Les Snead has been a talent evaluator in the NFL since he started as a pro scout with the Jacksonville Jaguars in 1995. He’s watched a lot of film and studied thousands of players during his career, continuing to do so as the Los Angeles Rams’ general manager.
He obviously hasn’t gotten every evaluation right and when asked by ESPN’s Kevin Clark which one he specifically remembers missing on, he went all the way back to 2010 when he was the Atlanta Falcons’ director of player personnel.
Snead recalled getting his evaluation of Jimmy Graham wrong, wishing he would’ve helped the front office more. The Falcons passed on Graham in the third round at No. 83 and he wound up going 12 picks later at No. 95. The Falcons went on the clock again at No. 98 but he was off the board.
“I can definitely remember a pick we would rather – we had two picks. Who was the tight end out of Miami who was a basketball player, went to the Saints? Jimmy Graham,” Snead said. “Definitely missed on him in terms of being not necessarily a decision-maker, but helping the decision-makers and probably tilting more – he’s more basketball developmental. He was so raw but he still showed some things. Usually when you’re a raw player and you go to the Senior Bowl and you do un-raw things, it’s almost like, OK, weigh that more than anything because that’s probably the trajectory that he’s going to have.”
Graham was a raw prospect coming out of Miami, primarily playing basketball for the Hurricanes. He only played one season of college football as a graduate student in 2009, putting up just 213 yards on 17 catches in the 13 games he played.
That made him a tough evaluation, but he had eye-popping athleticism so the Saints took a chance on him. Graham scored 89 touchdowns in the NFL and racked up 8,545 receiving yards, becoming one of the most dangerous and dynamic tight ends of his era.
Snead said the Rams and Nuggets – both of which Stan Kroenke owns – have shared evaluations of basketball players coming out of college, but it hasn’t exactly worked out for the Rams.
“I call that the Antonio Gates rule. Go try to find the basketball (players),” he said. “We have found – because our owner does own a basketball in the Nuggets, we’ve shared some reports. Interestingly, a lot of the mid-major guys that probably could come play football, they’re able to make a pretty good living overseas, so it’s a little bit harder to get them to come to the practice squad and the NFL.”
This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: Rams GM Les Snead recalls missing on Jimmy Graham wrong in 2010 draft
