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

When the LA Rams lost both Director of College Scouting Brad Holmes and Director of Pro Personnel Ray Agnew to the Detroit Lions organization, the Rams lost two very talented NFL personnel executives who have had a defining role in building a successful roster each year.

Both Holmes and Agnew had laid the foundation for the Rams’ 2021 NFL Draft efforts. Although their voices were not part of the conversation on draft day(s), their fingerprints were all over the countless hours of work necessary to prepare the organization heading into the 2021 NFL Draft. They will not have contributed to the same prep work for the 2022 NFL Draft.

So we had never really done a system check before. But now that we had had one NFL draft, and witnessed the results, should Rams fans be concerned with the next one on the horizon in just a few weeks?

When I watch the press conference from Detroit Lions GM Brad Holmes, it seems to be a rather straightforward matter to see the objective and analytical mind of a solid NFL executive at work. Holmes knows his stuff, and he is not thrown by the questions tossed his way.

Holmes is a positive and focused GM, a solid judge of the data he sees, and more than willing to dig deeper if and when the situation calls for it. For Detroit Lions fans, Holmes will show the full extent of his NFL Draft skillsets this year.

Holmes has first-round picks to work with again this year. Two of them to be exact, and five picks in the first 100. Overall, the Lions have nice selections in their arsenal for the 2022 NFL Draft, subject to change for any trades before or during the draft.  The LA Rams will not make any selection in the 2022 NFL Draft until pick 104, which means that the Lions will have added five very talented rookies before the LA Rams step up to make their first choice.

But the goal is not to make picks first, or more often. The goal is to add tangible talent to the team’s overall roster. Lions GM Brad Holmes knows that very well.

A hand in building the Rams’ SB winning roster

The LA Rams acknowledge that both Holmes and Agnew contributed to their Super Bowl-winning season, and that certainly was both encouraging and thoughtful of the team to do so. It was also the right thing to do, and both Holmes and Agnew worked very hard in their roles to improve the team’s roster each and every year.

And who can forget the fact that it was Ray Agnew Jr.’s hard lobbying that prompted the then Saint Louis Rams to draft a smaller defensive tackle named Aaron Donald from the University of Pittsburgh?

"“He’s one of the main reasons I’m here. He was the one that was bragging about me when I wasn’t here.” – Per Aaron Donald after appearing in Super Bowl LIII, via Yahoo Sports Kimberly A. Martin"

The question now becomes, whose line is it anyway?  After all, the Rams still have a very important draft coming up, perhaps their most important draft since hiring head coach Sean McVay.  While the LA Rams are now the defending NFL Champions, they didn’t leave much in the till to recharge the roster this year.

Yes, the LA Rams hold eight draft picks. But all but one fall on Day 3. While there is plenty of talent to go around through all seven rounds in this draft, any expectations of the team landing rookie starters should be squelched.  The team will likely be dependent upon getting the role, rotational, and potential starters out of the Draft Class of 2021, while using the 2022 Draft Class to backfill the roster.

Of course, there could be an exception to the rule – both good and bad.  First-year players who are added to the roster in this year’s draft could excel in training camp, impress the coaching staff, and earn a spot on the team’s 53-man roster. The path to doing so is likely better odds if the route includes excelling on special teams in either the coverage or return units.

Or rookies may not excel, or simply need more time to warrant occupying a spot on the 53-man roster. If that is the case, then they will likely end up on the 14-player practice squad for their first NFL season.  There is no shame in that, as the Rams historically redshirt many of their rookie players regardless of on which roster they appear.

But has anyone talked about who will help the LA Rams make those selections this year?

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.