This week, the Scouting the League Podcast guest is Ben Standig, who has his own Substack covering the Commanders (Last Man Standig, which is an awesome title). We spent most of our time on his recently posted 2026 Agent Survey, and as often happens, when we were done, there was a lot more I wanted to cover. Here are a few thoughts on his recent post.

  • One of the questions Ben asks is, who is the league’s best talent evaluator? Because he only polls a select number of NFL agents, no one gets a groundswell of support. Seahawks GM John Schneider (four votes) and Rams GM Les Snead (two votes) lead the way, but 18 others get votes. Both have the respect of their peers (as well as a Best Draft Award for each), so no arguments there. However, I found the remaining 18 interesting. Of the 18, nine are GMs or de facto GMs (Dallas’ Will McClay and New England’s Eliot Wolf), plus one other former GM. However, there are also a few up-and-comers that caught my eye.
  • His question, ‘who is a future GM to watch?,’ yielded six executives who got two votes each. Again, there were a whole lot more (11) who got at least one mention. For what it’s worth, two of those who got two votes are former BART List winners (James Liipfert of the Texans and Terrance Gray of the Bills). It’s no surprise that of the 11, nine are from perennial playoff teams, and two (Jeff King of the Bears and Lance Newmark of the Commanders) are with teams who made the postseason at least once in the last two years. You can be the best in the biz, but if your team doesn’t win, don’t expect other teams to come looking to hire you.
  • Schneider and Philadelphia’s Howie Roseman tied for top GM (seven votes each). Once again, no surprises on either one, though I get the sense from the comments that Schneider would be a lot more popular at happy hour than Roseman. If there’s a surprise, among the ones with multiple votes (there were only four), Denver’s George Paton finished fourth. There was a lot of speculation that he might get moved out when Sean Payton got to town, but I am glad he is getting his due among people who know. He’s another one whose team has won a Best Draft Award, and like Schneider, he gets high marks for likability, as well. Obviously, you don’t have to be likable to win, but it’s also not prohibitive if you are.

If you love the “inside” of the game and track what’s going on in NFL front offices, I highly recommend Ben’s recent piece. It really gives you a sense of what’s going on in the buildings. and I’m always up for hearing informed opinions.