It’s a simple question: what makes a can’t-miss player fail?

I asked five scouts the same question, and I got a variety of responses. I expected them all to be a variation of ‘you can’t measure heart, and you have to really want it, and some players don’t,’ but it turned out to be much more than that.

Here are few responses that I got back in texts:

• “GM and Coach-driven draft pick:” I think this response was intended to illustrate that sometimes GMs want a player, but a coach doesn’t, and either the player proves to be a bad fit for the team, or the coach doesn’t give the player a sufficient chance to succeed. I’ll buy that. It’s one reason.
• “Reaching for a player because of need. You pass on a great player because you think you are good at that position, (and take) a player not worthy of that slot. You are one injury away from not having a great player at that position:” I think this makes sense, too. Florida State’s E.J. Manuel comes to mind. Despite a great series of pre-draft workouts, most scouts I know saw him in the third or fourth round. The Bills, however, badly needed a passer, and three years later, he’s barely hanging onto a roster spot. “It’s not the player’s fault he was overdrafted,” my friend added.
• “There’s not a single reason. Each player — hits and misses — is unique:” I expected to get this answer from several sources, but most scouts were more specific.
• “The No. 1 thing is they can’t play at the mental speed of the pro game. The complexity of the pro game . . . they’re not able to handle the mental pressure that is applied by having to play so much faster. It’s so much more complicated. You have to watch tape. If guys are slow reactors on the field .. . if QBs hold the ball too long, and don’t see progressions, and don’t let the ball go, they’re never gonna do it in pro ball. If a lineman can’t see the blitz, and doesn’t pass off well on stunts, there’s no way he’ll do it in pro football. You get all these wonderful measurables added up, and a coach will say, “we can fix it.” Most of the time you can’t. It’s between the ears. It’s so much mental. If you can’t play strong and sharp and fast, you start to lose confidence, and then you can’t function:” I would agree with this, but it’s a little hard to measure. How do you predict who will be able to process the speed of the game, and who won’t? It’s not the kind of thing the Wonderlic can measure.

I think draft success is a function of talent and ability, mixed with system and ability for a team to adapt to a player’s talents (and vice versa), and finally, where a player is drafted. First-rounders get paid reasonably well, and for a lot of players, a switch flips and the hunger isn’t the same as it is for a fourth-rounder who thought he was going at the top of the second round.

There are probably many more theories on why players don’t make it. I hope to revisit this topic again in the near future.

I was on the phone with a longtime friend who’s an area scout last week. I was discussing with him some of my interns, and how often they are hoping to get into the business some day. I think I mentioned that I’m always trying to ‘crack the code’ for finding opportunities for young people in such a situation. His response was that it’s very simple.

“I would tell them to get G.A. jobs,” he said. “That seems to be where everyone is hiring from these days.”

Could it be that simple? Well, maybe so.

At ITL, we track these things, and do brief backgrounds on the scouts that are getting hired by NFL teams these days. I think most scouts that have been in the game more than 10 years were former coaches who moved in through their relationships. Relationships are still very important, which is just another reason to find a grad assistant job if you’re in college and hoping to be an NFL talent evaluator someday. That’s especially true if you’re a grad assistant assigned to the personnel department, a relatively new part of college staffs.

Think about it.

• You get to work around football, obviously, even though college ‘personnel’ jobs vary widely in what they actually mean.
• You meet key people around the game. This is especially true if you are able to help out with pro days, or even organize them; most college coaches see this as a chore, not an opportunity.
• You get to learn all the buzzwords, practices, habits and expectations of people around the game.
• Most importantly, you will probably meet several actual NFL scouts, and perhaps even win them over. There are no better people for bringing you into the league than those already in the league.

At the end of the day, an all-consuming work ethic is the most important thing you need to get into the business, but connections are an important part, too. If you’re a college student reading this right now, I urge you to do whatever you can to volunteer for your school’s team. Do it right now. Even if you’re already a sport management major. Even if you’ve never picked up a football in your life. It’s probably the best way to get you on track, immediately, for a job in football.

One thing that intrigues me (and a lot of people) is the scouting process, and how NFL teams evaluate players. Is there one team that seems to do a better job than others, and that most NFL teams recognize as superior in the draft process?

In Fall 2014, during a presentation for sport management majors at Rice University, I asked former Texans, Redskins and Lions scout Miller McCalmon if there was one team known around the league as the best at finding college talent. If you’d rather watch him respond than read his response, click here.

“Without question, the Green Bay Packers probably do as good a job as anybody in the league. Somebody did a statistical analysis, and they listed the amount of players, I think at the start of the year (in 2014) that were drafted players. Green Bay had the most percentage of drafted players of any other team in the league. I would think Baltimore would be up there pretty high, too; they do a good job of drafting.

“It was interesting. Along with my duties as a pro scout in Detroit, I did the advanced scouting, so I never watched us play. I was always at our next opponent’s game. I had to write a report, and I’d get that prepared during the week, then after the game I would finish it up and send it to the intern, and he would run it off and hand it to the coaches so they’d have my report from the game. But we would have a section in there of the free agent signings and that sort of thing. A couple of years, Green Bay didn’t have any. Most teams would have four or five guys that they signed as free agents; well, Green Bay wouldn’t have any at times. Now, later on in the season, it would be more because they’d have to pick up somebody because of injuries or that sort of thing. But I think statistically, if you go down and you look at their roster, they have more drafted players on their roster than probably any other team, and I’d be surprised if there was anybody that didn’t have that.”

If you’re an aspiring football professional, tonight’s a great place for insights into the business side of the game. Here are three things to watch for in Episode 5 of The Agent (10E/9C, Esquire Network):

• The show opens in St. Petersburg, Fla., where the Shrine Game is played. You’ll notice that the field where practices are held is ringed by scouts, coaches, agents, financial planners and others who work in the game. What you probably can’t tell is that the group is very loosely regulated. Almost anyone can walk in there, and as long as they don’t make a spectacle of themselves, have pretty much unfettered access to hundreds of potential NFL employers. I’ve always wondered why more eager young job-seekers don’t take advantage of these games. Not a year goes by that I don’t see dozens of young people hoping to work in football at the combine, because it gets all the press, but rarely at all-star games. Access is way better at all-star games than it is at the combine, which is like a party for invitees only. If you want to win a job in football, you’re going to have to irritate a whole lot of people before you get that one champion who’s willing to take a risk on you. There’s no better place to ‘irritate’ lots of people in one setting than at these games.
• Speaking of jobs, there are three elite training facilities portrayed in tonight’s episode. They are the Pensacola, Fla., location of Exos; Miami-based Bommarito Performance Systems; and Weston, Fla.-based Fit Speed. All are excellent, and all are pretty work-intensive. I’m always hearing from young people who want to find a profession in football, and the default job is always scout or agent. Why not consider the combine prep business? It requires lots of people and has several facets to it, and is still taking shape, with lots of permutations and new applications. A young person who volunteered with a top combine prep facility could very quickly learn the business, identify trends, and quickly make himself very useful/valuable to key people. In fact, I bet one could make the contacts to do almost anything in the business from a combine prep service. Lots of paths cross in the training field, and there are dozens of good training programs that work with players all over the country.
• One more thing to notice: this week’s show takes place in the January/February time frame, two key months in the draft process. Almost the whole show is shot at an all-star game and training facilities, all in Florida. If you are looking for NFL opportunities, you have to go where the football business is, and the Sunshine State is essential to the draft process, for various reasons. If you’re already in the state, you’re in great position to succeed. If you’re not, but you have easy access to the state, take advantage of that. Florida is not only one of the top 2-3 states for football talent, but it’s also got a warm-weather climate that really helps in the months leading up to the draft.

Enjoy the show, and don’t forget to join in during our live-tweet tonight. I’ve got four pages of notes to churn out tonight during the broadcast. Don’t miss it!