LA Rams McVay rules no coaches to attend NFL Scouting Combine

LA Rams head coach Sean McVay will attend NFL Scouting Combine week but will keep positional coaches in Los Angeles to attend and assess prospects virtually

The 2020 NFL Scouting Combine is already headlining the LA Rams news. While we’ve been detailing the event for our readers, the LA Rams front office and coaching staff have been strategizing how the team will handle the 9-day event among their staff.  Following the lead by Denver Broncos’ head coach Vic Fangio, LA Rams head coach Sean McVay has decided to attend the scouting combine but keep his coordinators and coaches back in Los Angeles to attend the event virtually.

The Rams are likely following suit to the Broncos lead due to the hiring of former Denver Broncos’ OLB coach Brandon Staley as the team’s new defensive coordinator. The move is less about cost-cutting and more about time efficiency. With the Rams welcoming three new coordinators, they are now racing against the clock to formulate what attributes the team needs to emphasize in the 2020 NFL Draft, and who best possesses those attributes.

With so much to do and so little time, the Rams can accomplish more by remaining in Los Angeles and collaborating with one another. Of course, the Rams will continue to send scouts and head coach Sean McVay will be in attendance to coordinate the interviews and emphasize which players the Rams will prioritize for the upcoming draft.

The annual NFL Scouting Combine is held at Indianapolis Indiana each year. It is a nine-day event, designed to gather the top NCAA college football hopefuls from around the nation to attend a series of physical, health, and mental examinations simultaneously to aide all 32 NFL teams to process from one collective database.

NFL Scouting Combine schedule

The event is not one massive testing cycle, but rather is made up of four separate round-robin testing tracks.  Each of the four separate groups will follow the same schedule.  The only difference is that each group will start their routine on different days.

Routine

Day 1 – Registration  ~ Orientation ~ Interviews
Day 2 –  Measurements ~ Hospital pre-exam & X-rays ~ Interviews
Day 3 – Media ~ Medical Examinations ~ Position coach interviews ~  Psychological Testing
Day 4 – NFLPA Meeting ~ Bench press ~ Interviews ~  Psychological Testing
Day 5 –  Limited testing~ Interviews ~  On-field Workout
Day 6 –  Departure

Group one includes Tight Ends, Quarterbacks, and Wide Receivers and will arrive (Day 1) Sunday, February 23rd.
Group two includes Kickers, Special Team players, Offensive Linemen, and Running Backs and will arrive (Day 1) Monday, February 24th.
Group three includes Defensive linemen and Linebackers will arrive (Day 1) Tuesday, February 25th.
Group four includes defensive backs who will arrive (Day 1) Wednesday, February 26th.

While the Rams will most likely focus on groups two and three, the team will have an eye on talent throughout the event. And now that the Rams will be leaving their coaching entourage behind, information about the Rams plans for this upcoming draft will be difficult to decipher.

Data-driven draft decisions

The Rams make great use of data analytics in their assessment of the potential draft class. With the integration of data-driven draft decisions, the team no longer is dependant upon the optics of coaches and the personal relationships which abound at NFL gatherings of the NFL Scouting combine. Since the Rams have invested heavily in data analytics, it was only a matter of time before the team changed their attendance policy.

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Now with coaches remaining behind. limited to virtually attendee events, the staff will be forced to collaborate sooner on prioritizing prospects. That particularly important with a trio of new coordinators, each of whom has their own take on the Rams’ needs, and all of whom have different social circles among the NFL.

Adam Schefter believes Sean McVay’s decision to keep coaches home is the wave of the future.  In the Rams situation, I can’t decide if this is to promote cohesion and collaboration, or simply try to get ahead of heated differences of opinion about how the Rams should attack the 2020 NFL Draft.  In either case, the team has too few NFL Draft picks to put much of a dent in the needs of the new coordinators. All will walk away from the upcoming draft with items remaining on their respective shopping lists.

Too little time, too few picks. Heading into the 2020 NFL Draft with so much riding on the team to find starters and contributors with each and every pick, there is a lot of pressure building. But that’s par for the LA Rams course nowadays, isn’t it? The stars shine on the darkest nights, and the LA Rams are looking for NFL stars in the 2020 NFL Draft.  Are coaches staying home for the right reasons? Perhaps that will be a debate for another time.