Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
And the Jacksonville Jaguars are paying high compliments to the Los Angeles Rams by emulating their entire approach to team building and the offseason.
Jacksonville hired a former Sean McVay assistant. Their general manager, James Gladstone, was Les Snead’s understudy. Now the Jaguars also won’t attend the NFL Scouting Combine, which is a practice the Rams have done for years although it still hasn’t caught on a widespread basis around the league:
ESPN’s Michael DiRocco recently explained why Gladstone and Coen won’t be at the 2026 NFL combine:
“All those workouts, the weight lifting, on the field, that will be taped and sent back to every single team, so the Jaguars don’t feel like their brass needs to be in Indianapolis,” said DiRocco. “They can evaluate the players based on what they see on the film, and they’d rather rely on their scouting reports and the information their scouts have gathered on the players over the last several years.
The Rams maintain that the most valuable element of the combine is the medical testing. Both teams will send their medical teams to the event in order to put prospects through the gauntlet and potentially uncover red flags that will take them off draft boards.
But it appears neither team plans to put much weight behind the actual testing of the prospects. We know the Rams use this as a reference point but prioritize GPS data from games and practices as a true measure of athleticism. Years of game tape outweigh the importance of one great time in the 40-yard dash, at least from the Rams’ perspective.
But one problem with the Jaguars borrowing LA’s approach is that it could lead to them often targeting the same players. Liam Coen runs a similar offensive scheme to McVay. Gladstone understands what Snead values in a prospect and vise versa. They are largely looking for the same skillsets and depending on how the board falls this could be detrimental to one of these teams.
It’s great that the Rams continue to have success. Teams across the NFL are attempting to follow their lead and formula, though none are taking it to the same extent as the Jaguars.
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