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Senior NFL Scout Reveals What It Really Takes To Get To The NFL · Run After Cast: The College Football Podcast

• Aaron: Welcome back to Run After Cast, the college football. And for this week, NFL Podcast. I'm Aaron. Joined as usual by Ryan. And Chandler. Ryan: Hey guys. RAC Chandler: Gentlemen. Aaron: And this week we have the distinct pleasure of being able to introduce that we have NFL Scout for the LA Rams. The senior player personal executive, Taylor Morton. So thank you so much. It's an honor to have you on the show with us. Taylor: Thanks for having me guys. I look forward to hanging out with you guys today. Ryan: Yeah. Aaron: We are very excited. We've been rolling in pre-show here before recording, and the stories you've already been telling us have been fantastic and exciting. So I can't wait to get those out here and you out there listening to hear them. So to get right into it, let's talk about NFL scouting and future warning that I'm sure Ryan Chandler and me are gonna make this mistake, as we have multiple times already. We often say recruiting. When we mean scouting, because our brains are scrambled by college terms. So do you want to kind of go into the differences there and what an NFL scout does for us? Taylor: Sure. you know, you mentioned recruiting. Recruiting is more, you know, in college football in terms of you're actually recruiting the player and you gotta win the player over and you're trying to sign a player and the the player actually has has choices on where he can go to school. Where you know, in the NFL we have a draft every year and every team has seven draft picks which can be traded and and and so forth. So basically the difference is in the NFL, the player if he's gonna be drafted by an NFL team, he really doesn't have a choice. There's th there's thirty two teams. And if you get drafted now you can sit out a year if if you want to. And I think John Elway actually did that. and Bo Jackson did when he came out. but you got you'd have to wait a year. but the only time we really recruit is Aaron: Yeah. Taylor: if we think a player may not get drafted and we want to sign him as a college free agent when the draft is over with, then we actually do recruit the player. But they don't want to hear, hey, we don't think you're gonna get drafted, so we want to sign you with the LA Rams. What we do is say, hey, I don't know if you're gonna get drafted or not. Hope you do, hope that we can have the opportunity to draft you. But if you don't get drafted, We would love to have you here and this is the type of contract we could come up with and these are the opportunities for you with the Rams to get on the field and and you know we're in a great city and and this this that and the other that you would have that the college coaches do when they when they are recruiting players. So there is a little bit of recruiting, but for the most part, scouting is more on the NFL side, the evaluation of the player where, you know, we just traditionally have had bigger player personnel departments in the NFL where we have scouts that ex that exclusively go to the schools and visit and get information on the players, the the character information, the background information, watch practice, watch the video a lot of times at the school, and generate personnel reports on those particular players in preparation for the draft. RAC Chandler: How did you get into the role of NFL Scouting? What was your journey like? Taylor: You know, I grew up playing the game, Niceville, Florida, Ruckle Junior High, ninth grade, got out for football, didn't really want to, had a friend of mine that kind of twisted my arm to to do it, and then I had a coach named Tim Mills that that actually made it fun and went on to Niceville and and and played there. We're fortunate enough to win the state championship. Aaron: Mm-hmm. Taylor: in 1988. I wasn't a great player. I was pretty average, but I loved the game. And the plan was I wasn't really good enough to play big time college football. I was getting some interest from Division II schools. Back then Troy was D two, Jacksonville State, West Alabama, those type schools, but had a ACL right knee injury right before my senior year. So kind of got wiped out in recruiting, did actually go to a junior college in Mississippi Hines Community College and was gonna try to get my knee right to play. And when I saw some of those players that were playing junior college football, John Copeland being one of who was ended up being an all-American in Alabama, I'm like, man, this college football, I just don't know. I I I love the game. but I didn't really know what I wanted to do. Aaron: Yeah. Taylor: going through the knee injury, I had interest in possibly going to physical therapy school. so I got in the athletic training program, ended up at Southern Myths, and to do the athletic training you had to rotate around to the different sports. And when I went to football, they assigned me to the receiver coach. His name was Jeff Balden. He was Bobby Balden's youngest son. And once I got with Jeff, I just kind of fell in love with the game again and He let me help him at practice and taught me how to break down film and I was basically like his his gopher. They call him slappies nowadays, you know, but I was his slappy. So from there I was like, you know, I I I I really have interest in in going into football. I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do. I started in coaching and and went to graduated from Southern Mist, went to Pearl River Community College as a coach. Aaron: Yeah. Taylor: Then went to Auburn as a graduate assistant and then back to junior college in Mississippi. And by that point, I was getting close to 30 years old. I was married. We had a kid, and I'm like, I just don't know what I want to do. when I was at Auburn, I was I had a good friend of mine that that he knew he wanted to be an NFL scout. I didn't really know anything about scouting. But he ended up with the Jacksonville Jaguars and then the Atlanta Falcons. And kinda long story short, we can kinda get into it, but he's the one that helped me get into to scouting. And he's our general manager. His name's Les Sneed with the with the LA Rams. So we've been together I think all but four seasons since since nineteen ninety five. Ryan: I have a couple of questions. So I know you said you're with the receivers. what position did you play when you were growing up? Like were you really familiar with like offensive players Taylor: I played both offense and defense. You know, in high school you kind of know go both ways and had played some tight end and and some outside linebacker defensive end in high school and then thought I could be a tight end in in in college, but I didn't realize, you know, if you if you can't get over about two hundred and ten, two hundred and fifteen pounds, you're probably not gonna play. And I was kind of that tweener where, you know Ryan: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Taylor: I probably ran a four seven forty, which we thought was fast back then, but you know, I was too slow to be a receiver and not big enough to be a tight end. But I kind of gravitated towards being more of an offensive player. Ryan: yeah, yeah. And the other question was, what year were you at Auburn? Aaron: Mm-hmm. Taylor: I went there in nineteen ninety five. Terry Bowden was the head coach. we had a pretty good year. We probably underachieved a little bit. I think we went eight and three. had a close loss to Arkansas, had a close loss to LSU and then got blown out in the in the outback bowl by Joe Paterno and the Penn State Lions. Ryan: Okay. RAC Chandler: So what is your busiest time of the year? I I'm I'm assuming that, you know, scouting is year round, there's not a lot of dead periods, but is there ebbs and flows to it? Do you have seasons where you're always on the road? Do you have seasons where you're more virtually scouting or communicating with players and coaches? Like what does that look like? Taylor: Yeah, every team kinda does it different. when I was with the Atlanta Falcons for ten years I was an area scout. So as an area scout you basically are assigned a certain area and you got so many schools and you know, usually break it up by states. And when I was I was a Southeast scout the last few years I was with the Falcons. I found Julio Jones by the RAC Chandler: That's why. Taylor: Always always I always make that joke, you know, like you know, Ray Charles could scout, you know, Julio Jones. you know, those are the easy ones, but yeah, the the area scouts will start out in August and go to the go to the August practice. We used to call them two-a-days, nobody has two-a-day practices anymore, but you'll start out in August and you'll you'll try to hit all your schools in in August, maybe the first week of September. And then you kinda come off the road 'cause you've been on you've been to training camp with a team and then you've you've left training camp and gone on the road for a month. So you may come home and kinda catch up at home, catch up on reports, see your family for a couple of weeks early in September. And then once, you know, two or three, four games are played in the fall, then you'll start going back out again as an area scout and hitting your hitting your area schools again. And You know, when I was an Area Scout, we didn't really have the film game film availability like they do now. I mean you had to actually go visit the school to watch the film. Like you have to sit in that film room all day in one of their position meeting rooms and then you would wait for practice, you would talk to the coaches and the trainers and and so forth during the day, watch practice. Leave practice, drive a couple hours to the next town, check in the hotel, try to type up as many reports as you can, get up the next morning, do the do the same thing at the at the next school. Now, you know, fast forward we're in twenty twenty six, all the game films in the cloud. So you can download it on these iPads and you can watch it in your hotel, you can watch it on the airplane, you can watch it at home. you know, the technologies has changed. over the years. So basically you're just going to the schools to the most important thing for us is getting the background and the character information on the players and then seeing them physically at practice. And and then if you if you watch film at the school usually it takes a week or two for for that film to go to the NFL dub center and the dub center distribute the game film to the member teams to the NFL team. So, you know, you may go in the school and if they just played on Saturday, watch that one game and then talk to your sources, watch practice and travel on down the road. Now in my role now I'll go out, I'll go to training camp with our team. I I go july twenty sixth out to Los Angeles. I'll stay with our team. for a week with our scouting staff. We'll we'll we'll have meetings in terms of kind of setting the schedule and and going over what we need to to meet on to to prepare for the for our scouting season. At the same time, the team's practicing, so we'll get to see our players. And it's really good to go out and watch your own players. just to know the better you can know your team, then the better feel you can get for what you want to bring in. And what you'll be looking for in the fall. So we'll stay out at training camp seven to ten days, come home for a couple of days. Some guys will go straight on the road. but what I'll do in the month of August and about the first three weeks of September is I'll hit about 15 to 20 schools that I'll be assigned to. And and I'll mainly go in to get the get the background information. kind of refresh my sources at the schools. You always go into a school and you run into somebody that you hadn't seen in a while and who will be able to kind of help you, you know, once you'd scout these players to be able to call back in the spring and say, hey, tell me about the work ethic on on so and so. So yeah, basically in August and first part of September, our our senior level scouting staff will go out just for that month. And then about the third week of September, we'll be at home watching tape every day all day. the we'll get we'll watch about 15 to 20 players by position at home starting in September. And we'll get the list generated by the area scouts grades. Now they've they've graded their guys this summer, so we have something to go by, and then their grades will start changing. if they elevate a player grade wise, then we'll get that player for our senior group to evaluate. And we'll do that from September to probably sometime in February. Fifteen, twenty players a week. And it's it's a solid day, you know, of of watching tape, just about every day all day. And a lot of times we'll We'll go to games on the weekend if you want to. Nothing that's really required in terms of you know, the evaluations, but a lot of guys like going to games to be able to see the guys up close and you know, get that experience. Aaron: I could also imagine that to do this a as a career, you have to be very passionate about it. And I assume part of that's just feeling that that stadium, feeling the game, just getting to take part in the whole thing. So Taylor: Yeah. Yeah, that's the fun that's the fun part. what people don't see is is those long hours, driving down dark two lane highways, you know, trying to find the next school and you know the typing of the reports you know is is not fun. And you know, just being on the road staying in a different hotel every night, you know, that's that's definitely not the glory part, but Aaron: Yeah. Taylor: at the end of the day we get to watch football for a living. Aaron: Yeah. But I can imagine you're going through every year a just a massive amount of athletes and comparing them. How many people does it take on a team to be able to functionally scout that many athletes? Taylor: We've we've probably got one of the smaller st scouting staffs. we've got about seven area scouts that we break up the country. and then our our senior level guys we've probably got we had some guys leave and went to the Jacksonville Jaguars this past year. one of our one of our guys became the general manager of the Jaguars and he he took probably three or four guys with him. So we we elevated a couple of people. And so we've probably got like I said, seven area scouts and probably five or six senior level guys that do what I do. And then we have a a scouting director coordinator in the office. And she kind of keeps us straight. and keeps us in line and keeps us going forward and and then we have a separate department other than college scouting pro personnel where those guys are working in the office every day and they're scouting our opponents and they're working with the coaches putting together scouting reports and scouting free agents, unrestricted free agents for free agency that starts you know, after the season. So that's kind of the way we've structured it. I was actually a pro scout with the Atlanta Falcons for a year, working in the office. So I've I've kind of done both. And so that's that's kind of the way we do it. Ryan: How many teams have you been a part of? Just the Falcons and the Rams? Taylor: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yep. This'll be my tw twenty-seventh season scouting, so I I've been fortunate to only be with with two teams. Ryan: I bet's good though, stay loyal. Yeah. Aaron: That's incredible. RAC Chandler: You touched on it briefly with the character trait aspect of players. How do you grade or evaluate the character traits, the intangibles, the athletic ability on the field? how do you grade that against each other when you're going and you're creating these scouting reports for these players? Taylor: Yeah, our reports, we break it up. So, you know, we have the character side of the report, okay? And we divide it personal character, which is their background, their family, have they had any off the field issues, you know, what's their major, do they go to class, do they, you know, take care of their business off the field, who's their roommate, you know, those type of things. That's the personal character, and then the football character We grade that separately, which is the work ethic, their football intelligence, you know, their dependability, are they showing up on time for meetings? how much do they love football? And that's probably the hardest that's really the hardest part of our job. I mean, we can all watch games and watch watch on tape and tell who's fast and who's quick and who's explosive and and who makes plays. You know, I always joke, you know, the Julio Jones, you know. He's not hard to scout. but what's hard is trying to figure out What makes these guys tick and how much do they love football? because the last thing you want to do is bring in a talented player that doesn't really love it. Because you know, he's really stood out in college because of his talent, but once he comes up to the NFL, everybody's talented. You know, everybody's at least at the good level. You know, what's gonna separate Aaron: Yeah. RAC Chandler: Yeah. Taylor: or those character traits and and we call them IQs intangible qualities. So we grade the intangible qualities and then we grade the physical qualities. The physical qualities is when we're watching film and we have to we have to put in a speed grade in the box. You know, we have all these critical factors. athleticism, quickness, explosiveness, play speed, strength, and then their football instincts. So we grade those factors for every single player. And then on down in the report, you get into the position specifics. Like for a receiver, you're gonna grade his hands, you're gonna grade his routes. We have something called snap down. Coach McVeigh's real big into, you know, can he snap down as a receiver, which is basically, you know, breaking back to the ball. And does he make contested catches? You those fifty fifty balls. We grade all of that. Those are our position specifics. So you have your talent side of the report, which you know, you don't want to factor in what you know about the character. At least we don't. We we grade we grade those physical qualities. We have a a talent grade, which is kind of segmented into rounds. You know, he's either, you know, a starter, a backup, a contributor, or what we call, you know, a college free agent. And so and then we have the character side of it. And then the overall grade, we have the talent grade and then we have a hot, warm, cloudy, and then cold. So we use those temperatures to tell us that's when the character fa factors in. Like if you got a really talented pass rusher that's got thirteen sacks on the season and nobody can block him, but we're not sure that he loves football. He doesn't take care of his business. He's been arrested. He's beat his girlfriend. This and that. Then we know he's not going to be around. So I would put say a red grade, where a red is like a top tier starter grade, but then I would go cold on the temperature, basically thumbs down where hey, this guy's gonna get drafted. You s we see it every year. Hey, this guy's gonna go in the first round. Somebody's gonna be dumb enough to draft this guy, but it's not gonna be us because we're not gonna we're not gonna really get in those situations where bring in somebody with questionable character. Aaron: Mm-hmm. Ryan: Did use that hot cold for everything? Or do you have more of like when you're going through and you're talking about speed and physical? Do you have like a really strict scale and then give an overall kind of hot warm after? Taylor: Yeah, I mean, really the hot, warm, cold is kind of all inclusive. Like you you may have a you know, again, a really talented pass rusher that's not very tough and doesn't play the run and can't hold the point of attack in the run game, yet, he's really talented. So, y you could justify your cloudy, you know, and then We have a what we call one liner, we just kind of sum him up. You know, we don't like a lot of typing. You know there's there's a lot of NFL teams where their their scouting reports are like encyclopedias, you know. ours is basically tells you by the grade and then the hot, warm or cold whether you like the guy. And then you fill out we fill out all those critical factors and position specifics to where w we Ryan: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Aaron: Yeah. Taylor: I can just look at and it's all color-coded. Like blue's the best. Then red, you know, blue is excellent. Red is is good. purple is sufficient. And there's a lot of purple playing in the NFL. And then below the line is orange. And that, you know, if I pull up a report and I see a lot of orange, then I know, you know, his grade should not be very high. Aaron: Okay. Taylor: And just the opposite. If I pull up and I see all red and blues, I'm like, Whoa, you know, this probably looking at a first second round pick here. But why is he cold? Why why do we have a cold on him? And then I'll read the character and it's usually something with the character information. Aaron: Yes. RAC Chandler: It's interesting because as a couch fan, as the the casual viewer of collegiate sports and the NFL sports, it's easy just to grade off of talent and what you see on the field and and their athletic play when they're going through their day-to-day. But it sounds like the characteristics and the off the field weighs just as heavy, if not more, into your evaluation. And that's something that's very easy to overlook as just a fan from the couch. Taylor: Yeah, it does. It's it's it's really the most important thing for us. I mean, we've we've got to the point with Coach McVeigh. He's going into it his tenth season and you know, he's such a a great dude. You I mean, you don't want to bring in knuckleheads. I mean we've we've kind of got the building and and it and it's great when we go back to training camp and and around our team and we have like our athletic trainer or or our equipment manager come up and and And thank us for bringing in quality people. And you know, the last year we went to camp and and one of the trainers said, you know, this is the best locker room we've ever had. And and that's what it takes. That that's what puts you over the top, because everybody's gonna draft talent. But to be able to have that chemistry on the team with the right people that really love football and are gonna do things the right way, and they're smart and they're tough and they're gonna give everything they got. I always say like that that year we went to the Super Bowl, we were really good talent wise. I mean we had Matthew Stafford, Aaron Donald, so forth. And once we got in the playoffs, every game came down to the last two minutes. Like all those playoff games, they came down to the last two minutes. And you don't win those type of games unless you have guys in your locker room. that are the glue guys. That when the going gets tough and you gotta make a fourth down stop to win the game, to to advance in the playoffs and you make that play or, you know, in the Super Bowl with two minutes to go, Matthew Stafford takes us down the field and and throws that ball to Cooper Cup, you know, and we go up and then that the Bengals get the ball back and then Aaron Donald's gotta make the the last play to to to win the game for us. You know, and that's That's when it gets fun and and and it's worth all that hard work. You know, when you see those type of guys, the really good guys in the game, make the plays that help you win championships. Aaron: Yeah. Well, and that's something where I think even people in the industry have chased that outcome. What does that feel like when you are part of that team that goes all the way, wins the Super Bowl, reaches the peak? I I can't imagine that what that goes through for everybody involved. So a a glimpse of that is best as you can summarize that feeling. Taylor: Yeah, it's hard. I mean, when I when I first got on with the Atlanta Falcons, they had never won back to back winning seasons. Sin and they they were founded in nineteen sixty six. I got there in two thousand. They had never gone back to back. And it's hard. It's hard to win in the NFL. And when we when we drafted Matt Ryan and we signed Michael Turner, the running back in in free agency. And that was kind of the turning point. And we had a good really good coach and staff. That was the turning point where, you know, we finally got a franchise quarterback that was that was stable. And and when we won that second season back to back, it was a big deal, you know, in the in the to go to the playoffs and you know, kind of set that foundation and then you know, kept building around Matt Ryan and then I left and went to It was the St. Louis Rams at the time. but then, you know, a couple of years later they're they're they played for the they play they lost in the NFC championship in twenty twelve and then went to the Super Bowl a couple years later. but it it's that that's what it takes sometimes is you gotta build that foundation and then even when you have the foundation, e even when you think you have the franchise quarterback, you just don't know. Aaron: Mm-hmm. Taylor: mean Sam Bradford was a heck of a talent for us in St. Louis, but he you know he had the bad knee two bad knees. He tore two ACLs and you know, if you don't have a quarterback in the league and even college football, probably any level of the game, you really don't have a chance. But to get back to your original question, I'd gone through those rough years in Atlanta, finally got it turned around. And then get the opportunity to go to the St. Louis Rams as the college scouting director, move my family to St. Louis, and then you know, we're trying to build the team. You know, the quarterback has injuries, and we went four seasons there, four losing seasons there. And then the team relocates to Los Angeles and had our fifth losing season. And, you know, it's going back to it's hard to You gotta have everything come together, you know, the right coaches, working with the right front office people, bringing in the right players, and it's all got to mix in the in the right way to win games. And, you know, when we finally pulled it together, when Coach McVeigh came in, we had drafted Jared Goff as the quarterback. We had drafted Todd Gurley before that when we were in St. Louis. So we had those pieces together. And then when Coach McVeigh came in, That first year in two thousand seventeen and we got on a run and I always say Todd Gurley saved the franchise 'cause he was like unstoppable that year. And when we beat the Tennessee Titans on Christmas Eve in Nashville to win the the NFC South. No, I'm sorry, to win our division, it was the NFC West. Then you know, that that was kind of the turning point. We're like, wow, you know, it's This is something special. But it all those all those barren years, rough seasons, you know, they they're not fun. But when you finally can get there, and then the next year we play in the NFC championship game against the Saints. We're down I think by ten points at halftime. It's not looking good. And then we were c able to come back, take the game to overtime, and that was probably the most emotional I ever got in football. We beat the Sain night, which I grew up on the Gulf Coast, grew up a Saints fan, to beat them in New Orleans in the Superdome, to go to the Super Bowl that was being played in Atlanta, where I'd, you know, had been working with the Falcons for twelve years. It was just it was something really special. RAC Chandler: That's incredible. I can only imagine what that is to feel like. I mean, the close thing I have is winning, you know, Super Bowls and Madden twenty six on the PlayStation and all that kind of stuff. So that's that's ridiculous to be able to go through. Aaron: Yeah. Ryan: Yeah. Yeah. And the Todd Gurley thing for me, it's tough, you know, 'cause I'm an Auburn fan, right? So it's like Georgia very much. He was like one of the best running backs like ever. But that brings up another thing. How do y'all like evaluate injuries of the guys in college and kind of manage their pass injuries and almost like a mileage kind of thing to predict how they're gonna be in the NFO? Taylor: Yeah. Well, we have the the the NFL Scouting Combine. And probably one of the most important things we get out of that is when the players attend the combine, they do physicals for all the teams. We we have our doctors there, our team doctors, our athletic training staff, and they evaluate the players medically similar to what we do with the talent. I mean they poke and prod them and they MRI and everything they need to do. And then they have to put a grade on the player. And so, and then we we have a medical meeting sometime a couple weeks before the draft and they go over everybody medically where you know it it it's basically risk management a lot of times w with the injuries. if a guy's got a arthritic knee, you know, can we make it through one contract with him? Is he a one contract guy with a knee? Or, you know, if the guy was playing hurt the previous season, when's he gonna be available? You know, is he gonna be ready for OTAs? Is he gonna come back for training camp? Is it gonna be sometime in the season? Or, you know, is he gonna be a pup guy that PUP list, f physically unable to perform? You know, you can sign a player that's injured, put him on the P U P list and he doesn't count against your numbers, you know, when you cut down your roster to fifty three players and put a guy on a pup list. So there's a lot come into it. But what we try to do as scouts is is separate the medical from from the talent for sure. I mean we want to grade what we see on film. The only time you really get involved with that is like if you think a player's playing injured, you know, for a stretch or for a game and you don't want to count it against him if it looks like he's slow or really He's just really tough and he's out there playing on a sprained ankle, you know, a high ankle sprain that he he wouldn't necessarily even have to probably play in if he didn't really want to be on the field. So, but try to keep the medical like I wouldn't ever knock a guy and take a first or second grade off of him and put a seventh round grade on on him off of anything to have to do with medical. Aaron: Mm-hmm. RAC Chandler: So has there been a guy, that you can remember or reference to that you've been super high on scouting wise with the field play, the intangibles and the character traits, but then something comes back on the medical evaluation that you weren't necessarily aware of or but you still decided to take a shot on it and it and it played out. Taylor: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. we had a offensive lineman named Havinstein that just retired. We drafted him and he was the last St Louis Ram that just retired. So now we don't have any Saint Louis Rams on the team. But we drafted Havinstein in two thousand fifteen and he didn't have a good medical grade. He had a bad knee. He had something wrong with his knee and and our and our medical staff was concerned about it. But we drafted him. RAC Chandler: Well. Taylor: And the trainers are like, We'll hold our breath. And you know, he played for what two thousand fifteen to twenty twenty five, played eleven seasons, so but you're always rolling the dice. You're always rolling the dice. A lot of times, a player will fall on the draft because of the medical and the deeper into the draft you get, the more apt you may be to to take the the risk with the player. Aaron: Mm-hmm. Ryan: It's interesting to hear about like how in depth the physicals go. 'Cause I think like a lot of times we hear that someone didn't pass a physical and stuff like going into the NFL, but then we just think of like you're in the doctor's office and like they get you to cough and maybe ask you if you're hurt or something, but other than that, you know, you don't know you don't know how like in depth it is. Yeah, yeah. Aaron: Yeah. RAC Chandler: Yeah, Taylor: Yeah. Yeah. RAC Chandler: here's an ibuprofen. Taylor: And and some schools have more of a history of medical than other schools. Like it and it's it's it's kind of goes back to how they practice. You know, some teams just grind them up, you know, when they're in full gear and they having those four hour practices that just kind of grind and then other places they're not practicing. But, you know, a lot of times those places where they're they're beat up where they've been grinding them. They're probably tougher than the places where they're got less medical, you know, less mileage on the tires than the other place. But, That's why you just gotta you gotta grade the talent and then you know, you kinda let the medical staff be concerned about the the medical. RAC Chandler: is there positions that you worry about more so than others as far as medical evaluations go? Like is there more position groups that you can take a shot on versus other position groups that you're like, like I'm not taking any risks here? Taylor: Yeah, we don't we probably don't ever really have those type of discussions, but I mean, if you got a corner if you got a cornerback with a bad wheel and he's gotta run fast to cover somebody down the field, you know, that could that could be an issue. Aaron: Yeah. RAC Chandler: Yeah. Of course. Like putting us out there. Aaron: And is that part of earlier you were mentioning about those connections and building those up? Somebody who's been in the industry as long as you have, is that something where you just have people that you also rely on to get a straight story from each program and say, like, they're gonna tell me about this player straight up, give me the real answers for it, and maybe that way I'm not having to take the player or maybe necessarily medical for this, seeing how those intangible evaluations that you have. mentioned grading. Taylor: Yeah, yeah, definitely. And it takes time to build the relationships and and but the more times you go into the schools, get to know the people or you've worked with somebody before or you have some type of relationship with them in the past and and but always tell our scouts is you still got to try to meet new people, try to meet new sources. I try to meet somebody new every time I go to a school to visit. Or if I go to a game, I try to get down on the sideline early and and you know, that's probably the best time to talk to people a lot of times is is you know, I'll just go up and introduce myself to somebody and he may be a you know, assistant trainer at a school or an assistant equipment manager and just you know, you just start shooting the breeze with them and and just try to strike up a relationship with them and and and a lot of times that's the best time to talk to the position coaches. Because a lot of times they'll come out early for the game and they'll just be sitting around. I mentioned Kirby Smart earlier before we started. I mean, he was great. Like when he was the defensive coordinator at Alabama, he'd d be down on the field early, nothing going on. Go over there, hey Kirby, how you doing? Tell me about so and so. And he would he would love to talk about his players and and help you out. And yeah, that's Yeah, everybody's got their own style, but as a scout you gotta figure out the best way for yourself to get that information. Ryan: Like how honest are they with you? 'Cause I feel like a lot of people try to like sell their guy a lot, but how do you know if they're just like shooting it straight, you know? Taylor: Yeah, it's it it's yeah, a lot of a lot of times it's you got you kinda gotta filter through the the information and that's why we just try to talk to as many people as we can, you know, trainers, equipment people, academic advisors. Aaron, you're Mississippi State, you remember Jarius Norwood? Aaron: Yeah. Yes, yeah. Mm-hmm. Taylor: running back. We drafted him w at the Fal the Falcons in the third round. But my mother in law lives in Brandon, Mississippi, and we were there one summer right before the season visiting family and I drove by Brandon High School and I knew Norwood was gonna be coming out of Mississippi State, so I just pulled in the school and walked in. It was summer, there wasn't anybody hardly in there, but there was a janitor mop mopping the floor and started talking to and asked about Jarrus Norwood and Aaron: Ha ha. Taylor: And he knew it he'd known him since he was a little kid and gave me all kinds of information about him. So you just gotta be able to dig and keep digging. And we always say that the ink isn't dry on the player until the draft starts. I mean it could be the night before the draft and you're still calling around trying to get information on. Aaron: Can't even imagine how crazy that must get in terms of, you know, just high stress scenario those nights before the draft. RAC Chandler: No, th I think a janitor is the last person I would think you would talk to to get information about a player, but that's that's that's incredible. So yeah, any any future, you know, NFL draft eligible players that could be watching this, make sure you're in with the janitors and you're on good terms with them. Exactly. That's hilarious. So you talked about the the the pre drafts Taylor: I've I've talked to a couple of janitors over the years. Ryan: Yeah. Never know who's watching ya. Taylor: That's right. RAC Chandler: Scouting evaluations and all that kind different stuff. When you go into the combine and you're on the the national media side, do you have it's fully televised, all that kind different stuff, how much does the combine play into draft stock when you're evaluating players? Is that kind of like a stamp of approval or like validation? Or does that really change your your eye on some players? Taylor: lot of times. A lot of times it's it's validating what you've already seen in in terms of their their PQs, their physical qualities, you know, their their quickness, their speed. a lot of times competitiveness. And because it it's a strain on those players to be there all week. They get up early, they take to get physicals. They're you know, they they gotta stay up late at night, some do an interview. So a lot of times by the end of the week you're gonna see their true character. come out. and we we're able to to get in front of We have our part of our staff will go and and do interviews with them. but, you know, the forty yard dash is is interesting because, you know, we have the electric time now, the laser times, but you still see all the all the scouts sitting on the forty, you know, all the way up and down the row with the with the handheld stopwatches and you know on TV now, you know, they'll show a suite, you know, a box, that's eighty yards away from from the finish line and and you'll see, you know, a head coach up there with a his stopwatch, which is, you know, totally inaccurate. RAC Chandler: So what about the guys that opt out of different events and different things inside the draft? Do you take that negatively or does it is it a situational base? Taylor: It's more common. We used to we probably used to weigh that more when they wouldn't do certain things, but I think it's kind of a product our of our society. You know, we've let it slip and and there's no putting toothpaste back in the tube, you know. but and when a guy does want to do everything a lot of players do. They they they'll do everything at the combine. everything, all the drills, and then they'll a month later they'll do everything at their pro day sometime. You know, so I I think that does it does make you feel better, just the the overall competitiveness and makeup of the player that that's willing to to do all those things that you ask him to do. I got got one s forty story for the combine. Cooper Cup. We we really like Cooper Cup. We had really high grades on him. You know, he was an FCS player, he was kind of flying under the radar. but then he ended up at the soup at the senior bowl at the senior bowl in in Mobile, the All Star game. And then he made it to the Combine. And we're like, man. Cause we were thinking, you know, we could get him in later rounds. And then he had a really good senior bowl. And then he ran the forty at the Combine and he ran four six six. And we're doing high fives up in the up in the box. They're like, Yes, yes, yes. Cause we don't really value the forty so much as we value Aaron: Yeah. Taylor: value the other qualities, you know, particularly can he separate and catch the football as a receiver. So when he ran four six six we were we were ecstatic. Ryan: So it almost like alerts the other teams that if they had a really good combine that they'll go back and evaluate them more if they weren't looking at Taylor: A lot of times, yeah. I mean I I remember there was a receiver from Fort Valley State that I gave a free agent grade to in the fall. He showed up at the combine and he ran like four or three. And all the Southeast scouts were like, no, 'cause you know what's gonna happen. You know, you're gonna get that email from your boss, you know, what you know, what what's the deal with this guy? And then you gotta go chase him in the spring and Aaron: Ha ha ha. Taylor: And go work out again and and all that. So everybody'll will start questioning themselves, but we always say go back to the film. Go back to the film. You know, a lot of times they'll run a fast forty, but they won't play fast on tape. So we we value the the play speed more than we do the forty. RAC Chandler: 'cause I'd I would imagine running in full pads is a lot harder than running in, you know, your compressions, your controlled forty. Taylor: And what's crazy about Cooper Cup is a few years ago when when he was it was a couple years after we drafted him, you know, they have the GPS underneath the shoulder pads now that that measures their their speed during practice. He was the fastest player on the team at practice, according to the GPS. Because he went so hard, you know, and he and he played fast. He played a lot faster than Aaron: Mm-hmm. Taylor: you know, running a forty forty yards in in shorts and t shirts. Aaron: Yeah. Ryan: Yeah, I've heard forties a lot of sorry, go. Sorry. no, I just I just heard that the forty was like very technical. Like if you ran track you'd be really good at the forty kind of thing. Mm hmm. Taylor: Well yeah, and the guys train now too. And and that's another thing about all these drills is, you know, when they're when the season's over for these players, they go to these training facilities and that's all they do is work on their their starts and the technique on how to do the three cone and and all that, you know. So you got you gotta take it all with a little grain of salt. Aaron: And it feels like every season as we kind of build up to that combine, we're getting into that doubting area, getting to postseason, the overall media has a lot of opinions on different players or is hyping somebody up or has somebody, you know, where they're putting them down lower. How accurate would you say most seasons they get to, like the overall media presentation for players? Or is that something where you see separation or close to it? Taylor: Yeah. Well they've they've got they've got really good people in the media that that a lot of are former scouts and and then they they talk to they have their own s they have sources too. So they talk to so many people in the NFL, so they have a pretty good grasp on where players are gonna go. but a lot of times they they're not factoring in the character information and then they're not factoring in the medical information. to where when a player falls and they're like, I can't believe, you know, he he he's going you know, this quarterback's gone in the fifth round now. Well you didn't do the homework of the player makeup or know the medical Aaron: Does any of that end up impacting the overall scouting team side with any kind of media noise or anything like that? Does that reorient anything or do you guys just keep on your heading? Taylor: Well, you you have to because you're trying to determine where you think the player's gonna go and how he's valued by their team. So you know, y you look at all those mock drafts, which everybody on T V does their own mock draft. And so that'll try to you know, when you average out all those mocks, it kinda gives you a a good feel where you think the player's gonna go. Aaron: Mm-hmm. RAC Chandler: So you have thousands of colleged athletes, tens of thousands that are probably draft eligible. How do you go through your calendar year and you get to the combine, you get to this all this pre-draft evaluation, how do you hone in on what set of players that your franchise is looking for out of all these different players? Taylor: Yeah. Well well we we kinda have scheme fit parameters for all our positions. Like, you know, s some teams with offensive linemen they value more athletic, quicker, you know, down the line zone blockers than they do the big strong power mashers that come off the ball, you know, in the power game. So and we've gone with both. you know, a tight end, do you value more of a blocker or do you value more of a receiver? So always say it's kind of like picking an ice cream. You know, just tell me what you're you if your favorite flavor's chocolate, I'll go find the best chocolate ice cream I can find. And if you look if we want vanilla, we go find vanilla. So that's kind of the what we do with the players. but you still have to grade the player for what he is and then it's it's really above our pay grade as scouts to Aaron: Mm-hmm. Taylor: Is it somebody that that you know we value enough to to draft? RAC Chandler: many players in per round during the draft would you have as like a safety net of like if they're available you're gonna pick? Taylor: Well, you know, you you whittle your board down to the players that that really fit you, both talent wise and character wise. And y and it makes you nervous sometimes because you you feel like you don't have enough names and what's gonna happen, you know. But it that's never the case. That's never the case. It it it always works out to where when your pick's coming up, you've gotta have about three guys in mind. three to four in mind, to where, you know, if your favorite player gets gets picked before, you know, it gets to to you, then you you you gotta pick somebody. So you you gotta be you gotta be ready for that. We've we've been in that spot one pick away from the player we really wanted and then he gets picked and then the room's just deflated. But somebody, you know, the general manager's gotta be aware, hey, we still have to pick somebody here. And and and it's already been discussed and planned out to where you have ranked on the board so you kinda know who you're who you're gonna take. When I was with the Falcons, I think it was two thousand seven draft. We were picking number eight. We were one pick away from Adrian Peterson. And he went he went right before us to the Vikings. And then we took nobody remembers Jamal Anderson, defensive end from Arkansas at number eight. So talking about Jamal Anderson compared to great running back Adrian Peterson. Aaron: Mm-hmm. Now through this process, do you have a position that you prefer to scout over other positions? Or is it more of at this point in your career you just have an eye for everything? Taylor: Yeah, I mean we a lot a lot of years we've we have everybody has their own position that like you're the cross checker and you're kind of the expert on that position. I I had offensive line for a long time. safeties is a position I always struggled with, like you know, a lot y you'd have to watch fifteen, twenty plays sometimes before safety does anything. You know. it's easier now that you can Aaron: Mm-hmm. Taylor: you with with technology you can you can filter it to where every time the ball's thrown in his vicinity you you can pull those up or you don't have to the monotony of putting in a VHS tape or a beta tape and fast forwarding through, you know, games like the old days. But but yeah, you you really need to be a proficient in grading all the positions. Aaron: Yeah. Ryan: how much do you all take the Wonderlook test into consideration? Does that matter like at all? Taylor: No. Well, I think it anything at this point w with the Wonder Look, it's a red flag. I mean it's a reading test. So there's fifty questions. and they they they steadily get more difficult the deeper into it you get. So hardly anybody can get to fifty and then you grade it on how many you get right. So if you only answer twelve, you get all twelve, you get a twelve on the wonder look, that's not very good. But you gotta keep in mind it's if you're not a fast reader, then you're not gonna do as well on the test. So, you know, f we're not a a library team, you know, we're a football team. So you know, there's other tests that that have evolved. you know, personality profiles, there's mental quickness tests that we give that that are really good, that we value. everybody and a lot of times the players nowadays, like I said, Aaron: Ha ha. Ryan: Yeah. Taylor: They'll just say, We I don't wanna take it. You know, and in the old days you y you say, Hey, you take this or you're not gonna get drafted. We're not gonna draft you. Well, you know, nowadays you you know, nobody wants to say that anymore. You know. but if a player makes a single digit on on the Wonder Lick, he's got a reading problem. You know, he may he and and and they can overcome that. You know, it's not it's not as big a deal as it used to be. Aaron: Mm-hmm. Ryan: So when you have those your own tests that you're talking about, do y'all just do that when you interview the players? Taylor: A lot of times we'll try to get at the at the combine, or at the all star games or at the combine or sometimes we have specialists that go out and we'll test the players on campus in the spring. RAC Chandler: And you're going to pro days and stuff as well, or are you just going to combine? Taylor: Yeah. Yeah, we go to the pro days. Pro days is another opportunity to get in the buildings of these places and get information and meet people and and try to get as many sources as you can. RAC Chandler: And it's interesting because some of the players will do all the events at pro days, but not combine. So is that like a familiarity thing? Or is that like a are the stopwatches for the forty a little slower in c on campus? Taylor: Well, I I think, you know, if a player knows he's not gonna run a real fast forty, they just try to put it off. Like they think that, you know, if they can have more time to train after the combine, maybe they can get faster for the pro day or have that home field advantage, you know. Like Penn State's traditionally a fast place to run. Ole Miss is fast. You know, just kind of depends on the on the place. Everybody has indoor facilities now, but used to be like Florida State didn't have an indoor facility. So, you know, those guys would run right in the middle of Doak Campbell, you know, on the grass. And a lot of times in the spring it rains. You know, so we try to get out there early in the morning before the rain comes and and run the forty. You know, so a lot of guys would want to run at the combine on the turf rather than Wait till the pro day in Ronald Grass. RAC Chandler: So decades of experience. Do you have any standout stories or doubting experiences that just right off the cuff that come to your head when you think about core memories in this industry? Taylor: gosh. I I mentioned Cooper Cup. It's funny. Les Sneed, our GM, we had her both of our sons at the Manning passing camp ten years ago. I think it was it was 2016. And at the Manning camp, back then Peyton was still playing. And of course Eli was. And so it was a big deal on I think it was Saturday night of the camp. They would throw Aaron: Yeah. Taylor: in the stadium and people would come and I think they even sold tickets to it, but people would come and watch it and they would bring in college receivers or there were the counselors were were college players, mostly quarterbacks, but some receivers. So they let Les and I come in these meetings that they were at like the staff meetings where Archie would get up and you know then kind of go over the day and the organize the schedule, a camp schedule, this and that. Well The night before this throwing session, we were sitting in that staff meeting and Peyton Manning gets up and he, you know, they were gonna divvy up who they were gonna throw to the next day. And and Peyton got up, he goes, Hey, Eli, you can have any of those those other receivers. And there were receivers from like LSU and know, there were some talented guys there. You know, Peyton said, You can have any of those receivers. I got the cup kid. I got Cooper Cup. We're like, who's this Cooper Cobb? And so we go out there the next day to this throwing session and we see this, you know, average looking receiver, blonde haired, you know, skinny kid. And we're like, that's that's who Peyton wanted. And all he did was get open and catch the football. And Les thought he was from a Mac school. We didn't even know where he came from. So we get back to the office, he's getting one of the office guys to try to find out who he is and we're looking at all these Mac schools and then finally figure out, you know, he's Cooper Cup from Eastern Washington, which was F S you know, an FCS school and, you know, the rest is history with him with the Rams. Aaron: It's incredible. Yeah. Taylor: You got a Mississippi State question, Aaron? Aaron: this season, not so much. But no, no, I did want to say with years of experience you've had and you're evaluating players, have you noticed any differences? Like are players any different now than when you started, or is football still just football? RAC Chandler: Mm-hmm. Mm. Ryan: Ha ha ha. Taylor: I think at the end of the day, football's football. I mean, I think the really good passionate players that that love the game, they want to be coached. They want to be held accountable. not all of but you know, in years past not everybody w was looking for that. So I think there's still plenty of talented players out there that that are wired right, that are who we're looking for. Aaron: Mm-hmm. Taylor: from character traits in in that standpoint. And they are different in a way where I think nowadays the players they want to be coached but they want to know why or that you you're doing things a certain way. And and you know, a few years ago you may with us all t you know, the old timers may say, Hey look, you know, just do what you're coached to do. you know, don't ask any questions. Where now I think the smart coaches are more communicators and can relate to the players, build the relationship with the players, and when they wanna know something, or even before they ask, you're explaining why you're doing things a certain way and why they're asked to do this. 'Cause it's at the end of the day it's still hard. I mean it's har the playing the game of football is hard. It i it it Aaron: yeah. Taylor: And it's demanding. We demand a lot of our players when they come in our building all day for twenty weeks in a row. Usually, you know, if you go to the playoffs more than that. So, you know, it's a grind. So and that's why it's so important to to get those type of players that do love it and that are wired right and that are gonna be fits for us on our roster. RAC Chandler: So talking with Aaron, like about NIL, we always talk about it extensively, both of them, but like with all these different changes in the wild west of college football, has NIL brought up new challenges in scouting for you guys when it comes to publicity and media presence and all the money that's circulating? Does that create more challenges off field than it usually does with different situations players can get into with all this money going around? Taylor: Yeah, I think it in a way it's kinda helped us. I mean, 'cause the million dollar question used to be what are they gonna do with a million dollars? You know because you know what what what was hard to predict in the past is what are they gonna do in the NFL when they have more time and when they have more money. So now they're all they're all getting paid. We we drafted a a player in the later rounds and I heard him talking one time in the facility and somebody said, Well, how much NIL money did Aaron: Ha ha ha. Mm-hmm. Taylor: Did you make? And he goes, I wouldn't I wasn't really one of the higher paid guys. I only made 450 a year. I only made 450. I'm like, golly, I couldn't imagine making 450 grand, you know, in in college. So, you know, those guys are already getting paid. So we already kind of we have an idea of of what they're gonna do with their money. How's money gonna affect them? with their family, with their relationships, RAC Chandler: Yeah. Taylor: Are they gonna buy, you know, five Corvettes? are they gonna give all their money away to somebody? You know, who do they trust? Who are they trusting with their money? Are they gonna be smart with their money? I mean, we drafted a player a couple of years ago that had already invested in real estate with his NIO money. Yeah, or or players that are, you know, are are s are driving, you know, just RAC Chandler: There you go. Taylor: use cars, you know, that hadn't spent money on cars and jewelry and those kind of things. So yeah, I I think it's it's somewhat of of an advantage for us with the with the money and but a lot of times it keeps those guys in school too. If they don't think they're gonna be a top round pick and they're making, you know, a couple of hundred thousand dollars playing college football, that's why they've gone to the courts and trying to stay in school forever. Yeah, they they got it pretty good. Aaron: Mm-hmm. RAC Chandler: Is there totally not a scouting question? But is there a financial advisor or anybody like that y the facilities and and programs have that teach these kids how to manage money? Aaron: Yeah. Taylor: Yeah. Well, we just try to educate when we get we we have a player development staff that that w works with the players on a more personal basis, trying to help you know, with with those type of things, financial advisors. And you just think, you know, a lot of are just still kids. I mean, we draft a twenty one year old from small town Alabama or somewhere and bring them to Los Angeles. you know, they gotta find a place to live. They gotta, you know, figure out how to pay rent. And a lot of times these college kids, they got people doing everything for them. but yeah, we want to that's why we do a lot of this background work because when we draft the players and they walk in the front door of our building, we want to know the best way to help. And that's what I try to tell a lot of people at the schools when we're trying to get the information. We're not trying to just dig up dirt and bad things on these kids. We're trying to figure out how we can best help them when we do draft and they they come to our place, the best ways to help them be successful. 'Cause if they're not successful off the field, they're when they step on the field, they're not gonna be as productive football players. Aaron: Is that something that you would reflect in the report of like in that intangible section of like, hey, this person per okay. Taylor: Hundred percent. Hundred percent. Yeah. yeah. Yeah. This say this player's very naive. he's too trusting of people. you know, there's concerns with his with his life skills, you know, those type of things. Aaron: And in there would you have an indicator of like this could be assisted with either, you know, mental therapy through the team or financial guidance through the team? Is that something that would you'd indicate or do you leave that? Taylor: Yeah. yeah. We would we would we would definitely wanna make note of that and and just kind of the severity of it too. I mean they're all gonna need help. You know, there's very few that will just hit the ground running on their own. but we definitely wanna have a plan. and that's why we go back after the draft and we have a another round of Aaron: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Taylor: character gathering, once we've already owned own the players, once we already have the players in our building, and we take ownership of them, then then we can go back to the schools and say, you know, what's what what do you think now is the best way for this player to be successful? And a lot of times they're more open because we've already got them, you know, and and we kind of have a plan we call it a plan for success, where our scouts will write up a new report on the best plan of success for these for the players that we just drafted. Aaron: That's a lot of responsibility on the scouting report there. So, you know, I d I think that's definitely illuminating to me. I'm sure a lot of people would find it as well, of just how much of that impacts how that person's gonna go into the season. Taylor: Yeah. Yeah. What else you got, Chan or I know y I see your bubble. Aaron: Ha ha ha. RAC Chandler: No, I mean we've already kept you for over an hour and I think you hit all my big questions. I'm sure I c we can ramble for a long time. Aaron: Mm-mm. Ryan: the only other thing is like maybe how do you think the Rams are gonna do this year? Are you excited? Taylor: I'm excited. I'm excited. You know, I I think with with having Matthew Stafford back again and and you know, putting some more talent around him and and you know, we were so close last year, you know, it's just I think it's and it but every year's a new year, even with the same players a lot of the same players coming back, but yeah, I th I I I feel good about going into into this season. Ryan: Yeah, and I saw y'all got Miles Garrett, That's good person to have on your team and stuff, so RAC Chandler: Yeah, as a as a Taylor: Yeah, he he's n he's easy to scale too. Aaron: It's exciting. RAC Chandler: as a brown spin it just keeps getting worse. Aaron: Yeah. RAC Chandler: That's where all the all the character trait flaws and everybody they just go to the Browns. They just d dump over there. Taylor: Yeah. Aaron: Yeah. Ryan: Geor Yeah. It's like the Georgia of NFL. RAC Chandler: Exactly. You know, take Shador, take Dylan Gabriel, take take everybody, you know, it eight quarterbacks in our room. Ryan: Sean Watson. I think he's still there. RAC Chandler: Yeah. They're gonna be paying his contract for decades probably. They're gonna keep extending it. Aaron: Well, I know we're gonna be excited to follow along. We'll definitely be checking in on the Rams this year. So I to round things out, since you've given us so much information, so much background here that I did not know, I would I would say we could round this out with do you have advice for young players now that might be at that middle school, high school level that are looking to go through this process? What are some things they can do to best set themselves up for success? Because it seems like that first barrier they're gonna hit when they wanna go to the all the way is they gotta pass through the scouting report. Taylor: Well, I I would say there's just so many examples of players that make it to the NFL that when they were in middle school or even high school that they didn't really think they were ever gonna have an opportunity. Either they they were told that they weren't good enough or that they were late bloomers, they hadn't gotten big enough yet, or you know, th they got more athletic the older they got or whatever the reason is that that if they really love football, there's a place for I used to work a lot of camps with with Bobby Bowden because of the relationship I had with his sons. And I remember Coach Bowden saying one time to a group of of young kids at the camp is, you know, every one of y'all sitting in this room right now can play college football because there's division one, there's division two, there's division three, there's junior college, there's NI N N A N A I A and and so forth. So there's a lot of football out there. You may not get a full scholarship, but if you really want to play football somewhere in college, you can go somewhere and play. And there's so many examples of small school players that make it to the NFL. Now nowadays, if if they're performing well at a smaller school, then the bigger colleges are gonna be scouting them and because of the transfer portal, they'll be able to move up to a bigger school. And So I would say to those young people, if they really, really love the game of football, don't give up. Keep playing and your time will come. Aaron: That's coming from somebody who knows. We definitely want to thank you for coming on. This has been so exciting. I we could keep ya all next couple days here telling us these stories. I would not get tired of them. But we do appreciate your time. All of this has been fantastic. of course, anytime. Taylor: It's been fun. Thanks for having me. Ryan: Yeah, thank you. Aaron: So, listeners, keep up with the Rams this year. Know that all the hard work that went into the background is going to show up here. So we are excited. Thank you again. And listeners, you have to keep up with us next week as we come back, keep talking about college football. So, make sure you follow the links in the description, engage with all the content that we're putting out. All of that helps for those that do. Thank you. For those that will, thank you as well. So Until next week. Taylor: Thank you guys. Ryan: Sorry, they make me do that. Yep. Thank you. Aaron: Mm-hmm.