The Los Angeles Rams are hiring a former Senior Bowl director as a personnel department consultant who will work closely with assistant GM John McKay. The Rams hope that over 30 years of experience with scouting players will have made Phil Savage their secret weapon.
Savage, 60, started his career with the Browns as a defensive assistant in 1991 before moving to the scouting department in 1993. That makes him yet another person who got his start with Bill Belichick and ended up having a long career working with football players.
His work as the director of college scouting with the Ravens starting in 1996 helped create a Super Bowl champion: Baltimore’s first two picks with Savage were Hall of Famers Jonathan Ogden and Ray Lewis.
Savage’s return to the Browns in 2005 as a general manager was far less successful but he got the opportunity to work much closer with talented young football players as the Senior Bowl director from 2012-2018. In 2014, Savage visited St. Louis Rams practice and praised the potential of a young Aaron Donald.
Savage stopped by Rams Park on Tuesday and watched the St. Louis Rams’ first padded practice. He walked the sidelines and spent much of the workout next to current Rams general manager Les Snead.
Wednesday morning, Savage offered thoughts on what he saw on his Twitter account, @SeniorBowlPhil. Among the players standing out to Savage: defensive ends Robert Quinn and Chris Long, linebacker Alec Ogletree, defensive tackle Aaron Donald, tight end Cory Harkey and quarterback Sam Bradford.
12 years later, Savage will work for Snead and help him find more pieces to replace the value lost by Donald’s retirement.
Secret weapon? As long as he’s not the actual GM, Savage has proven that he can be very valuable and the Rams don’t want to waste their chance to land a star with the 13th overall pick next month.
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