While Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider is among the most trade-happy GM’s during the NFL draft, he may be matched by his counterpart in Los Angeles, Les Snead.
And while Snead only made one trade in last month’s draft, the Rams GM has a similar reputation as Schneider for being willing to move down and acquire more picks in the later rounds.
However – during his first year at the helm in Los Angeles in 2012, Snead moved down five spots from No. 45 to No. 50 in order to acquire draft capital later, and they missed out on a future Hall of Fame linebacker – who instead ended up in Seattle.
“We made a trade back like we did in this year’s fourth round to collect some more picks later in the draft, and one of the players we were definitely thinking of targeting there was Bobby Wagner,” Snead said in a video call. “And that year, Bobby didn’t go to the combine so you maybe thought he would slip a little bit farther in the draft but unfortunately, he didn’t. That’s probably going to go down as the one that got picked right in front of you that has probably hurt the most considering he did go to a division rival and is probably working to a Hall of Fame career with the Seahawks.”
The Seahawks climbed up to No. 47 overall to snag Wagner in what will go down as perhaps the greatest individual draft by a team in NFL history. They not only snagged Bruce Irvin in Round 1, but they took Russell Wilson in the third round – giving them two Hall of Fame talents outside of the first round.
Snead remains haunted by the decision to move back, hoping to catch Wagner a few spots later. In fact, he now has a specific rule when it comes to drafting that he calls the ‘Bobby Wagner Rule’, to prevent him from making the same mistake again.
“I call it the ‘Bobby Wagner Rule,” Snead continued. “There’s a lot of ways to carve a draft strategy … but the ‘Bobby Wagner Rule’ would be, if a player falls to you and you really want that human being, don’t get cute and don’t worry about those extra draft picks. Just take that human being and the rest will take care of itself. Some of the best lessons in this business are learned the hard way.”
One could argue the Seahawks used the ‘Bobby Wagner rule’ this year on first round pick Jordyn Brooks, a player some felt would be available if they traded back. However, the staff made it clear Brooks was the guy they wanted, and they decided not to get cute and instead to get their guy.
Hopefully, it has a similar result as it did in 2012.
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