was definitely emotional.”

[McVay]: “(LB) Nick Hampton seemed like he was pretty excited like in a positive, good emotions… But it was a great range of some of the guys were just steady and even keeled and excited about the opportunity. And then you get a couple of those guys where it’s really cool to hear a lot of the hard work kind of come to fruition and you can hear their families in the background, that’s what makes it special. And those moments are something you always…I’ll never forget (RB) Kyren Williams last year just how emotional and how authentic he is. And then you’re sitting here a year later and you’re saying that’s one of the things that makes him a special human being. And I think a lot of these guys are in alignment with some of the things that you like about a lot of players that we already have in-house.”

(On what characteristics they look for in their running backs that led them to trade up in the draft for one today)

[McVay]: “I think when you talk about (RB) Zach (Evans) a little bit different because a player of his caliber in the latter parts of the Draft, and you’re saying, okay because of the draft capital that we had where I believe we still had four picks remaining at that point, and you’re saying, ‘Alright, you’re just going to have three now instead of four.’ It made a lot of sense. And I think he has a nice skillset that compliments (RB) Cam (Akers), compliments Kyren Williams, (RB) Ronnie Rivers is a guy that got a little bit of action as well. And so I think you’re always still looking at complimentary skillsets, whether that’s in a receiver, tight end, running back room. And that was kind of the appealing thing about Zach. And you look at it, I thought he did a great job at Ole Miss, but even some of the stuff going back to TCU where he’s taking more handoffs out of the pistol. You could really see he’s a smooth runner. He’s got a seamless ability to be able to work edges on people. And we felt like it was a good fit just based on looking at everybody that was possibly available and that was one of those spots and credit to their group for being able to kind of identify that because it was a little bit later in the process that I got exposure to him.”

(On what went into the decision to send Quarterback Consultant Kellen Clemens to meet with QB Stetson Bennett and what the feedback was)

[Snead]: “It was probably a few variables. Kellen obviously played here, I’ve got a lot of respect for him when he was here. We’ve got some great stories on some private workouts together where he went and threw to receivers when we were doing some private workouts when he was here as a quarterback. We were at Baylor and we took off one time on a plane, and it’s him and (former Rams QB) Austin Davis in the back. Point being is something happened in the plane and it’s almost like they opened the sunroof. I just saw wind hitting their face, oxygen masks coming down and I remember thinking, ‘The last face I’m going to see is Kellen Clemens.’ But he’s been someone who post-football has gone…I think he started a school in Idaho. He reached out and said that he would love to get into scouting one day, and we’ve done this with a few people, and we have (Special Assistant to the General Manager) Andy Sugarman that does it. It helps Sean (McVay)’s staff be efficient where we don’t have to send everyone out on the road, but you send these guys out and somewhat act like you’re in a quarterback room and install and talk football and do that. But he definitely came back thumbs up and it was cool. There’s a lot of people that do a lot of work and interestingly, a lot of people who actually did a lot of work on area scout and we might not have… I hadn’t done the tally, but a player from their area might not have gotten drafted. So it’s neat. Heck, when we drafted the punter (Ethan Evans) when (Special Teams Coordinator) Chase (Blackburn) and that group who did a lot of work, and we were able to, let’s call it not necessarily reward them, but their intentional work paid off and we actually followed the game plan and made the pick. But he was standing there, I told him it was a possibility we do him in the fourth round. So long story (short), he was thumbs up on Stetson (after) meeting with him.”

(On making the last selection in the draft and if there is anything unique about picking ‘Mr. Irrelevant’)

[Snead]: “I didn’t know it was the last pick or Mr. Irrelevant until we made the trade, but I can say there is probably a, I would call it a non-business-like emotional attachment to doing Mr. Irrelevant for maybe the first time. I can’t remember that we have ever done that so it was kind of fun. But hey, it’s only because somebody made a big deal of being the last pick in the draft.”

(On selecting some players who knew each other previously and if that helps onboard them)

[McVay]: “I don’t know that you necessarily think about it like that, but you know, you look at it, those are the two teams that were in the National Championship. It’s always going be able to have easier exposure when teams are having success playing against other high caliber teams. It just kind of worked out that way where you’ve got a couple TCU teammates, you’ve got a couple Georgia teammates, and God, it seemed like every time you turn around another Georgia player is getting drafted. I mean, it’s been unbelievable what (Georgia Head Coach) Kirby (Smart)’s built there. But credit to (TCU Head) Coach (Sonny) Dykes, they’ve done a great job. And then obviously like we were talking about with RB Zach Evans. having been there before, that was obviously with (Former TCU) Coach (Gary) Patterson. But I don’t know if I’ve thought about it like that, but I do think they’d be better equipped to tell you. I’m sure there’s a certain level of comfort. You’re coming into a new atmosphere, a new environment, there’s always a comfort and a familiar face and somebody that you can kind of go to as you’re getting to know other people. I wish I could say we were that smart thinking about that but I do think it certainly is helpful.”

[Snead]: “Yeah, I agree. Anytime the rookies come in, I’m like, ‘Okay, first day of school, right?’ It’s like, oh you’ve been at this town going to this school and all of a sudden your parents rip you out of town and drop you off, and you’ve got to show up to that first day of school. There is the element of butterflies, but it’s neat to make teammates out of it. I think when these guys go and maybe train together for the let’s call it pre-draft, pre-combine training, go to the combine, they bond. So it’s interesting when you see those rookies…As Sean said, it definitely helps them when they do go to that first day of school, like, wow, I got a buddy here, so it’s not so bad.”