Rams fire three scouts

[Tampa_Ram]

Scouting Shakeup: Rams Fire Tenured Trio

By 3k on Jan 11, 4:18p 1
Jeff Curry-US PRESSWIRE

In a surprisingly timed move, the Rams fired three scouts, two of which had more than a decade of experience with the team.
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Well, how about some actual breaking news on a Friday night...
The Rams have fired three scouts with just months to go to the 2013 NFL Draft.
The timing is the most interesting aspect here. Most teams have a fairly well-developed board at this point, though there are plenty of names that will still be tacked on as well as plenty of evaluation throughout the draft season (read: pro days, games and the combine).
The biggest name among the three is John Mancini, promoted to director of college scouting in 2010 under Billy Devaney. Mancini's time with the Rams goes all the way back to their first season in St. Louis when he was in the ticketing department. Luke Driscoll was also let go; his time with the Rams goes back 13 years. Drew Casani, the last of the three dismissed scouts, had four years of experience with the Rams.
How this affects the draft process is anyone's guess. I'm not familiar of a similar situation in terms of the timing, but I'd be surprised if it was entirely unprecedented.
In any case, with the movement on the defensive side of the coaching staff and some changes in the scouting hierarchy, Fisher and Snead are obviously comfortable adding a degree of difficulty to their second offseason with the Rams.
Time will tell if they come anywhere close to as much success in the second round as they did last year..

[AvengerRam]

The three who voted "no" on Janoris Jenkins?

[Azul e Oro]

This provoked a little visit to the Rams media guide & some FO underling bios that I'd never looked at before. Most of the new Snead guys have nothing but there are still a surprising number of long-tenured folks in both personnel & scouting whose bios are kinda interesting. One of the most noteworthy being James Lake; the guy who replaced Hewitt as equipment manager. All this hue & cry about Spags going all ageist & anti-tradition....and the replacement is a lifer (25 yrs ) Ram employee. Not sayin' Spags was a good people manager; he obviously wasn't, but the crimes against Ramkind of which he's often been accused are a wee bit exaggerated,imo.

The triple firing story itself seems a bit mysterious, timing-wise, but otherwise insignificant. Mancini was a bureaucrat & the other two were typical scout material; ex-jocks/ wannabe coaches, so it hardly seems like much of a football brain drain..

[NJ Ramsfan1]

Probably just a purging of sorts. Rather than completely clean house when he came in, Fisher gave these guys with whom he was unfamiliar a year so he could evaluate their work in a critical area of the organization. Who knows what these scouts said about various prospects or what input they've given, but my guess is that their opinions probably conflicted with Fisher on Jenkins, Brockers, Quick, etc. And having been around for the better part of a decade and overseeing some horrific drafts and personnel changes, they didn't exactly distinguish themselves as shrewd talent evaluators.

I could be way off- that's just my guess.

[gap]

^ This would be my guess as well.


gap

[DE_Ramfan]

The three who voted "no" on Janoris Jenkins?

Or voted yes on Pead.

Darth Snead will not suffer failure.

[macrammer]

Given the Rams track record in drafting prior to last year, why are any of them still around?

[AtlantaRamFan]

Given the Rams track record in drafting prior to last year, why are any of them still around?

Took the words right out of my mouth...Remember how like 20 something players from the 2011 roster aren't even in the NFL any more? All I have to say is "Good". Clearly there was a problem evaluating talent in the scouting department. I'm glad Snead is willing to let go of employees who are clearly not up to par.

[Ram Dragoon]

It explain the Rams woes on the O-line for the last 4 seasons. I thought it was poor coaching mostly or just lack of depth on the line--never had any real knowledge of who did the scouting for the Rams but suspected there was an issue with the scouts considering how other teams made the most of the Rams missess