Rams begin culture change to embrace their young roster

Sep 3, 2015; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Rams quarterback Sean Mannion (14) passes against the Kansas City Chiefs during the second half at the Edward Jones Dome. The Chiefs defeated the Rams 24-17. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports

These observations also had a surprising effect on another aspect of the day-to-day activities as well. Those activities include the countless meetings players and coaches are involved in. Conventional thinking would peg those meetings at a couple of hours apiece. The Rams have reduced that to minutes. 10 to 15 minutes to be exact.

As opposed to watching video for hours on end in those meetings, St. Louis now uses that time to go participate in walk-throughs and live plays. Rookie quarterback Sean Mannion feels the benefits of live-action far outweigh those of meetings and video recaps. Mannion said the spacing was the most important part of walk-through and “you can’t get that from a screenshot, you can’t emulate the spacing.”

It’s no surprise these younger players are embracing the new way of conducting business around the building. Players are now spending the offseason scouting each others social media accounts to better understand and get to know their new teammates. Fisher is also on board with the new age thinking. He said

"“It sounds a little goofy, but it’s not.” Fisher said. “ “You show them play A versus play B when play B got your quarterback hit, B got you beat for a touchdown” they can cite a “hundred different examples” because they are visual learners."

And if you didn’t think all that was enough to convince you that the times are changing, Snead admitted to having a picture of Simba from Disney’s “The Lion King” on the wall in his office to show his commitment to developing young players. Snead also mentioned his culture changes, while positive, where still in the beginning of their life phases.

"“Every company is trying to train new employees differently, football players are not the only millennials. My thought is, let’s create a little bit of a lab here and see where it goes.”"

So far St. Louis is off to a great start and looks to carry their newfound culture into a Week 2 matchup in Washington against the Redskins. Maybe Snead and Fisher are on to something here, and maybe they’re just sipping the kool-aid. Right now it’s working and we all know the old saying, “If it ain’t broke, font’s fix it.”