Will LA Rams miss Brad Holmes/Ray Agnew eye for NFL talent?

Let’s meet some new faces

Okay, so who have the Rams hired, or promoted, to take over the vacated roles? While the Rams have not made much of a fuss about the changing of the guards, the team has not missed a beat with the transition. After all, the team’s process has been heavily invested in a process that is fueled by data analytics. And that data analytics team is intact.

So now, it’s a matter of whose voice is in the room, and how their perspectives may change the approach taken by the team in the 2022 NFL Draft and into the future. So let’s meet the new ‘players’ in the room.

Director of Pro Scouting at Los Angeles Rams, John McKay

John McKay has been a fast riser in terms of his NFL career. He began in August 2013 with the NFL Network as a Research Intern. He remained in that role through May 2015.  In June 2014, he doubled up his responsibilities when he was hired on as an NFL Player Personnel Summer Intern for three months.  One year later, in August 2015, he was hired as an NFL Labor Operations Seasonal Intern, a role he held for one year.

In July 2016, he joined the LA Rams organization as a Scouting Assitant. Just one year later, he was promoted to Pro Scout and served in that role for over two years. He was promoted by the LA Rams once more to Assistant Director of Pro Scouting in July 2019. He served as Ray Agnew’s right-hand man for two years. When Agnew left the organization to join Brad Holmes with the Detroit Lions, McKay was promoted to Director of Pro Scouting.

His LinkedIn profile page has been heavily endorsed in a wide range of NFL, Social Media, Office, and Leadership skills. And it’s no small wonder. His grandfather is John McKay, who was a longtime NFL executive, including the title of San Francisco 49ers general manager, in the late 1990s.

Assistant Director of College Scouting at Los Angeles Rams, Ted Monago

Ted Monago has risen from the ranks of scouting for the past 21 years. If John McKay is the digital career track, then Monago’s is the analog version.

Monago began his football career as an Assistant Football Coach in June 1998. He would remain on the William and Mary coaching staff for three years, before jumping career tracks to become an area scout for the NFL Chicago Bears. He worked his way up to Executive Scout for the Bears Southeast Region but left them to hire on with the Saint Louis Rams as a National Scout in May 2013.

In 2017, Monago was promoted once more, this time to the role of Assistant Director of College Scouting, where he remains to date.

Described as someone who ‘gets it‘, his insight and efforts ensure that all of the pertinent information about a prospect is identified and discussed. He understands what it takes to succeed in the NFL and applies that threshold in his assessment of the potential of any prospect in the discussion.

The LA Rams Draft is 25 days away. That means that both John McKay and Ted Monago are two very busy people right now. Here’s hoping that both are incredibly insightful and successful at identifying and selecting the right players for the Rams team in the 2022 NFL Draft.