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Texas Tech Now

Brad rogers traveled a demanding path to the nfl.

May 2, 2024

Texas Tech faculty member teaches classes at Rawls College during the week and serves as a National Football League referee on Sundays.

One of the few ways Brad Rogers knows whether he's done a good job or not is if no one notices the job he did.

Counterintuitive? Welcome to the rarified air of Mr. Rogers' neighborhood.

In a few months, Rogers will begin his eighth season as a National Football League official. He not only has a full-time job as a senior lecturer in the Jerry S. Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech University , but he also is one a very small number of people on the planet who works as an NFL referee (one of seven positions on a crew) each week during the season.

He sees this as both the adventure and privilege of a lifetime.

“There is something special about it; I can't say it isn't fun because it is a blast,” he said. “I pinch myself every time I am on the field. I feel so fortunate whenever I go to an NFL stadium to work a game.”

NFL officials are not permitted to publicly discuss many of the intricacies of their work, such as specific calls and interactions. These limitations come with the territory, and it is a workplace expectation Rogers happily accommodates. 

But he can talk about his journey to the world's most successful and visible sports league, and he does so with a guarded sense of accomplishment one might expect from a person who has access to places and people most only view through the magic of television.

The side gig has cachet with Rogers' students. They see him on TV explaining calls that go for or against their favorite teams, and sometimes, well, inquiring minds want to know.

“Students will ask about things from games,” he said. “I don't get into any particulars, and most of the questions come from games I never even saw.”

That's because the thing about being an NFL official is you don't have the luxury of watching any other games while you're working.

Not that anyone is keeping track of such things, but Rogers can tell you his invitation from the NFL arrived at precisely 4:56 p.m. March 23, 2017. As crisp as that memory remains, he also said, “I'm not sure what I said besides, ‘yes.'”

It is difficult to quantify just how small the window of opportunity is for someone to achieve what Rogers has.

“Something like 99.9% of officials working today won't even get the interview,” said Chris Snead, vice president of operations and engagement for the Texas Tech Alumni Association and longtime Southeastern Conference football official. “There are about 120 jobs in the NFL, and for every guy who has a job in the NFL, there are 1,000 officials who want it.”

Rogers has been a Texas Tech faculty member since 2012. The demanding arc of achievement required to reach the NFL began long before that, back in the days when officials had to pay their dues by working their way up through the ranks, calling middle school and high school games. 

All along the way, Rogers has kept things in perspective.

“My family values and faith are what keep me grounded,” he said. “The game of football is entertainment, and while it has its own seriousness and importance, the most important thing I do is be a responsible parent and husband.”

For Rogers, officiating football games was originally an unappetizing path that almost went unchosen. He and a friend, Durwood Manley, decided to attend a 1991 meeting for prospective officials. 

“The first meeting I went to, I almost walked out because I was so overwhelmed with information,” he recalled. “I had zero interest, and the season had already started. I didn't know what to do. You had to take a test to be certified to work junior high games.”

He looked over at Manley and said, “I don't know about this.”

Manley didn't miss a beat and responded, “I am going to the NFL.”

Rogers shook his head and laughed to himself before telling his friend, “You don't even know how to get a junior high game.”

The bright lights of the big-city NFL stadiums were a long way off, in more than one way. Despite those initial misgivings, Rogers decided to take the plunge. Prior to this, his only officiating experience had been as an undergraduate student at Lubbock Christian University, where he worked intramural games.

His Bible instructor, Tim Hadley, was also a member of the local officiating chapter and invited Rogers and Manley to the meeting.

“We were like, ‘We yell at officials, and we don't want to be one,'” he said. “But he kept working on us until we decided to do it. I was a freshman in college and didn't have a dime to my name.”

The funds problem was solved when Rogers used a credit card to order his official's uniform, then used the money he made from the first few games he worked to pay it off. He was calling local games and, surprise, enjoying it more than he ever thought he would.

He also had plenty to shoot for as the local officiating chapter had several members who were regularly working Southwest Conference (and later Big 12 Conference) games. Rogers suspected hard work, reliability and attention to detail on and off the field might help him move up to work college games.

There is something to be said for being in the right place at the right time.

In the meantime, he learned lots of lessons and had regular reminders that the life of an official isn't always glamorous.

“I worked a game in Spur, Texas,” he said, “And we changed from our street clothes into our uniforms in a lawnmower shed. I had no real understanding of what the path was for advancement. I just kept plugging away. For 10 years, I worked high school football.”

Rogers' career took a westward turn when he moved to Phoenix, Arizona, in 2000. He connected with local officials there, and within a year was officiating junior college football games.

He had to learn another set of rules as well. At that time, Texas and Massachusetts were the only states where high school football games were played under NCAA rules. Everywhere else followed National Federation of High School (NFHS). There were approximately 200 rules differences between the two organizations. 

Rogers was a quick study, though, and officiated high school and junior college games, and that became his initial foray to the next level. After five years in the Arizona desert, he had the chance to move back to Lubbock, accepting a job as director of admissions at LCU.

But the officiating work had hit an unexpected lull. Then, one day, at a recruiting event in Santa Rosa, New Mexico, Rogers took a phone call from a fellow official asking if he was available to work a game at West Texas A&M.

“He asked me if I could work back judge (one of the roles on an officiating crew), and I told him I could,” he said. “Whenever they ask if you can do something, say yes.”

The game that day was between two highly ranked NCAA Division 2 Lone Star Conference teams. The stadium was packed. Rogers must have done a solid job because he received a call a few days afterward inviting him to join the crew for the rest of the season.

“It just happened through dumb luck of being in the right place and meeting the right people,” he said. 

The officiating world has evolved considerably over the past three decades as more structure, protocols and best practices have been put into place. At the time in the Lone Star Conference, referees had the freedom to select the members of their crew. Because of official-sharing agreements in place, he also would work Division 3 games in the American Southwest Conference.

That was how Rogers often found himself meeting the crew somewhere on Interstate 20 and climbing aboard a motor home the group used to get to its assigned games. Again, not a lot of glamour.

“The money we made would cover our fuel and cleaning the motor home,” Rogers said. “If you ate, you were in the negative. There was not a lot of money to be made.”

Which is a good thing because it has never been about the money. Officiating has allowed him to stay close to a game he loves.

“He is a great official because of his dedication and commitment,” said Robert Cameron, a longtime local official who has known Rogers for more than 30 years. “Those are two things hard to get across to young officials who want to get to higher levels. They don't realize the level of commitment and dedication it takes. Brad has always been willing to do that, and that's why he is still there.”

Rogers climbed the next rung on the officiating ladder when he was tapped to work arena league games. Because of its affiliation with the NFL, Rogers also was receiving professional-level feedback and instruction, allowing him to continue improving his on-field mechanics.

Around the same time as the arena league gigs, Rogers was invited by the Southwestern Athletic Conference to attend a clinic that would create an avenue for him to work games in that league for the next three years.

One spring day, while preparing for a mandatory SWAC clinic in Houston, he received a call from a supervisor of officials telling him he was on the radar for an opening in Conference USA. To get his foot in the door there, he needed to help officiate the Houston spring game and needed clearance from the SWAC to do so.

“They were all about helping you move up,” Rogers said of small-college conferences.

Upon arriving at the game, Rogers learned that the referee assigned to the contest was unable to make it and one of the 17 officials there was going to be elevated to the job. Rogers had never been the referee for a college game, but that didn't stop one of the other officials from volunteering him for the job.

He was asked if he had a white hat (worn by the referee to mark him as the crew's lead official). As it turned out, he had one in his bag. The job was his.

Immediately, the crew found itself tested by a bizarre sequence of events, even by spring-game standards. The quarterback fumbled the ball, which was recovered and turned into an apparent touchdown by the defense.

If only it had been that straightforward.

“We had a penalty on the play because the player who scooped the ball up, threw it forward before a guy held it out trying to get it over the goal-line, and it was batted out of the end zone,” Rogers said. “So, my first announcement (over the public address system to the crowd) is we had an illegal forward pass and a touchback. Couldn't it have been a false start or something easy?”

To make matters worse, a messenger came out on the field from the sidelines and told Rogers that “the boss” wanted to see him. “I was wondering if my wife was here,” he joked.

It wasn't Mrs. Rogers, but instead was Gerald Austin, Conference USA supervisor of officials. Austin asked a couple of questions and then made a couple of suggestions to improve his mechanics.

“I was not a seasoned referee at all, and he tweaked me on a few things,” Rogers said. “After the game ended, I thought I had done a pretty good job, and Gerald came up to me, thanked me and wished me luck on the upcoming season.”

Two days later, the conference extended an official invitation to join the league as a supplemental official. At long last, he had reached the top level of college football, and his first game was between Tulane and Southeastern Louisiana at the Superdome in New Orleans.

Midway through the season, Austin called again and told him he was swapping Rogers' game assignment. Instead of working as the back judge in a game at Tulsa, he was now going to El Paso to work a game between Texas-El Paso and Memphis.

Turns out, the NFL was looking at the other official as a possibility, and Rogers was now going to be the referee at UTEP.

“I said, ‘Hold on a second. We've only met a couple of times. Are you sure you know who you are talking to,” Rogers said. “He said he was very aware. I told him I was only a supplemental official for him. He just said, ‘I know my roster.'”

Austin promised to have a white hat delivered and that he would be available to answer any questions in the days leading up to the game. Additionally, Rogers was assured he would be working with a veteran crew.

The game came down to a last-second field goal, and no sooner had the ball sailed through the uprights then UTEP head coach Mike Price made sure Rogers was given the ball with a simple acknowledgement: Congratulations on your first game as a Division I referee.

“I had no idea he even knew,” Rogers said. “It's pretty neat that he recognized where I was in my career, and I had opportunities to tell him thank you for that over the years since.”

Rogers was a Conference USA official from 2010-14. Toward the end of his time there, he received a call from a representative of the Southeastern Conference, wondering if he might be interested in possibly working games in that league.

Before he signaled his interest, he wanted to call and talk the option through with Austin, who had been supportive during his years with Conference USA. The SEC is regarded as one of the premier college football conferences around. The move would be a significant step up. He told Austin he would only make it if he thought he was ready.

The other end of the line was quiet for a good 30 seconds as Austin weighed his answer.

“You're ready, and I will do everything I can to help you,” he said.

Rogers became a supplemental official in the SEC while still handling a full schedule in Conference USA. The next year, he was invited to become a full-time official in the league.

“I was ecstatic about it,” Rogers said. “It was the cream of the crop. The Big 12 is tough, but because I lived in Lubbock, I couldn't work it. I wanted to be in a conference where I could work all the games. I was 40 years old and working major Division I football.”

A week later, everything changed.

Rogers knows now better than ever that when his cellphone lights up with a call from a 212 area code, it's one he is going to take.

That's what happened that day the NFL called and invited him to come to the league's New York headquarters and interview to be part of the referee training program. Once again, things had happened so quickly that he wanted to talk to SEC officials and make sure it would be OK to pursue the NFL option.

“I told them I didn't know anything about the NFL being a possibility,” he recalled, “and I said I would go back to Conference USA if they wanted me to, but the NFL was something I wanted to pursue. They told me whether I was in the SEC one year or 20, they were happy to have me.”

It wasn't long before Rogers found himself at the NFL's Park Avenue headquarters in New York City. Sitting at a horseshoe-shaped table with a number of NFL representatives and looking over their shoulders out the window, he could see the Empire State Building.

“I told them that if I lost focus during the interview, it was because this was a view I didn't get to have,” he said.

For the next couple of hours, people on the panel peppered Rogers with questions about games he had worked and calls he had made. It was a remarkable demonstration of the NFL's resources. There were questions about his personal life, about his family, virtually every nook and cranny of his life was explored.

That March interview was followed by two months of silence.

In May the NFL called and asked him to take part in the league's training program for officials. He was to report to a minicamp in June and was assigned to the Seattle Seahawks. The officials, a mix of rookies in training and veterans with experience, work during scrimmages and practices, getting a feel for the speed and intensity of the game.

After that, Rogers attended a clinic where he took an NFL rules test. For the uninitiated, there are about 250 differences between college and professional football. “I passed and was happy,” he said. 

He was then assigned to a training camp and went to San Diego, which was home to the Chargers at the time. Rogers was just soaking it in, not sure what would come next. He was then given a preseason game on a Monday night between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Cincinnati Bengals.

“It was week four of the preseason, so a lot of the starters didn't play, but I didn't care,” he said. “It was a Monday night game with Monday night music, and all I could think was, ‘Wow, this is the big time.'”

When it was over, Rogers wanted to enjoy the moment a little longer. There was no guarantee he would ever put on an NFL official's uniform again. Meanwhile, the other members of the crew were talking about their assignments next week. They noticed Rogers was not upbeat and asked where he was officiating next week.

Rogers was going to call a game at Louisiana State University and its fabled “Death Valley” stadium. Now, the other members of the crew were envious of what he would get to do.

The NFL told Rogers to work his schedule of college games and that officials would be back in touch at the end of the season. He received an unexpected opportunity earlier than that, though, when the league asked him to travel to Dallas for a game and observe the first half from the pressbox before moving to the replay booth for the second half.

In January he was asked to work an all-star game as a field judge, and then more silence. It was three months before the NFL contacted him again. When the league did call, it was to ask him to go through the training program again.

“They wanted me to go through all those steps again and spend one more year working SEC games and then we would reevaluate,” he said. “I remember I was at the SEC Championship talking to David Oliver. We were talking about the NFL and if it might come. Three months later, we both got the call to go to the NFL.”

It was a long and demanding journey, but Rogers didn't worry about where he might go, instead focusing his attention on where he was.

“Brad cares about people,” said Snead, who will begin his 11th season as an SEC official in September. “He cares about making other officials better. He cares about the game, and he cares about doing what is right. Sometimes to get where you want to be in officiating, you have to step on some people. 

“Brad has not only never done that, but he has helped a lot of people move along. Some people get to the NFL and it's like they don't have time to help someone else.”

Two years after becoming an NFL official, Rogers received one of those 212 area code calls. It was the league's supervisor of officials, offering Rogers the chance to be a referee and lead his own crew.

“We were at a movie theater, and I was stunned,” he said. “I missed 20 minutes of the movie and didn't care.”

Rogers' steady ascension up the officiating ladder is no surprise to those who know how seriously he takes the job.

“He is where he is because of all the work he has put in,” Cameron said. “He is a good human being and a good Christian man who has worked hard and has earned it. Brad is talented as an official, but he has also put in the work to get where he is.”

That work ethic serves him well as he balances teaching four management courses most semesters with a full 17-game schedule of NFL regular-season games that runs from September to early January. Contrary to what some might believe, officials don't just show up an hour before kickoff and work the game. A tremendous amount or prep work takes place before they ever travel to a site.

Rogers said he spends between 30 and 40 hours (sometimes more) each week gearing up for the week's game. That means watching film, completing weekly tests, digesting feedback from the previous game and being immersed in the rules book.

“There are times where you might not call a specific foul for five years, but when it shows up in a game you have to look like you've called it a thousand times,” he said. “It has to look natural. Sometimes we jokingly say before a game, ‘Let's not wind up on ESPN or social media.' Let's make sure, even if it takes a couple of extra seconds, to get it right.”

Last season, NFL officials had a 97.3% accuracy rate. That means they got calls right an overwhelming majority of the time. Rogers points to a concentrated effort on the part of the league to commit significant resources to officiating. On the field, officials communicate with each other more than ever and work together to ensure correct calls.

“If you played the game, you will love this side of it,” Rogers said. “It is not as scary as it's made out to be. If you like solving and mitigating problems, this is a place where you can do that. As someone once said, ‘Officials always get the last word, whether they say it or not.'”

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‘Finding Rams,’ Part II: One year behind the scenes of the NFL Draft scouting process

Editor’s note: Over the last 10 months, The Athletic was granted access inside the Los Angeles Rams’ scouting and draft operation. This is the conclusion of our two-part series. Find part one here .

LOS ANGELES — Andy Sugarman always books his first one-way flight on March 5, the day NFL teams are allowed to visit draft-eligible prospects. He will not see his Northern California home again until late April, after the draft.

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Each spring, Sugarman, the special assistant to Los Angeles Rams general manager Les Snead, annually visits two dozen or more players — he saw 33 this year — zig-zagging across the country on a series of one-way flights as Rams’ scouts and coaches hone in on specific prospects.

Sometimes Sugarman is still on the road mere days before the draft begins. Once during draft week, he made it to Snead’s L.A. office for an hour before being told he had to get back to the airport to see a new prospect.

“They get into debates on guys and I get sent,” Sugarman said.

Sugarman coached in the NFL for nearly two decades, mostly tight ends, but he looks like he teaches high school algebra. Gray-haired, quiet and small-framed with oval glasses, he’s an inconspicuous presence on college campuses and in football buildings, which is how he likes it.

The Rams do not typically conduct official “30 visits,” where teams are allowed to host up to 30 prospects at their facilities each spring, except for extreme cases when they feel they need more medical information. Those sessions must be reported to the league and, therefore, frequently leak in the media.

Sugarman’s visits do not as long as they are in person and within a 50-mile radius of the player’s school or hometown. Snead doesn’t want other teams to know who the Rams are paying closer attention to, and he and Sugarman believe in approaching prospects in their own world, where they may be more comfortable and more themselves.

Sugarman’s sessions can take the entire day. He asks prospects to teach him their college schemes — how they teach is often a reflection on how they best learn. Sugarman also wants to know how they think about the game: Do they know just their assignments or others’ as well? Can they break down why opponents attack them in certain ways? If they went to an all-star game like the Senior Bowl, can they recall certain plays from the offense or defense they learned there?

Often, they go to lunch so Sugarman can see how the player acts when he thinks his “classroom” session is over — how he interacts with waiters, cashiers or fans, whether he stays engaged in conversation and is comfortable and curious enough to ask Sugarman questions. “You really get a chance to know a person,” Sugarman said. The former coach later files his notes into a special section of JAARS.

Snead and other senior staff believe that someone with a coaching or playing background has to do this job. A scout evaluates skills, while a coach watches how the player fits within a certain structure.

“It’s just a different way to look at it,” Sugarman said. “I don’t have a scouting background. I have a coaching background. You look at things a little differently, you look at what the schemes are and whether they are making mistakes or not.”

His intel on how players learn and communicate is weighed alongside several others, including the results of the customized HEXACO leadership test and wide-ranging background checks from team officials and scouts’ own sourcing in a process head coach Sean McVay calls “finding Rams,” players who fit his culture.

Sean McVay just completed his eighth NFL Draft as the Rams’ head coach and had a Round 1 pick for the first time. (Ryan Kang/Getty Images)

Sugarman’s frenetic travel itinerary illustrates the shifting debate or level of interest in a prospect based on discussions between assistant coaches and the scouting staff. Coaches receive buckets of film from Snead and the scouting department in three waves over March/April and by then have access to the in-depth reports in JAARS. The coaching and scouting sides then meet deep into April. If they are stuck on a player, or if there is an argument, a question or exaggerated interest, Sugarman books a flight.

The work done during this time can lead to roster-altering decisions, even for late additions to the itinerary.

Last spring, Sugarman was traveling through the Southwest when he got a call from scouting director James Gladstone. Could he add this receiver from BYU to his schedule in between schools? Western area scout Vito Gonella kept raving about Puka Nacua in meetings, and when coaches got to his tape, a few gave him “hot” badges despite his grouping in a lower-ranked cluster of prospects.

At BYU, Sugarman spent several hours breaking down film with Nacua and came away floored by his energy, schematic knowledge, recall and quick grasp of new concepts. “He was talking like he was a coach,” Sugarman said. “He was teaching (the offense). He knew every player’s job, including the linemen.”

“This guy will transcend quickly,” Sugarman wrote in JAARS. The Rams drafted Nacua with their last pick in the fifth round, and he broke the rookie receiving record in 2023.

Inside Rams rookie WR Puka Nacua's big numbers, from work behind the scenes

The Rams don’t formally attend February’s NFL Scouting Combine as a coaching or scouting staff, so outside of the odd handshake or getting a HEXACO result they didn’t previously have, they do not generally meet with prospects there. Certain Los Angeles executives hole up in quiet parts of the hotel complex around downtown Indianapolis, the annual site of the combine, but they are on what Snead calls “specific missions” that have more to do with overall offseason roster-building, networking and analytics. The Rams’ scouting department and coaching staff continue to work remotely or at their Thousand Oaks, Calif., practice facility with combine drills broadcasting on office T.V.s and athletic testing numbers uploading in real time to JAARS.

The Rams’ medical and athletic training staff do attend the combine because the formal medical assessments conducted there are a crucial part of the total evaluation. Players go through the process position by position across the span of several hours when they arrive in Indianapolis. The medical testing site is split into six separate rooms, with team physicians and athletic training staff from all 32 teams spread out among the rooms. Each player takes six physicals, one per room, with his information then entered into a shared database among the teams.

From there, teams can follow up with their own cross-checks. Rams’ VP of sports medicine and performance Reggie Scott combs through the medical information and inputs his own interpretations into JAARS along with a “risk grade” for each player. His grades and notes mark a major checkpoint in the Rams’ draft process.

“None of us want to get blindsided,” Scott said. “There’s no competitive advantage here in that way because it’s player health. … It’s how we ‘risk’ them that is different. That’s where you (add) your proprietary information.”

In JAARS, senior scouting and coaching personnel can also find analyses on leaguewide position injury trends and patterns from the Rams’ schematic assignments, position and practice output demands. The latter studies, compiled by data and analytics director Jake Temme and scouting strategist Nicole Blake, use player tracking and weight training data acquired during practices throughout the season. They help determine what type of workload a player with a higher “risk grade” could reasonably manage if drafted by the Rams and whether that could be sustainable.

Temme and Blake also include studies on draft trends and a sliding “risk scale” in their analyses. If a player has a lengthy injury history, but also has an excellent physical skill set and/or emotional quotient, at what round might he be considered, and how would his risks be managed?

In January, after the college football season ends, Rams area and OTT scouts begin a set of virtual meetings with Gladstone. The area scouts are the lead voices in these meetings. Snead sits in, but his screen is off and he doesn’t chime in.

Temme and Blake are also on the call. From her office at the Rams’ practice facility, Blake pulls up the group meeting, controlled by Gladstone and his shared screen, on a large T.V. over her desk. Across her desk are three additional computers, one open to a view of Snead’s screen and another connected to a time-logging device.

On his screen, which the scouts cannot see, Snead manipulates what he calls “the call sheet” as they discuss prospects. The sheet looks like a series of rectangles that split players by position into different buckets. There are no round-by-round grades, only four overall tiers into which players are then “bucketed.”

By mid-April, all draft-eligible players are split into nine buckets based on the Rams’ finished evaluations, which include the medical and character checks completed in March and, for some, notes from Sugarman’s visits. The buckets aren’t always “rankings” — some are lateral to others. Additional categories are added in April as college free agency position committees begin (CFA, also called undrafted free agent or UDFA).

Committees, the 'Les Fund' and dance music: How the Rams' UDFA process works

The area scouts don’t see Snead move players around the call sheet — or hear from him — in meetings because he doesn’t want to influence their arguments about players. Blake, who can see Snead’s maneuvering, uses the time-logging device to annotate his moves and takes notes about what inspired them. She also flags any spikes in conversation between the scouts.

For example, an area scout’s voice raised with excitement during a conversation about a prospect’s pro day. Gladstone asked the area scout to compare the player to another at the same position. As he did, Snead grouped the two together on his call sheet (unbeknownst to the area scouts). Blake filed the time and noted the nature of the spike. Over time, dozens of those charts are matched with prospects to create a tangible representation of the cliche, “scouts really stood on the table for (player).”

It is her job, Blake explained, to study how the Rams scouting department makes decisions. Each draft pick happens after a years-long timeline of micro-decisions, arguments, evaluations, sourcing and meetings. How did the group eventually reach its conclusion over that time? Blake can pinpoint the exact moment the tide turned for or against a prospect, what the discussion was like, who altered their own opinions after hearing others’ arguments, which staff members seemed to influence others and more.

Throughout pre-draft meetings in 2017, Snead kept noticing introverted area scout Brian Hill raising his voice when he talked about Eastern Washington receiver Cooper Kupp . Those moments — especially coming from a personality like Hill — built a stronger argument for Kupp in Snead’s mind that complemented harder data points, such as his GPS data from the Senior Bowl.

In 2022, when Blake was hired full-time out of Stanford’s MBA program, she and Temme began installing a process to turn the anecdotal moments in a decision-making process, such as Hill’s voice changing, into quantifiable evidence for or against the selection of a player during the crucial minutes of a pick.

Gathering this information also helps Blake engage in unique debates with Snead away from the rest of the group. On a particular day in January, Snead moved a player up one bucket on his call sheet and moved another down when the area scout expressed his excitement about the first player and as Gladstone drew out a comparison between the two.

During a break, Snead poked his head into Blake’s office. Didn’t Snead think he should simply expand the bucket instead of moving the second player out of it, she asked. The coaching staff, who would soon begin its first wave of draft evaluations, would get an initial exposure to only that first bucket of players, with the next bucket to follow a few weeks after. Getting on coaches’ desks in the first bucket is often a good thing for the player, but if the scouting staff was able to compare the first player to the second — unaware of the movement by Snead on the call sheet — shouldn’t the coaches do the same?

Snead’s call sheet remains in a state of constant movement between January and the week before the draft as meetings with scouts and then coaches continue. Draftniks and analysts — even other NFL teams — refer to lists of ranked prospects as “big boards” and keep them organized as such. But Snead’s call sheet looks more like the massive play card McVay uses in games. Both operate with similar strategies.

Where McVay groups preferred plays together depending on different scenarios and scribbles notes to himself in the margins, Snead groups positions and players on a massive screen in JAARS, moving between the nine buckets and using the program’s simplified language — colors, badges, one-liners such as “superpower” and “kryptonite” — to get quick refreshers on that prospect. McVay has less than 40 seconds to decide which play he’ll run and communicate it, and the rest is out of his hands. Depending on the draft round, Snead has between four and 10 minutes to make a player selection, and the rest is out of his hands.

Teams with a large number of picks, especially condensed into one section of the draft, characterize these picks as “throwing darts.” Prospects are imperfect in later rounds, but throw enough darts and the law of averages says a couple of them will work out. But Snead uses strategy here — these are informed bets, not blind throws.

Coaches will call certain plays based on studies of opponents’ tendencies. So will Snead. Temme and the pro scouts run programs that track trends and patterns in rival teams’ draft selections: When one team drafts receivers, do they only look for players who run a sub-4.4 second 40-yard dash? When another team drafts offensive linemen, will they remove a player with short arms from their board? How are character or injury flags weighed by certain teams?

Compiling and analyzing this data can help the Rams navigate the hectic later rounds. In 2023, the Rams had four fifth-round picks after some maneuvering via trades. Nacua, in his respective bucket, was grouped near the top of Snead’s call sheet entering the round. The Rams also needed a linebacker who could play special teams and a tight end, among other positions.

Snead and the staff in the draft room, including McVay, had to decide which pick to use on Nacua and identified other teams in that round who could be looking for receivers. Analysts pulled up those teams’ histories of preferred traits and previous selections at receiver.

Nacua had some injury issues in college and ran a slow 40-yard dash — both of which affected his draft stock. With that information in mind, Snead believed the Rams could wait out other teams who could be interested in a receiver. McVay rattled with anxiety beside Snead as he called in picks for outside linebacker Nick Hampton , offensive lineman Warren McClendon and tight end Davis Allen before finally selecting Nacua at No. 177.

It wasn’t assured that Snead’s bet against other teams would pay off, but the staff informed it with data and pure luck did the rest.

A year after Nacua’s historic rookie season, Snead likes to say that had the Rams truly known what he would do in the NFL, they wouldn’t have waited nearly five entire rounds to select him. “Hell of a plan,” said Snead of his maneuvering last year. “But next time, we’re gonna pick him earlier.”

The Rams don’t have the space at their temporary practice facilities to house draft operations for their entire coaching, scouting and analytics staff the week of the draft, so since 2021 they have worked out of a series of mansions scattered around Los Angeles. This year, they decamped to a three-level, 9,200-square-foot home in Hermosa Beach that opened up over the Pacific Ocean.

It was stocked to bursting with catered food and fresh coffee, but some of the senior scouts passed around a bottle of apple cider vinegar in a paper bag first thing each morning, pouring a shot apiece into small plastic cups and knocking it back. They said it was good for their blood pressure.

Early Thursday morning, hours before the start of the first round, Snead made a series of calls. He checked with the Atlanta Falcons , who were scheduled to pick at No. 8, as well as teams situated around the Rams’ own pick at No. 19 to see what it might cost to move up or down in the round.

In their final meeting before the draft, Temme and Blake issued a last anonymous survey to coaches and scouts. On it, the group was asked a question: Who would you make a Ram? Florida State outside linebacker Jared Verse was one of three players who received the highest consensus.

Braden Fiske and Jared Verse are reuniting in L.A. after playing together at FSU last season. (Don Juan Moore / Getty Images)

Verse had been the topic of much conversation between coaches and scouts in the final weeks before the draft. The Rams knew they could not replace recently retired star Aaron Donald with one top defensive lineman or outside linebacker; it would take two or more players to get back even some of the production they had with the future Hall of Famer.

In early April, the staff held a series of meetings that argued for and against “pods” of defensive linemen and outside linebackers as potential tandems. Verse and defensive tackle Braden Fiske, teammates at Florida State, were identified among those tandems as having a unique chemistry. If the Rams could get Verse, they would also go after Fiske.

On Snead’s call sheet, No. 52 (their second pick in the draft) was too far down to get any of the players who had more favorable evaluations. If they didn’t get Verse at No. 19, they’d still try to trade away from that zone. But if they had to trade up to get Verse, they probably wouldn’t be able to trade up again to get Fiske.

A week and a half before the draft, Sugarman quietly flew to Tallahassee. Analysts and fans were still buzzing about a report that the Rams traveled to Penn State to visit with outside linebacker Chop Robinson two days earlier (it was just Sugarman). His hours-long meeting with Verse slipped by unnoticed.

As the first round played out Thursday night — scouts at hard-wired computers with JAARS open on the screens in two large rooms on the top level of the house, and Snead, McVay, Gladstone, Blake, Temme and others in a separate “war room” with Snead’s call sheet on large monitors at the front — the board fell uniquely. Fourteen offensive players came off the board first, including six quarterbacks, before UCLA outside linebacker Laiatu Latu broke the streak at No. 15.

Just past 7 p.m. PT, the Minnesota Vikings traded up to jump the Rams and Cincinnati Bengals at No. 17. Outside linebackers coach Joe Coniglio started pacing back and forth along the lower level of the house, his phone in his hand. If the Rams were picking a player at his position, he’d be called two stories up a winding staircase and into the war room.

The Vikings took outside linebacker Dallas Turner . Coniglio took the stairs two at a time, and as the Bengals selected Georgia tackle Amarius Mims , a low rumble of celebration from the top level started making its way down into the rest of the house. “Got lucky when Jared fell,” a slightly disheveled Snead said later.

Teams spend millions of dollars, produce mountains of data and hundreds of scouting reports after thousands of hours of evaluation — and still, some of the draft will inevitably come down to pure, uncontrollable luck.

There are always curveballs. The Rams almost missed their chance to call Verse on Thursday night and tell him they were changing his life by sending his name to the league on their draft card at No. 19.

They had his phone number incorrect. It was one digit off.

(Illustrations by Maria Fedoseeva / For  The Athletic )

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Jourdan Rodrigue covers the Los Angeles Rams for The Athletic. Previously, she covered the Carolina Panthers for The Athletic and The Charlotte Observer, and Penn State football for the Centre Daily Times. She is an ASU grad and a recipient of the PFWA's Terez A. Paylor Emerging Writer award (2021). Follow Jourdan on Twitter @ JourdanRodrigue

The NFL Has Announced 5 New Referees For 2024 Season

When the 2024 NFL season kicks off there will be five new officials on the field.

The NFL announced the additions of five new officials, including the son of a legendary official. Derek Anderson, the son of longtime official Walt Anderson, is joining the league this year.

Here are the five new hires:

• Derek Anderson - Line of Scrimmage
• Jeff Hutcheon - Line of Scrimmage
• Brian Perry - Line of Scrimmage
• Robert Richeson - Line of Scrimmage
• Karina Tovar - Downfield

Derek comes into the league just as his father is leaving. Earlier this week Football Zebras reported Walt stepped down from his role as the NFL senior vice president of officiating before his son was hired.

From Football Zebras :

The reason for the departure at this time seems to be related to the league’s pending hires of college officials. Multiple sources indicated that the officiating department’s top-ranked recruit last season was Big 12 referee Derek Anderson, Walt’s son. The announcement of the newly hired officials was delayed a day in 2023, and our sources state that was due to human resources disallowing Derek Anderson to report to his father and effectively removing him from the incoming class of officials.

Walt later revealed he'll be moving to a new position, confirming the report from Football Zebras.

“Our entire family is very proud of Derek’s outstanding career as a college football official. We are excited to see him have the opportunity to contribute as an official at the NFL level," he said in a statement .

"With Derek’s promotion, I expect to begin the process of transitioning to a new role as an NFL Rules Analyst & Club Communications Liaison, where I will focus on communicating with the clubs during the week and with our broadcast partners on gamedays."

"While I will no longer be making officiating decisions, together with a variety of stakeholders I will continue to look for new and better ways to promote excellence in officiating performance. I welcome this challenge and look forward to the opportunity to support the men and women who do such a tremendous job officiating our game at every level."

Congratulations to the new hires.