The Rams employ a unique approach for their pre-draft player meetings, and special assistant to the general manager/analyst Andy Sugarman helps make it possible.

Rather than opting for the traditional "top 30 visits" that most teams do, general manager Les Snead sends select front office executives to spend a day getting to know individual players near their home or school.

"I basically am coaching these guys when I'm there, and it's different than (how) a scout (would approach it)," Sugarman said.

A combined 23 years of coaching between college and the pros have contributed to Sugarman's success in this distinctive front office job that he's held for the past seven seasons, and his process is dictated "completely" by that background. Jared Verse, Steve Avila and Cobie Durant are just a few of the players he's visited that turned into impact players for Los Angeles.

Responsibilities

Sugarman evaluates a player's "ability to handle football information," he said. Analytics and character have no part in his job and are handled by other people.

His prospect visits include film, board work, classroom work, some walk-through-type demonstrations of technique and installation of new material. There's no physical workout, and he usually takes the player to lunch and spends quality time with them and talk ball.

"I'm going to put a guy on the board and have them teach me their offense or defense to some extent and see what kind of details (they know)," Sugarman said. "Do they know just what they're doing? … Or do they have an understanding of what the whole offense or defense is trying to accomplish?"

Sugarman said the Rams like intellectual players who understand "the why" in a scheme. That can encompass the roles of all 22 players on the field, because understanding the purpose of a play on one side of the ball often goes hand-in-hand with comprehending how the other side will attack that.

"I'm really looking to help find smart football players," Sugarman said. "This offense and defensive schemes that we run at the Rams are complicated. So, you really have to be able to process football information and learn to be a Los Angeles Ram."

Gauging how players learn best is another part of his process, whether that's through board work, film, the playbook, walk-throughs or full-speed reps. That way, when draftees walk through the door, the team already knows how to tailor their onboarding.

Sugarman uses his experience in this role and as a longtime coach to compare players, or specific traits of theirs, to others he's been around.

These visits start as soon as the combine ends and don't stop until the draft begins. Sugarman is typically assigned around 35 visits throughout the country to complete at specific times during a nearly two-month period, meaning he's flying almost every day.

Because other teams don't use the same strategy, Sugarman must defer to each player's schedule, which means there's no geographical logic to these visits. Last year, he had a meeting in Los Angeles on a Monday and then another in Athens, Georgia 24 hours later.

Sugarman doesn't have access to any of the previous evaluations created in JAARS, the Rams' scouting data aggregation program, by area scouts or senior personnel executives. Sugarman only pulls from his personal film assessments done throughout the year to prepare for each meeting.

That's significant because reading reports from colleagues he works with and respects can influence his opinions, Sugarman said. This gives Snead completely unbiased, first-hand accounts of a player's mental makeup, helping create a complete picture of each player.

Throughout the year, Sugarman's duties consist mostly of remote film study and, because of his coaching background, he usually has "a general idea if the guy knows if he's doing the correct assignment or not."

He also attends the all-star games to help administer the Hexaco test (a psychometric assessment measuring personality traits based on the HEXACO Model of personality structure). The Rams usually supply around 300 tests between the East-West Shrine Bowl and the Senior Bowl. Sugarman doesn't interpret the results, but it gives him the opportunity to meet briefly with players that he may visit in a more extensive capacity later.

"I'm all football," Sugarman said. "I'd approach it as if I'm coaching this player or potentially going to coach this player."

Impactful visits: Durant, Verse and Avila

This job is vital to the Rams' scouting efforts, but it isn't always glamorous. When Sugarman visited Durant at South Carolina State, a small HBCU, they met in an art classroom with a mannequin inside. At one point, they even had to leave because of an impending class.

Still, what he learned from that meeting helped the Rams land Durant in the fourth round of the 2022 draft.

"The guy was impressive," Sugarman recalled. "He had a swag to him, and one of the things I wrote in my report (was), 'not a big guy, but the NFL is not too big for him.' And I think as we've watched a DeCobie play over the last few years, I think that was pretty accurate."

The "landshark," as Durant is called, certainly has displayed his confidence and ability to rise to the occasion over the past three seasons, capped by a clutch interception in L.A.'s Wild Card victory of the Vikings this past year.

Another impactful visit was spent on last year's first-round pick, Verse.

Senior personnel executive Brian Xanders found in his sourcing that Verse was dependable, hungry and had "that swagger you want on your defense," without even speaking directly to him. When Sugarman took his visit to Florida State, not having access to Xanders' opinion, he ascertained a similar notion and added some more context to it.

"You could tell he was constantly trying to learn, and you could tell he'd worked at it a lot," Sugarman said. "He kind of ran the show, which I like it when the guys kind of want to talk and show off as much of their football knowledge as possible. And you could just see his energy and passion for football, and that shows up on the practice field and in the games now."

Considering the vehemence in Verse's speech toward teammates and opponents, it's not hard to imagine him loudly displaying his football IQ to a front office executive.

Sugarman said he was impressed with the "intelligence and intensity" of both Verse and Durant (along with Puka Nacua), comparing it to that of all-time receiving yards leader Jerry Rice, who he coached in San Francisco. That's not to say their talent was on the same level, but Rice is always a flattering comparison, no matter the category.

Meanwhile, Avila "demonstrated a big-picture football knowledge," that would be helpful as the Rams overhauled their run scheme. Because of that looming structural change, the Rams were looking to get bigger and smarter up front, and Avila fit the bill perfectly.

Avila's comparison to Kevin Gogan, former guard for the 49ers when Sugarman coached there, was based in size, as it would be hard to match Avila’s infectious joy.

"That (energy) showed up, and he was just an easy guy to talk to, he was an easy interview," Sugarman said. "He wanted to be a part of it, he wanted to be there."

Sugarman's job may be to report on a player's football acumen, but a passion for learning the game is paramount for improvement. Sugarman understands that, and it's led to increasing success in his unique role.

"It's evolved and gotten better each year because you learn as you go," Sugarman said, as do the players he advocates for.