The top three quarterbacks selected in the 2017 NFL Draft are in the news for very different reasons these days.

Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes (No. 10 in 2017 out of Texas Tech) is seen as the model for all others, a young riser who could rewrite the NFL record books. Chicago’s Mitch Trubisky (No. 2 out of North Carolina) is at a crossroads, with his team furiously trying to find a passer this offseason and his future with the Bears in doubt. Houston’s Deshaun Watson (No. 12, from Clemson) is seen as one of the most gifted young quarterbacks in the game, but his days with the Texans may be numbered.

This week in the Best Player Available Podcast, I had the chance to talk to former Bills GM Doug Whaley, who held the No. 27 pick in that draft that year. He knew there was very little chance any of the three would slide to Buffalo, but he and his staff had done extensive work on all three. I knew I would be remiss if I didn’t ask how the Bills saw each of them. Here’s Doug’s comments on each of them.

On Patrick Mahomes: “Now let’s think about it. Name one other quarterback that comes out of that Air Raid system that has had success. When you look at him, did he put his team on his back and carry them to a highly successful season? I think he won eight games the last year. We won’t even talk about the coach that had Kyler Murray, Mahomes and Baker Mayfield and never won over eight games. So, you had the system, the lack of really good success, the lack of the ability to put the team on his back and carry them to a successful season . . . and then, he had some gunslinger in him, and could that translate to the NFL? So there were some dings on him. Now, everybody says . . . I talked to Jim Monos (years later), who was our Director of Player Personnel at the time, ‘we passed on Michael Jordan.’ Absolutely. But that does not give credit enough to the plan Kansas City had for him. Do I think Mahomes could be as good as he is today (in another system)? Yes. Do I think it could have happened as quickly in another situation? That’s the million dollar question. If he goes somewhere else, does he develop as quickly as he did in Kansas City? I think a lot of people are not crediting Kansas City’s plan for him and giving more credit to Mahomes as a player. And I’m not knocking his talent and his skill at all. Let me make that clear. He was a talented, skilled player. But he went to an unbelievable situation to accelerate his maturation as a quarterback. . . If you look at it, look at Andy Reid’s offense, and how it has changed since Mahomes took over. Not the same offense he had with Donovan McNabb. Not the same offense he had with Alex Smith. So there’s that part of it — ‘sit behind Alex and learn how to be a pro first.’ And there’s not other quarterback that . . . you can debate (Smith’s) skill level, but his preparation and his attacking the profession as a quarterback . . . Alex Smith, (there could be) no better mentor. He got that piece. Then you have a head coach and an offensive staff that say, ‘let’s stop making this quarterback fit to what we want to do? Why don’t we fit our scheme to what he can do best? All of that plays into it, so you have to tip your cap to Andy Reid and the plan they had.”

On Mitch Trubisky: “Where we really struggled was that, if he was gonna be that high of a pick, and he only started one year, it wasn’t like he was sitting behind a first-round pick, so why wasn’t he able to elevate his game to take over that starting position earlier in his career? So that was a red flag. And then, when you sat down with him . . .  he (didn’t) have that boisterous ‘it factor’ that when you’re around those QBs that are ultimate leaders, guys that raise everybody else around them to another level, where they look him and like, I have to be on point because I know he’s on point. That didn’t come through. Those were the two major things. All the stuff on the field, we said, ‘OK, he’s got something to work with. He does have an upside.’ But you have to look at the total resume, and there were some very big question marks that in our thought processes didn’t warrant (being picked) as high as he got picked. We had him probably in the second round. That’s what we thought. As a second-round pick, we would have loved him. . . But I can’t trash the Bears. Ryan Pace is still employed and I’m not (laughs).”

On Deshaun Watson: “The biggest struggle we had with Deshaun Watson, and if you look at his stats, he had 17 picks his last year, but what was more alarming than the number of picks, was the number of picks in the red zone. That’s where we struggled with him a lot, and you can throw picks, but throwing picks in red zone are momentum -changers, game-changers. Those are . . . possibly 14-point swings that can happen. If you throw a pick and they score, that’s a possible seven that you had, plus the seven that they made, so those 14-point swings . . . those are sometimes tough to overcome. That’s why we struggled with him. And we had him at the bottom of the first/top of the second. But that was the biggest knock that we had on him. (His championship-level experience) is why we had him at the bottom of the first/early second. We obviously had him over Trubisky, but (the red zone interceptions) was that red flag. . . Can he overcome those? Those are those things that, in our opinion, you start trying too hard to make that play, and that’s that double-edged sword. . . How do you curb it where it stops the bad plays but you keep it for the good plays? That was tricky. So that was one of those things that we were concerned about.”

Doug is exceptionally well-spoken and has interesting things to say about the profession of scouting as well as what he thought about several players in the draft that year, including Leonard Fournette, Marshon Lattimore, Myles Garrett and several others. If you’ve already tuned in to former Titans executive Blake Beddingfield (Episode 1) and former 49ers scout Bob Morris (Episode 2), you know these are incredible opportunities to look behind the curtain. I hope you’ll tune in.

As you may know, we debuted our second of 10 episodes of the Best Player Available Podcast Tuesday. This week’s edition featured former 49ers area scout Bob Morris, who talked about why the NFL failure of Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel might have cost Texas Tech’s Patrick Mahomes a few draft slots; why he loved LSU’s Jamal Adams but had issues with Michigan’s Jabrill Peppers; and why Texas A&M’s Myles Garrett was “an easy 8.0” and a “don’t think twice” slam dunk at No. 1 overall.

Here are a few things I found interesting from this week’s podcast.

• There were six cornerbacks that went in the first 33 picks that year, but did they go how Bob would have picked them? Not exactly. He ranked Ohio State’s Marshon Lattimore as his top cornerback, followed by LSU’s Tre’Davious White (“I like corners with good instincts. . . he’s an exceptional player and a player I loved to watch play”). Alabama’s Marlon Humphrey was No. 3 (he had him in the second round), followed by USC’s Adoree Jackson (“more athlete than corner”) and Ohio State’s Gareon Conley. Florida’s Quincy Wilson (No. 46, Colts) was his sixth corner. For the record, the draft order was Lattimore (No. 11, New Orleans), Humphrey (No. 16, Ravens), Jackson (No. 18, Titans), Conley (No. 24, Raiders), White (No. 27, Bills) and Washington’s Kevin King (No. 33, Packers).
• I learned plenty just hearing Bob talk about how he evaluates cornerbacks and safeties. Though he still continues himself coach first, scout second, and values a player’s on-field production over what he does on his pro day, I thought this quote was particularly interesting: “No. 1, as a scout, you need to grade (a defensive back) on how he plays and his traits, regardless of scheme. That’s the first thing you have to do. You got to get the scheme out of it. As a coach, that’s hard for me at times. The corners playing at Alabama, they’re coached really well, you know they play in the scheme really well, so are some physical traits hidden at times? Haha Clinton-Dix, we aren’t talking about safeties, but he was a guy that played so efficiently as a safety at Alabama (that) it hid a very adequate skill-set, and he really was an OK safety in the NFL. You’ve gotta look at the traits. You’ve gotta look at the way they move.”
• Another point that Bob made was that interception totals and big plays are not coincidental, but a part of a player’s DNA.: “That’s really important to me as I look at guys is their ball production. There’s a reason a guy has a bunch of interceptions, and there’s a reason he doesn’t. A three-year starter with one interception, there’s a reason. A guy that gets seven interceptions as a one-year starter, that’s good. That’s a playmaker. I had a secondary coach tell me a long time ago that he can’t teach playmaking. He can teach a guy to tackle. He can’t teach playmaking. That’s something that’s inherent in the player. Now, you can coach them up to get them into position to make the play, but eventually, he’s gotta see it and he’s gotta believe in himself to go make that play.”

If you don’t listen to my conversation with Bob, as well as the first episode of the series with Blake Beddingfield, you’re really missing out. I encourage you to check them out.

The 12th annual Hound Talint Inside the League Seminar presented by Magnolia Capital Partners is just a few hours away, and I’m super-excited about this year’s event, for a number of reasons. One reason, of course, is that I’m glad we’re even having it given the challenges (no combine, etc.). Two, I’m really excited about our award-winners this year. But the third reason is, I’m excited about my address to wrap things up tonight. Here are a few thoughts on what you’ll see and hear tonight on the NFL Draft Bible on Sports Illustrated Twitch channel.

If you tune in (8 p.m. ET, https://www.twitch.tv/nfldraftbible), and you’re interested in the scouting industry, I think you’ll see and hear information that you won’t find anywhere else. People always ask me what NFL scouts make, and I used to wonder that myself. Well, tonight, after my closing remarks, you won’t wonder any longer. About a quarter of the active NFL scouting community (and growing) responds to our survey annually, and we’re starting to get a good idea of what pay looks like. It’s an honor to provide this service to the NFL evaluation family. We look at each segment of scouting, based on four tiers (0-5 years, 6-10 years, 11-15 and 16+). If you’re an NFL scout and you wonder if you’re making what your brethren make, you’ll wonder no more after tonight. What’s more, if you have questions about the information I’ll be presenting, ask me. One of the exciting aspects of Twitch is that you can send questions as we go, so it will be fully interactive, and I encourage you to let me know if you need more information while we’re under way.

We’ll also hand out awards. As you know, for the fourth year, we’ve commissioned active NFL scouts to vote on which team did best on draft day last spring, and we’ll hand the Best Draft Award for 2020 to the personnel director of that winning team. That will be fun, and it’s gratifying to offer that “job well done” to a team executive each year, because they rarely get any positive feedback when things go right. We’ve also got the Eugene E. Parker Award for lifetime achievement in the agent industry, and the C.O. Brocato Award for service to the scouting industry. Once again, these awards will go to the overshadowed stars of the game. Maybe the coolest aspect of things is that Eugene Parker’s son, an established NFL agent in his own right, will present the award, while Becky Brocato, C.O.’s daughter, will hand out the prize that has her father’s name on it. Quite an honor for me.

It’s disappointing that we won’t all be able to gather together in the Indiana Convention Center to do this, like we normally do. On the other hand, it’s exciting that we will be able to bring the seminar, the honors, and the information to a much wider audience, as it happens, courtesy of Ric Serritella and his team at NFL Draft Bible, as well as our two great sponsors, Hound Talint and Barry Ozer of Magnolia Capital Partners. 

Make sure to join us here. If you’re interested in the football industry, you won’t want to miss this. See you tonight.

If there’s one question I always get from young people who love the game, it’s, “how do I become a scout?” Most often, they want to get into scouting because their ultimate goal is to be a GM. Shoot, I can relate. That was once my ambition, as well. 

With that in mind, I decided to look at the men hired this cycle. There’s no better gauge of what NFL teams are looking for than to look at who they hired. Five years ago, we took a detailed look at who was getting hired at the position, and found that teams sought people less than 50; with Patriots experience; and who had been around, but not necessarily a very long time.  

So what’s the profile of this season’s GM hires? Let’s take an alphabetical look at them.

Trent Baalke, Jaguars 

• Age: 56
• First NFL experience: 1998, Jets pro scout
• Prior GM experience: 49ers, 2011-2016
• Background: Baalke’s rise to the job in San Francisco, followed by his assumption of  the role in Jacksonville, has been pretty traditional. He’s got some pro experience with the Jets when he started out, but he’s mostly held a series of college scouting jobs since.

Nick Caserio, Texans

• Age: 45
• First NFL experience: 2001, Patriots personnel assistant
• Prior GM experience: None
• Background: Caserio is unique because he’s so well-rounded. Between being hired in New England in 2001 and taking over as Director of Player Personnel in 2008, he was an entry-level scout, an entry-level coach and an area scout for one year each. Then he was pro director for three seasons before jumping all the way to DPP, where he’d been for 13 seasons.

Scott Fitterer, Panthers

• Age: 47
• First NFL experience: 1998, Giants part-time scout
• Prior GM experience: None
• Background: Like Baalke, Fitterer followed an exclusively college scouting path as he climbed the ladder. Obviously, he’s had pro experience in his more recent senior roles in Seattle, but the lion’s share of his career has been on the college side. 

Terry Fontenot, Falcons

• Age: 40
• First NFL experience: 2003, Saints marketing intern
• Prior GM experience: None
• Background: Fontenot is unusual because he’s been exclusively on the pro side during his climb. Naturally, no scout does only college or pro, but he’s been decidedly more pointed toward pro scouting. He’s not unprecedented, though, as Bears GM Ryan Pace and former Lions GM Bob Quinn are two similar examples of pro-oriented hires.

Brad Holmes, Lions

• Age: 41
• First NFL experience: 2003, Rams public relations intern
• Prior GM experience: None
• Background: This is a hire I’m excited about, because Holmes is a scout’s scout. He’s done plenty of ‘road warrior’ work, all on the college side, moving from scouting assistant to combine scout to area, then national, scout. That’s the route most people perceive as the road to the GM chair, though it’s less and less likely to be true.

Martin Mayhew, Washington

• Age: 55
• First NFL experience: 1999, Redskins personnel intern
• Prior GM experience: Lions, 2008-2015
• Background: Mayhew has seen all sides of the game, having played in the NFL, served with the XFL in its first iteration, served as a cap guy, and worked for three organizations, gathering plenty of personnel experience with a team (49ers) that went to the Super Bowl last year. 

George Paton, Broncos 

• Age: 50
• First NFL experience: 1997, Bears scouting intern
• Prior GM experience: None
• Background: Paton, like Fontenot, has spent the majority of his career on the pro side. On the other hand, he’s spent more than a decade in a DPP role, so he’s gotten plenty of time on the college side, as well. That’s one reason he was seen as one of the most prepared candidates on the market. 

Conclusion: I like it when people who’ve paid their dues are rewarded, and we’ve seen that during this hiring cycle. We’ve also seen a refreshing respect for age; though Holmes and Fontenot are barely out of their 30s, the idea that no one past 45 gets hired is dead, at least for now. Here’s hoping all seven enjoy successful runs.