Checking Out New Tech on the Gridiron

01 Friday Sep 2017

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Courtesy of NFLDraftBible’s Ric Serritella, here are a couple of notes related to new technology and innovations that are being used by NFL and college teams and their fans.

QBs meet VR: As virtual reality continues to trickle into mainstream sports and figures out its identity, behind the scenes, it has become a great learning tool for quarterbacks. Since the new NFL collecting bargaining agreement in 2011, the difficulty for quarterbacks who want to develop during the offseason has increased. So how do some teams overcompensate? With virtual reality.

Roughly 25% of the league subscribes to STRVR technology, which allows players to have the ability to put on a headset and instantly have a 360-degree view of the field. The extra mental reps allow them to break down different coverages and blitzes without having to put on a helmet. Such technology is even being introduced at premier combine prep facilities, such as IMG Football in Bradenton, Fla.

“It’s a new tool, there’s probably seven or eight teams using it [VR],” said Bears head coach John Fox to reporters last month. “With our newness at quarterback, whether it’s Mitchell [Trubisky], Mark [Sanchez] or Mike [Glennon] it’s just getting reps that other guys don’t.”

At the GeekWire Sports Tech Summit in June, San Francisco 49ers president Al Guido spoke to the technology’s importance. “How do you reduce the hits but yet not reduce the amount of time someone can practice their craft? So knowing someone can put a VR machine on and get real, live, what in football we call ‘reps,’ without taking those hits, was, we thought, advantageous,” he said.

One of the most impressive players during the preseason has been 49ers rookie quarterback C.J. Beathard, who swears by the new VR technology and says he reviews over 1,000+ players during a single week using the headsets.

“You only get limited reps in practice, but you’re able to watch through virtual reality, essentially every rep in practice – all of Brian [Hoyer]’s and Matt [Barkley]’s and go back and watch mine, and kind of play things out in your head as you watch practice,” Beathard told NBC Sports Bay Area.

SOCIAL MEDIA INVADING THE LIVE-STREAM MARKET

With the evolution of how we digest media, the live-streaming network Stadium is out to meet consumer demand for more live-stream sporting events on social media.

In consecutive days, they announced a partnership with both Facebook and Twitter to stream exclusive broadcasts of college football games. The move creates tremendous new opportunity for online advertising revenue, while shaping the course of the live-stream broadcast industry.

Stadium will carry a 15-game lineup with nine Conference USA match-ups and six games from the Mountain West Conference. Custom-produced broadcasts will introduce uniquely coordinated production assets and social elements to create a first-time-ever viewing experience. Elements include: live curated chat experiences from well-known and well-respected football personalities; a dedicated social production team and correspondents; and ongoing integration of real-time social elements provided by the competing schools.

In addition, Stadium hopes to drive traffic back to its linear network WatchStadium.com, where sports fans are able to watch an additional 2,500+ college games. This lineup includes football, men’s and women’s basketball, lacrosse, and volleyball events from conferences such as the Mountain West, West Coast Conference, Patriot League, Conference USA and Southern Conference, the company says.

Look for this to become a growing trend in all sports. In a recent Morning Consult poll, 37% of adults said they’d be more inclined to watch college football games if a social media company such as Facebook were to live-stream them. The number for the NFL was even higher at 47%, with 60% of men and 58% of people aged 18 to 29 more likely to watch a football game on social media.

The network will run 24 hours a day, broadcasting live and on-demand games, highlights, classic games, as well as original and daily live studio programming. These streams will be available via the @WatchStadium Twitter account, as well as Stadium’s own website and the streaming service Pluto TV. The action kicks off Saturday with Miami (OH)/Marshall at 6:30 p.m.

*Be sure to check back for more technology news and how it is changing the football landscape!

On NFLPA Exam Results, Our Practice Baseball Exam, a New Book and More

25 Friday Aug 2017

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While we prepare for Hurricane Harvey here in West Houston, here are a few thoughts to wrap the week.

  • The NFLPA sent out results from the 2017 contract advisor exam Thursday. For agents, there’s no better time than draft day when players get to realize their dreams. For me, ‘results day’ is my draft day, because I get to hear from so many newly minted contract advisors. So far, we’ve heard from about 15 people with good news (some of it on Twitter) and a couple with bad. Of course, that’s a fraction of the people who used our resources, but it’s a good sign. Exciting stuff.
  • Speaking of exams, our practice baseball agent exam is up and running. For those people planning to becoming MLBPA-certified, it’s worth a try. And this year, as we debug this thing, it’s FREE! What have you got to lose? All we ask is that you give us fair feedback on how our exam compared to the real one. The test will next be offered Wednesday in New York City.
  • The word ‘enigma’ is thrown around a lot, but the word was really invented with Al Davis in mind. That’s why a book about the former Raiders owner is something I’m really excited about. Al Davis: Behind the Raiders Shield is coming in September, and it’s already getting some positive buzz in major places. It’s co-written by a longtime friend, Jon Kingdon, who got washed out when Davis died and the new regime came in. Jon was Director of College Scouting under Davis, who was not your average owner who makes the big-picture decisions and leaves the details to others. I’m a firm believer that if you know history, you know the future. Reading about Davis, who was such a factor in the AFL merger as well as the key subsequent decisions in the life of the league, should be incredibly insightful.
  • One thing that we’re going to try to focus on more at Inside the League is developing trends, especially as it comes to new technology. With that in mind, I’ve asked my friend Ric Serritella of NFL Draft Bible to help find interesting items to pass along. Not only does Ric have a very thorough eye for talent (he helps assemble the rosters for the College Gridiron Showcase and puts out a widely respected draft guide every year), but he’s also a wizard of video production (he has filmed and produced the last two ITL Combine Seminars for our YouTube channel. In other words, he’s perfectly placed at the intersection of football and hi-tech. One thing he turned me onto this week is the new Los Angeles Sports & Entertainment Complex, which will be shared by the Chargers and Rams. Located in Inglewood, Calif., the $2.6M sports entertainment district is scheduled to open in 2020 and spreads over 298-acres (three and a half times the size of Disneyland). Fans will be able to see the action from just about anywhere; it will include 70,000 seats, will be open-air, and will feature an oval-shaped, dual-sided Oculus jumbotron that will stretch 120 yards. The compound will also house 2,500 modern residences, 300 hotel rooms, 890,000 square feet of retail space, 25 acres of public parks and a 6,000-seat performing arts venue. While naming rights have yet to be sold, 125 of the 260 luxury suites have been made available—they include all Chargers and Rams home games, in addition to the right of first refusal to all other events. The LA Sports and Entertainment Complex is scheduled to host Super Bowl LVI in February 2022 and the opening ceremonies of the 2028 Olympics. To view a virtual tour of what some are calling the eighth wonder of the world, click here.

Introducing the ITL Baseball Agent Practice Exam

17 Thursday Aug 2017

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If you’re reading this, you probably already know that, at Inside the League, we try to help the football professional succeed at his trade. That’s whether you’re an agent, trainer, financial advisor, coach, scout, marketing professional, parent of a player, player or anyone else associated with the game.

Our help for some people starts before they are even officially part of the game. For example, you’ve probably heard about our practice exam for NFL agent hopefuls. You might also have seen our short video on it. Maybe you’re even sick of hearing about it. But the bottom line is, for seven years, we’ve been helping people get ready for one of the tougher written exams in sports (it has a less than 50 percent passage rate). Say what you will about the NFLPA (and we’ve said plenty), but the players association takes its certification of contract advisors seriously.

Perhaps as a tip of the cap to the NFL, Major League Baseball recently started testing its would-be agents, as well. In fact, in just about 10 days (Aug. 30), the MLBPA will offer one of its two annual testing dates. Two tests will be offered: a General Certification exam with 50 questions and a Limited Certification exam with 40 questions. Applicants will have up to three hours to complete either exam. The test is open-book (though no electronic devices will be allowed), and will be preceded on Aug. 29 by a seminar introducing the basic concepts to be tested, a la the NFLPA exam.

For the first time, this year, we’re offering a practice exam for those fine folks who’ll be  trying their hand at MLB certification. Our test has 30 questions, and it’s written by someone who recently took (and passed) the exam, so it’s authentic. Still, it’s new, so it’s not nearly as polished as our time-tested football agent exam. As such, there are still a few trims and edits we have to do, and those who complete it won’t yet have access to the same explanation of how we arrived at the answers (though that’s coming later).

Still, we feel it will be helpful for everyone taking it, and the best part of all is that, for the next couple weeks, it’s totally free. Of course, there are caveats. If you take us up on our offer, we’ll ask you for a little feedback on our exam before (and after) you take the actual test in New York. Our aim, as always, is a seamless practice test that gives you a much better chance to pass than others, as our football exam does (our passage rate is about 70 percent, vs. about 45 percent for the at-large test-taking population). We’re not going to pester you and not going to spam you — just a few questions about how we did, before and after, is all we ask.

Ready to sign up? Register here. Make sure not to make your username and password too crazy or long (for some reason, our database prefers five characters or less, and hates the # character). Once you get to the pay wall, you’re done — just drop us an email (nstratton at insidetheleague dot com) to let us know. Since there’s no payment protocol set up, we won’t get a notification otherwise. Then we’ll activate you, and you’ll be ready to go.

Sound fair? We hope so. It’s all part of our efforts to not only help people succeed in football, but succeed in sports. Good luck!

NFL Success: The Formula, or At Least Our Theory

07 Monday Aug 2017

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On Tuesday, I’ll be talking to a small group of business leaders from around Houston. The friend who asked me to speak, a wealth manager from a major firm here in the Bayou City, asked me to talk a little bit about what I do, and a little bit about the coming season, the Texans, etc.

Here’s a confession: I always get a little nervous when I’m speaking for a general crowd, i.e., mostly fans. If I’m talking to agents, scouts, financial advisors, parents of players, or anyone who’s already in the game, that’s my wheelhouse. We speak the same language, and I think I can provide them with something helpful. For people who just want to talk about the game, I’m a little less certain about things.

In thinking about what to present, I decided I’d try to discuss my theory on the keys to success in the NFL and apply it to the Texans. The beauty of this topic is that it can be applied to most any team. I’ve set this up to basically determine a team’s chances of making the playoffs, because I think winning the Super Bowl is a function of so many things (team health, how hot the team is over the last month of the season, relative strength of teams in your conference, etc.). If you can pinpoint a team’s chances of making the playoffs, to me, you’ve got a pretty good indicator of what kind of organization you have.

Anyway, in my estimation, here are the five elements that lead directly to NFL success, and their relative importance.

Quarterback (team leader, leader of offense): 25 percent – I was texting with a scout recently who was sharply critical of the Patriots’ college scouting record and methods, and in gest, I responded that their philosophy only works if you have Tom Brady as your quarterback. Actually, that’s true of almost every team. If you have an elite QB, it’s like you’re halfway home. It certainly covers for a lot of mistakes.

Rest of roster (football IQ, athleticism, fit to system): 25 percent – At the end of the day, players play. Others get fired when they don’t play well enough, but it’s the success of the players that determines everything else. If you have a ‘C’ coach and an ‘A’ roster, you can win. The reverse is not necessarily true, certainly not long-term.

Owner (commitment to winning, stadium, control/delegation): 10 percent – You may disagree with Jerry Jones’ style, or his ego, or whatever, but you can’t question his commitment to winning, the team’s stadium and practice facility, and his willingness to make tough decisions. Obviously, not all his decisions have worked out, but he’s not ben afraid to make them.

GM (head coach selection, management of draft, management of cap, head coach accountability): 25 percent – Here I’m assuming this is the traditional GM who has total control of the draft and hiring a head coach. I know this model is going away, but I think it’s the best way. In fact, I debated over making the GM 30 or 35 percent. This is why the Dave Gettleman and John Dorsey firings are, to me, incredibly big mistakes.

Head coach (selection of staff, game manager, fits system to talent, player accountability): 15 percent – There are plenty who’d say the head coach is the most important part of the team, and we’re seeing that realized in their salaries, but I think the ‘genius’ coach is mostly a function of his players.

This is my theory. Am I right? Am I wrong? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter.

 

Are NFL Scouts Becoming a Thing of the Past?

04 Friday Aug 2017

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We’ve been exploring a scouting-related theme in this space for the last few months, and it has to do with the value and relevance of traditional, on-the-road area scouts (also known as college scouts). More precisely, we’ve indirectly asked the question, are  scouts becoming a thing of the past?

A few developments over the last month-plus put a finer point on our question. First of all, two classic evaluation-style GMs, John Dorsey in Kansas City and Dave Gettleman in Carolina, were let go. You could argue (and I believe) they were two of the top five general managers in the game.

Shortly after that, the Packers, one of the most stable and well-respected teams in the league, shifted several of their seasoned evaluators to the pro side and replaced them with first- and second-year scouts.

As we’ve done previously this summer, we went to Angry Scouting Veteran and Angry Scout 2 for candor and opinion without compromise. Both made good points.

Angry Scouting Veteran made several good points in a lengthy take. I won’t run it out completely here (it’s pretty extensive), but his main points, in his own words, were:

  • “Some guys view moving from college to pro scouting as a way to go home every night as opposed to being on the road.”
  • “Other guys view pro scouting as a quicker way to move up the ladder towards GM because you’re in the office, around people at the top level, and learning/working in other elements that college guys aren’t around or don’t have time for.”
  • “John Wojciechowski is a great guy, very highly respected in the scouting community, and has deserved some kind of opportunity for advancement for quite some time now. He has a young family and between he and the Packers brass, they both most likely agreed that this was the best move for his career and his family.”
  • “I’ve also heard that (Packers GM) Ted Thompson detests change, so moving up younger guys who were already in the program to road scout roles was another logical move for him.”

He also went on to decry the idea of eliminating road scouts, and his hopes that this isn’t a trend. Obviously, I heartily agree with both sentiments.

Angry Scout 2 was less certain about the Packers’ motivations, but was willing to believe the team wanted to reward some young people Thompson sees as rising stars. On the other hand, he sees some deference to trends, as well.

  • “Remember there are people in the NFL who want a “yes” man and to feel their scouts will just go with what they think. Maybe Green Bay did some favors or perhaps they know these people are good scouts. . . You never want a staff entirely of people over 50 (and) it’s good to have a mix.”
  • “If (the Packers) do what they use to, then the new scouts are good. I know their NFS scout has always seemed to be pretty good the last 10 years.”
  • “People are gravitating to analytics. They see how it’s a crapshoot no matter how good the scout is, and they want older scouts out because younger people are more likely to accept analytics.”
  • “One theory I have is that people see (New England). They are killing it on pro side but very average on the draft. They want experience in pro.”

 

The 2017 NFLPA Agent Exam: The Post-Mortem

24 Monday Jul 2017

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I spent the better part of the last three days talking to people who took the agent exam last Friday in Washington, D.C. Here’s what I’ve gathered.

  • Anyone expecting the NFLPA to take a little off its fastball had to be disappointed. There were no true/false questions, and the questions were said to be even longer than last year (more than one person described most questions as ‘wordy). “There were a few pages with only 2-3 questions on the page,” texted one agent hopeful. “Every question was a paragraph,” wrote another.
  • What’s more, the hard questions started at the beginning, whereas we’d been telling people for weeks to focus on the last 20 questions, where the real meat of the test started last year.
  • In addition, though we tried to focus on time management with everyone we worked with (about a third to half of the people who took the exam for the first time), several people barely finished on time (or didn’t).
  • Finally, the questions weren’t arranged in ‘blocks’ this time. Unlike the last couple years, “it seemed that the questions were random, as in certain topics were not grouped together,” according to one test-taker. Oh, well. Back to the drawing board.
  • Two agent hopefuls told me there was a discrepancy with one of the questions, and several people made the NFLPA aware of it. If this is true, I’d expect that question gets tossed. Maybe that makes the test one question easier for everyone.
  • Apparently the NFLPA has found a new way to grade the exams, as they told everyone to expect results within about two weeks, instead of 6-8 weeks. That’s good news as long as the players association continues to curve the results. I don’t have any reason to think they won’t have one. I’ve had probably a dozen agents ask me how much the curve will benefit test-takers, and exactly what total one needs to pass. It’s impossible to tell.
  • Word continues to get out on our practice exam and study guide. One person said the two people he sat next to and hung out with in D.C. also used our resources. That’s a good feeling. And next year, we’ll be even more prepared to help would-be agents. We’re hoping to add a second complete practice exam next year, and we hope to sharpen up our current one, as well.
  • While we’re at it, we’re also working on a practice exam for the MLBPA exam, which will be offered next month and next year (twice annually).

If you don’t mind the indulgence, I’d like to close with a few final words, all unsolicited, from our clients.

  • “Hey Neil. Just wanted to say thanks for your help on this process. The review really helped me prepare for the seminar and for the most part the seminar was just a review. I feel really confident that I passed the exam.”
  • “(Test was) cake. Was far easier than I anticipated.”
  • “You provided helpful tools for me for an important task. I appreciate your services.”
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It’s (Still) Not Too Late

17 Monday Jul 2017

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Sunday and today, I’ve been exchanging emails with an attorney who feels woefully unprepared for Friday’s NFLPA exam in Washington, D.C. Based on our exchange, I got the impression she felt she had passed the point of no return on her procrastination, and was headed for a very difficult time in D.C. My message to her was, and is, that it’s not too late.

If you’re an agent hopeful who’s in a similar plight, this is my message to you, as well.

If you read this blog regularly, you know we’ve got a practice agent exam on our site, as well as a study guide we can provide, each of them with a $150 (plus tax) price point. You also know we’ve been offering these for several years, and that our rate of passing (about 70 percent) is 25 points higher than the passing rate of the population at large. At the same time, maybe you’re not sold on these resources as especially valuable. If so, check out these testimonials, all received within the last month, none of them solicited.

  • “Thank you for everything during the test process, I really appreciate it and look forward to working with you after the test.”
  • “Really grateful that I found ITL.  Not sure if I will be able to master enough of this material by next week but ITL is certainly helping.”
  • “I have appreciated these testimonials and the practice exam has been very helpful.”
  • “Just wanted to let you know I really appreciate the information you provide that can’t be found anywhere else.  It is an invaluable resource for guys who are crunched for time.”
  • “A note to say that ITL has made my life a lot easier. I appreciate the work you put into it.”
  • “I don’t know you from Adam (pun), but brother you’re on top of your Shi— 🙂  I love that!”
  • “Thank you for being the only true resource on the web to find useful information pertaining to the world of agents, financial advisors, scouts, etc.  The tools and resources you’ve created with ITL have so far been extremely helpful.”
  • “I appreciate your help.  You’re amazing. Always stay the Legend that you are!”

I quibble with the ‘legend’ description (sorta), but you get the point.

On the other hand, maybe you have questions about the practice exam. If so, check out this video we recently commissioned. It’s kinda cool, and I think you’ll find it helpful. Our tweet containing this video garnered us a positive RT or two.

We’ve even got a newsletter series that has dozens of testimonials from agents who took the test over the past two years, and have passed along their recommendations on what they did to pass it since the NFLPA really ramped up the difficulty of the exam. We’ll be happy to send that as a third resource to anyone who uses either of our other two; dozens of agent hopefuls have already been receiving it for the past couple months.

Still have questions? Hit us up. Happy to field all of them. I promise, you don’t need to be afraid of us, and we won’t spam you.

Still not sold? No problem. Even so, I wish you the best of luck. At Inside the League, for as long as we are around, we will be hoping everyone succeeds in football.

A Conversation with Angry Scouting Veteran (Pt. 5)

10 Monday Jul 2017

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Today, we get a little more specific about the scouting industry by digging into the services that set the table for each draft the summer beforehand. We asked Angry Scouting Veteran (@AngryScout) his take on National Football Scouting and BLESTO, two services that are an integral (if mostly unknown) part of the business.

BLESTO and National are accepted parts of the scouting landscape. What are the strengths and weaknesses of using a scouting service? Do teams rely on them too much? Does the services’ reliance on mostly young scouts affect the validity of their work?

“BLESTO and National are not only accepted, but to me a VITAL part of the scouting process. To me, if a team isn’t using one, then they’re 1) cheap, 2) don’t understand the process, and/or 3) should be paying their scouts double, because they are doing two jobs. Using a scouting service is worth it, if for nothing else than to get a baseline on character and medical information. If a team relies on their combine info too much, it’s their own fault. If there are people in leadership roles that know what they are doing, then they realize that using a combine provides the baseline/initial look in the process, and that the information is useful, but should only be valued as one ingredient in the recipe. National has a lot more teams, so they are able to provide more in-depth coverage, given that their scouts have much smaller areas than their BLESTO counterparts. BLESTO is more of a family business, National is more corporate, but at the end of the day it’s like Nike or Adidas. They’re doing the same thing. It’s all a matter of what environment you prefer or what you are using the service for the most.

“A combine scout is young and entry-level; that’s fine, again, as long as the people running the teams who are in the services understand the purpose of being in a combine. A combine scout’s jobs, in order, are to surface prospects, provide as much information about those prospects as possible, and to grow as talent evaluators. If you are a GM and you’re concerned about what the combine scout’s grades are — other than those being the starting point for how many exposures you need at each school — then you don’t have a clue what you are doing, and you shouldn’t be a GM.

“Our scouting process really begins in May at a combine spring meeting. That’s where each combine scout presents all of the work that he’s done in the spring while the rest of us are getting ready for the draft. It’s unreasonable to ask area scouts to do this advance work, and it’s also disrespectful to remove them from the draft process to do so. The draft is a scout’s game day, and not allowing us to finish that entire process and be involved in the “big game” is like asking an Olympic athlete to train all year long but then not letting them in the stadium for the opening ceremonies or permitting them to compete. If you want to be stubborn (and cheap) and not use a combine, fine, then pay your scouts for two jobs, because that’s what they are doing.”

A Conversation with Angry Scouting Veteran (Pt. 4)

07 Friday Jul 2017

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Very often, scouts on the road are very different from the men they report to. For our fourth question, we asked Angry Scouting Veteran (@angryscout) if that’s something that rankles the people below the GM. It comes as no surprise that he continued to bring the heat on this and other topics related to the GM role.

Let’s say you could build the perfect GM candidate. What qualifications would he have? Can a legitimate GM candidate come from the cap side?

“I’ll work in reverse here. A successful GM can only come from the cap or business side if 1) he is very self-aware and willing to admit that he is a business guy, not a football guy; and 2) he hires very good football people, lets them do their jobs, and relies on what they say to make his decisions. Hell, 95% of the owners in the NFL don’t know jack squat about football (and that might be a generous estimate), and most of them fail because their giant egos won’t allow them to let their football people do their jobs. People can throw the dumb jock stereotypes out there all they want, but not everybody knows football, and just because you watch it, are around it, or even own a team, it doesn’t qualify you to make FOOTBLL decisions.

“As far as building a perfect GM candidate, my guy has to be a former road scout. If he isn’t, your scouting department and your team basically don’t have much of a chance. You build successful teams through the draft, and if you don’t have a guy who has been in the grass-roots role of this process, I’m sorry, but to me it’s both insulting and hopeless to think that guy can lead a team to victory. Beyond that, how about somebody who actually has LEADERSHIP skills and qualities? It is beyond bizarre to me how many people in the NFL (or in life outside the league for that matter) are in positions of leadership who have ZERO leadership skills and abilities. To be a leader, you have to realize that your primary role is to serve those under your leadership and always do what is right for all of them and the organization’s success as whole. It doesn’t mean that you have to be the smartest guy in the room at all times, and that everyone should kiss your (butt) or bow down to you; that’s not remotely what leadership is, but it’s how a lot of people in the NFL try and personify it. As far as other elements of this candidate: skilled with the media is a benefit for sure, because God knows that dealing with them can be a complete nightmare (and that many owners somehow believe that if it’s in the media, it must be true!). I’d like a guy who has been a coach, too, or at least around coaching enough to understand it. To me, you leave the business savvy up to business guys in the organization. Give me a guy who has worked his way up from a road scout position, has great leadership ability, inspires (and gives) loyalty, and is a legit FOOTBALL GUY who hires good people and lets them do the jobs he hired them to do, and everything else falls into place.

“That’s another thing the scouting community as a whole needs to have more of a voice and presence in, (and that’s with) the candidates that become GMs. Right now, you have owners who know nothing about scouting or the guys who work in it, who then turn to consultants, ex-personnel guys who usually pimp their former interns, young scouts, or anyone who has kissed their (butt). There are many highly qualified and deserving men who half the football world isn’t even made aware of because they aren’t media darlings, members of the league hype machine’s chosen ones, or kissing someone’s (butt) every day. Right now, there are area scouts who would make 10 times better GMs than quite a few guys with that fancy name plate on their desk. Believe it.”

A Conversation with Angry Scouting Veteran (Pt. 3)

06 Thursday Jul 2017

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Maybe you’re frustrated that Angry Scouting Veteran (@AngryScout) is hiding behind Twitter and should come out in the open to deliver such hot takes as the ones he offers up today. But I’ve spoken to more than one scout who feels the same way he does about the Patriots, but of course, were nowhere close to willing to being quoted. Is it sour grapes? Maybe, but the bottom line is that this is what a lot of scouts are thinking. That’s another reason why I’m glad we’ve given Angry Scouting Veteran this platform. I hope you are, too.

Here’s today’s question and answer.

The trend is to hire GMs from established ‘brands’ in the game (Patriots, Packers, Seahawks, etc.). Do you think these teams do a better job at evaluation?

“First and foremost, the Patriots system of scouting and their success at it is one of the most overrated things in the NFL. Any knowledgeable scout that isn’t a (sycophant) will tell you the same thing. The Patriots have some terrible draft picks/drafts as a whole just like everybody else. They got lucky drafting the best QB to ever play the game in the sixth round; there may have been one scout that thought that Tom Brady was as great as he’s turned out to be, and even that is doubtful, but that scout wouldn’t be given the proper credit even if it was true. When you draft a QB in the sixth round, you’re thinking he’s going to compete to be a backup, nothing more, which makes (Patriots owner) Robert Kraft a giant liar too, saying that “he knew” that Brady was destined for greatness when they drafted him and all of that crap. I’m not a fan of (Patriots head coach/GM) Bill Belichick for reasons I won’t go into here, but he’s obviously proven himself to be a very special and successful coach. Take those two guys away, and then show me how elite and superior the Patriot scouting system is. It has failed several places, and the only guys who have shown real signs of life were also educated in other places and aren’t trying to rely exclusively on a system that requires Tom Brady and Bill Belichick to succeed.

“There are teams whom I strongly respect the job that they do at evaluation, and yes, the Packers and Seahawks are two of them. Any time a team wins, it’s 100% natural for other teams to want to emulate what they do. There are certain teams year in and year out that draft consistently better than others, and that CAN lead to wins on the field. I say CAN because there are so many more things that have to fall into place for teams to be successful, but drafting well is a huge start. I’ve been with teams that drafted very good players and the coaching staffs were so bad that those players’ abilities were never maximized on the field. For organizational success, the scouting and coaching sides of things need to be on the same page, which is very difficult to do. It’s not just because of the egos involved, but coaches tend to think short-term and scouts think longer-term. I’ll fully admit that coaches aren’t given enough time to succeed, so that only makes their win-now mentality worse. I tweeted about it before, and I’ll say it again: Hall of Famers Bill Polian and Ron Wolf each won ONE Super Bowl as a GM with a one-of-a-kind, Hall of Fame, franchise QB. Either those GMs are overrated, or that should be a very clear-cut explanation of how hard it is to win championships in this league.  You can also have whatever system you want in place, but if you don’t have the right people to execute it, then it doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, you need good scouts who will stand up for what they believe in, and you need a GM who will LISTEN to those scouts. Otherwise you will not succeed.”