Tag Archives: NFL Scouting

Don’t do this

09 Monday Mar 2015

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I want to start this post out by saying that we probably have more information on draft prospects, and the draft process, than we’ve ever had. Most of it is based on good analysis. The has played a big role in this. Everyone with a Twitter account or a WordPress page can critique draft prospects, and with practice, can get pretty good at it.

I guess, at this point, I should tell you I strongly recommend you don’t pursue this avenue if you’re thinking of a career in football.

Evaluating talent is a lot of fun, and with a little studying of the process, you can learn all the buzzwords and figure out the things that make a player attractive to NFL teams. In fact, you can quickly do this well enough to impress your friends and maybe even sound like Todd McShay or Mike Mayock in no time. However, at the end of the day, this is (IMO) the wrong way to go, simply because the market is flooded with such people. It’s just far too difficult to distinguish yourself and gain real recognition for your efforts. Why?

Well, one reason is that simply making observations about players and ranking them is not that hard to do. After all, very rarely do we see analysis of a draft guru’s work 3-5 years later, when we can fairly analyze it. There’s so much info on the Web that you don’t really have to have original thoughts about things. You can gather up enough data to craft it in virtually any way you want. And after all, there’s really not a lot of variation among draft evaluators out there.

I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for someone to rank Marcus Mariota, Jameis Winston or Leonard Williams as a fourth- or fifth-rounder, even among those who have legitimate doubts about such players. Even scouts have difficulty expressing such reservations in the war room. There’s tremendous pressure to ‘go along;’ that’s one thing I’ve learned over years of talking to scouts about the process.

Of course, none of what I say precludes you from having opinions, conducting evaluations, and weighing your rankings against the experts. About two months ago, I posted info on a player who at the time was seeking representation, and soon after I got an unsolicited text from an agent who’s a former subscriber. “Although I am no longer a paying client I still read your tweeter fees,” the text began, then launched into a lengthy, blow-by-blow critique of the player, generously sprinkled with buzzwords and comparing him to previous draft prospects. My only reaction was to offer him thanks for his text, though I’m still not sure of his point in giving me a lengthy breakdown of his draft prospects. I guess there’s a little bit of Mel Kiper Jr. in all of us.

The Downside

05 Thursday Mar 2015

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In this space, I spend a lot of time encouraging you to ‘go for it’ in the football world, to roll the dice and pursue your passions. I haven’t retreated from that position one iota, but I wanted to give you a couple downsides to such a path.

This post is maybe only half-serious, but I guess the idea is that life changes as you make football not just your passion, but your profession.

You’ll never watch SportsCenter again: In the 90s, there’s nothing I wanted to be more than Craig Kilborn or Chris Berman. Today, I can’t remember the last time I watched more than 10 minutes of SportsCenter when I wasn’t on a hotel treadmill. There are a couple reasons for this. No. 1, in the rare instances I actually watch the show, they’re trying to sell me something or be too cutesy. No. 2, in the age of the Internet, I already have all the information I need. No. 3, shows like SportsCenter have little to no application to the football business. They’re more fan-driven. I understand this, obviously, but your tastes change once you’re in the business.

You can’t talk football with anyone: I live in Greater Houston, so once someone finds out I’m in the business, the first thing they ask me is something about the Texans. Hey, they’re just trying to be friendly and congenial, and once again, I get that. The thing is, my tiny corner of the business is so all-consuming that I don’t get to really be a fan as much anymore. I can’t remember the last time I watched all four quarters of a college game, and the only NFL games I watch are Saints games (I’m not a Texans fan, which is another problem). Even when I go places like the combine or all-star games or whatever, it’s rare when I meet a client and we talk about on-field, traditional football stuff. We wind up talking about our families, our common non-football interests, or about real ‘inside football’ stuff. Again, your tastes change.

You’ll never enjoy football movies again: About this time last year, the movie ‘Draft Day’ came out. My wife, who knows I hate sports movies, nonetheless declared that we were going to go see it. Well, I humored her and agreed to go, but for one reason or another we never made it while it was in theaters. I breathed a sigh of relief, and so far, I’ve ducked renting the DVD, as well. Most people don’t believe me when I tell them I haven’t seen ‘Jerry Maguire,’ either. They think it should be the one movie that I’ve seen, if any. Once you’ve seen the inside of this business, it ruins sports movies for you because they have to make so many concessions to drama, entertainment, selling tickets, whatever.

I know these issues seem pretty small in the greater scheme of things, and heck, maybe they apply only to me. Still, you should probably get used to thinking in different terms as you move into this world in a more official capacity.

WSW: A Foot in the Door

04 Wednesday Mar 2015

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Today, I came across this story from about a month ago. It deals with Nolan Teasley, a young pro scout for the Seahawks, and his climb to an internship, then to employment, with the NFC champions.

I don’t know Teasley, but the story is pretty illustrative of what it took for him to make it, and I thought it might be instructional for people reading this who are considering a career in scouting. There are a few themes here that are pretty consistent among people who are able to make it into the biz.

Think regionally: I think that living in an NFL city increases your chances of success by at least half. I remember when I got my one shot at an NFL internship in the mid-90s, I was not living in the city of the team where I had applied (New Orleans). Though I got an interview, I think it hurt me that I wasn’t seen as a guy that was nearby, which would give team officials plenty of chances to get to know me and perhaps put me to work. If you’re already in an NFL city, you have a huge advantage because it makes it so much easier to be persistent about applying, trying to meet people, make contacts, etc.

Common roots: This is related to the above point, but this story says that Teasley flooded all NFL teams with letters before finally getting traction with a scout who shared his alma mater (we have a list of scouts and alma maters here). The NFL is a relationship business, and nothing underscores the point more than the that. Just this week, I had a similar experience. I’m trying to get one of my interns a job with an NFL team, and one of my contacts mentioned that the person handling applications went to the same college as my guy. I think that gives him a big advantage. We’ll see.

Don’t wait: If you really want to go for this career, get started early. I’d say you have five years from the time you graduate college to get an NFL opportunity, or at the very least start looking for one. That’s just a guess, but I bet it’s pretty accurate. You want to be young enough to be seen as malleable by team officials. You also need to be seen as cheap to employ, because entry-level scouts don’t make much money.

A supportive wife or fiance: In 1999, I had recently met my future spouse, and simultaneously had started the service that would one day lead to ITL. I’ll never forget driving to work one day, wondering if my passion for my business could coexist with my passion for my (future) wife. If I had decided to end my engagement based on my expected profession, it would have been the biggest mistake I ever made. However, if I had not introduced that business passion to Polly, that probably would have been my second-biggest mistake ever. I know countless people who made progress toward success in football, but had to turn back due to family considerations.

What Happens in Indy

17 Tuesday Feb 2015

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There seems to be a lot of confusion about what people in the football business do in Indianapolis (besides freeze) during combine week. Let’s try to clear that up today with a very brief overview.

If you’re in Indy for the combine, you’re in one of four groups: player, media, NFL, agent or vendor. There are others who show up to be part of the mix, but that’s pretty much it.

Players, obviously, are there to compete and put up numbers. They are there for four days. The last day is always the day they go to Lucas Oil Stadium and run, jump, etc. The first day is the travel day when they fill out all the forms, make sure they’re fitted right, etc. Somewhere in those four days, they also go to the hospital and get all the medical stuff taken care of. They also are interviewed extensively by NFL teams, either as part of the scheduled session the combine sets out or as part of an individual session an interested team schedules.

Most players also are run through the NFL media room, where there are hundreds of credentialed writers and broadcasters there to ask questions, get video, do interviews, etc. The bigger players are sent to a podium, where they get the full treatment in front of a panel of cameras. The lesser players wind up getting placed at tables where they are interviewed one-on-one, mostly by local writers and media.

If you’re NFL media, you’re pretty much stuck in that room in Lucas Oil Stadium for three days, because they bring the players to you. What most writers do is get tons of quotes from players that they have ‘in the can’ as they do features later throughout the spring.

For agents, the schedule varies. The biggest event of the week is the NFLPA seminar, which is always held on the Friday of the combine. All contract advisors have to attend at least one meeting per year, and this is the one that most attend; the other two are in Las Vegas the weekend before the draft and in Baltimore in mid-May. Most of the agents at the seminar don’t have clients at the combine, so they arrive Thursday night, go to the seminar Friday, then race to the airport that afternoon.

Seasoned agents do things a little differently. There is a lot of meeting and schmoozing with league officials, especially for those agents who have players awaiting free agency in a few weeks. The more connected agents also sit down with scouts and NFL executives to bang the drum for their clients. Usually, agents will hang around at least until their client works out, though there’s really not a lot they can do for them. At the combine, it’s all about what the player does in Lucas Oil Stadium.

If you’re NFL — scout, executive, coach, other league official — your routine is pretty simple. You go to Lucas Oil Stadium early in the morning, watch players participate in drills all day, meet with your team, then hit the nightlife (or go to bed). Workouts start Friday and continue through Monday. These days, fans can pretty much see everything the scouts are seeing because it’s all broadcast, but I can tell you there’s one person who won’t be watching: me. I used to sneak into the combine in the early 2000s, and to me, if you want to REALLY get bored, watch men run 40 yards, time after time, all day. It was complete drudgery. I’d rather have nails driven through my eyelids.

If you’re a vendor, you’re pretty much in one of two places, either the Omni Hotel or the Indiana Convention Center (ICC). The ICC is where we’ll be holding our seminar Thursday evening, and we’ll be in amongst several people trying to pitch weight training, mental skills metrics, and other services to NFL types. In the old days, vendors were practically stacked on top of each other because the RCA Dome was connected to the ICC, meaning all scouts had to parade down the hallways to get out of the building. These days, there’s not the same traffic, but you still get some vendors who don’t want to pay Omni prices that use the ICC.

The Omni is kind of the ‘hangout’ for people when they’re between drills or looking to hook up with friends in the business. It has a big lobby with plenty of suites, and Nike always sets up there, as well as several other more non-descript services. But the big win with the Omni is that you’re in the middle of the action. I like to hang out at the Omni on Saturday in the room behind the lobby. The wi-fi is free, and everyone comes through there. It’s the best place to catch up with all my clients and friends.

Combine Week vs. Senior Bowl Week

16 Monday Feb 2015

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Well, I leave Wednesday for Indianapolis. It’s National Invitational Camp (the official name of the combine) week. Combine Week is the second-best week of the year to someone like me after the Senior Bowl. If you’re a person who’ll be in Indy this week trying to make connections, let’s talk a bit about how it differs from Mobile.

People think of the combine as the biggest week in football, at least from an NFL standpoint. The thing is, there are two ‘parties’ for the NFL, and they are the Senior Bowl and the combine. You’re pretty much going to get everyone from the NFL at both of these events, with two major differences.

One, at the Senior Bowl, two teams are still alive, so their staffs are a little abbreviated. You won’t see any of the coaches from those teams, and you might not see as many scouts or the GM.

Two, I always describe the Senior Bowl as a football party where everyone is invited, and to some degree that’s true. It’s far more ‘open’ and if you’re at least peripherally associated with the game, it’s relatively easy to get credentialed. It’s also true that the people of Mobile are super-friendly but also very welcoming and hospitable to football folks, because the Senior Bowl is the No. 1 event on their social calendar (though they take Mardi Gras pretty seriously there, as well). Each night, there’s a gala event sponsored by some major part of the football industry, and it’s by invitation only. People come out in their suits and evening dresses and it’s clearly a big deal.

On the other hand, at the combine, if you don’t have a badge around your neck, access is very limited. You won’t get any farther than the front door of the players hotel if you don’t have an NFL credential. You won’t get past the entrance to Lucas Oil Stadium if you don’t have a media badge. You won’t get into the NFLPA seminar without signing in and showing that you’re an agent.

Probably the biggest difference between the two is that in Mobile, the big event of the week is relatively open. Even if you don’t have a badge, you can come in and watch practices. And if you want to hobnob with NFL types but don’t have any real connections, you can just go to the team hotel, the Renaissance, and you’re good to go. At the combine, you’re not getting into the stadium to check out the workouts unless you work for the NFL or have otherwise obtained a badge, and they’re not so easy to acquire. Meanwhile, because the city is a bigger and more spread out, there’s not one hotel where everyone hangs out. I guess the closest thing to the Renaissance in Indy is the Omni; it’s become the place where all the vendors hoping to attract NFL business rent space and set up suites.

I’ll try to check in frequently from Indy this week, but don’t hold me to it. It’s going to be busy, but also fun. As always, I’ll let you know on Twitter whenever I’ve got something new.

Scenes from a combine prep facility

13 Friday Feb 2015

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This morning, Inside the League conducted interview skills prep with two players headed to the combine next week, Texas A&M OH Trey Williams and Stephen F. Austin OH Gus Johnson. Here are a few random thoughts.

  • Everyone who says today’s athlete is different, and that the joy of the game is gone once you get to the NFL (or near the NFL), is wrong. I wish we had filmed Gus and Trey going back and forth about whose high school was better. Trey went to DeKaney HS in Spring, Texas, (a Class 6A school just outside Houston) and Gus went to Gilmer (a Class 2A school in East Texas). DeKaney won the state title in 2011, when Trey was still there (here’s a picture), while Gilmer is defending state champ. Trey’s position was that he had the upper hand because (a) he was there won his school won its only state title and (b) because it’s bigger and has more talented athletes, while Gus contended his argument was stronger because (a) Gilmer has been a consistently dominant school at several levels of Texas state football, (b) DeKaney had more athletes only because it’s much bigger, and (c) his school is the defending state champ. The best part was that neither got excited, raised his voice, or banged the table; both remained cool, calculated and dry-witted (at one point Trey even threw in a Kanye-style ‘I’m gonna let you finish’). It was like watching ‘Meet the Press,’ but funny. It was good-natured jabbing. That’s what sports is all about.
  • On the way over, I called one of my friends in scouting and asked, ‘what’s the one question you always ask that a player better get right?’ He didn’t hesitate: ‘Is there anything else we need to know about?’ was his response. He said that most teams already know the answers to questions they ask, and they just want to see how the player responds. However, if it turns out there was an issue a player tried to slide past them, off their draft board he goes.
  • I assisted an agent in placing one of his clients with an ex-scout for interview skills work this morning. In the course of our conversation, he mentioned that the industry leader in interview prep, a former NFL GM who has essentially ‘created’ the market, is overbooked and unavailable. He added that his prices were prohibitive anyway. That cracked me up. You know what players need to know before they go into the interview room? Be honest! Be forthright! Be contrite! Be you! That’s all there is to it. If you try to fool teams, they’re going to find out at some point anyway. You’re not going to trick people for long, if at all. Just own what you did (if you did anything) and be a man about it, and you’re set. And it doesn’t cost a cent to do that.

WSW2: Another Perspective on Matthews

09 Monday Feb 2015

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Today, I turned things over to Ken Moll, who two years ago was running the scouting department for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Ken is the scout who ‘discovered’ Seahawks WO Chris Matthews, who excelled in Seattle’s Super Bowl loss to the Patriots two weekends ago. Here’s Ken’s story on identifying and signing Matthews.

 

“I try to do things geographically. During the spring, I hit as many pro days as I could, including Ball State, Louisville, Western Kentucky, Vanderbilt, University of Tennessee, anywhere in about a three- to five-hour circle. I didn’t go much further than that. I mean, I went to (University of Alabama-Birmingham) and Alabama one year, but pretty much I went to Kentucky every year. (Matthews) was a guy that I had marked, but we didn’t have a spot for him. He was a junior college kid, and he comes into Kentucky, and he has a decent junior year and a big senior year as far as amount of catches, more than (former UK teammate and present Packers WO Randall) Cobb. And he had really big hands, he had length, and ran OK at his pro day, though he didn’t have great speed. But he’s 6-5 and I bet he weighed more than 218 .. . and really refined his route-running his second year at UK.

“We had lost a guy named Greg Carr, a big tall kid from Florida State, and he was a good player for us the year before, and after the second year, he was one of the free agents we wanted to resign and we didn’t get it done. (Carr) was very similar to (Matthews). (Winnipeg GM) Joe (Mack) and I got on the horn and we wanted to find another big receiver, and I remembered him, and he didn’t run great, he ran OK, but he could catch the crap out of the ball and was just so big. On turf at (Kentucky’s) indoor facility, he ran in the upper 4.6 range, but had enough functional speed that he wasn’t awkward or gawky. He could run for a big guy, and the catches you saw him make in the Super Bowl, he did that all the time in the CFL. You don’t find those big guys up in the CFL, and at times, he was covered but he wasn’t covered. He was just so big. He was tougher than this Carr kid. Chris was a little shorter but thicker and could go in traffic and get it.

“I’m pretty sure, when I found him, I tried to call and I think he was in Arena Ball at the time, and I remember getting on the phone with him and I think we just took my numbers from a year before (and signed him without working him out). Who knows? He could have looked like a cabdriver, but I’m big on working a guy out again, at least weigh and measure, but I think we took him sight unseen and they loved him up there, and they said, ‘wow, where do you find these big guys that can catch,’ and all I can tell you is, he runs fast enough.

“You only have enough room for a (certain number) of guys, and we didn’t’ want to have five receivers that were 6-4 or 6-5. Chris didn’t have a lot of run-after-the-catch ability, and half the time he was covered, but he’d just reach over guys and make catches. In the practices, the coaches would love him. If you don’t have the speed — I mean, you can’t be flat-out slow — but I said, OK, I need to find a big guy. I mean, Carr had ran like a 4.54 or something like that, and they were similar in route-running, but the whole package was better. Chris was a little stronger, a little more competitive, and caught the ball slightly better.”

WSW: Chris Matthews’ Story

06 Friday Feb 2015

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We missed out on War Story Wednesday again, so we’re going to have a two-part War Story that starts on Friday and continues until Monday.

After WO Chris Matthews had a great Super Bowl last weekend, I did a little research on him. Turns out his agent and the then-CFL scout who ‘discovered’ him are both good friends, so I turned to each of them to tell Chris’ story. Here’s Rodney’s story. On Monday, we’ll tell it from the perspective of former Winnipeg Director of Player Personnel Ken Moll.

Today, we’ll start with Rodney Edwards, his agent. I asked him to tell the story of Chris’ road from undrafted free agent to two other leagues before starring on the big stage.

“Chris signed as an undrafted free agent with the Browns after the (2011) draft, and he went to the last cut. He didn’t make the practice squad and got cut. Then he got a two-game suspension on a prescription with codeine that he took for a toothache, so no teams picked him up, and we couldn’t get him a tryout. So he went back home, and I think he worked at Foot Locker in Los Angeles.

“Then he went to the Arena League, I think with the Iowa Barnstormers, and played maybe eight games. Then he went to Canada, to Winnipeg, in the spring. There, a scout (Winnipeg Director of Player Personnel Ken Moll) saw him and said he wanted to take a look at him, and wanted to know, was he still in Kentucky? I told him no, he’s playing Arena. So they brought him to Canada — I tell all my free agent guys to get their passport so if they get the call to go to Canada, they can go – and he went to minicamp with them. They signed him, and when the CFL season started, he went to camp and made the cut.

“That year, he had about 1,000 yards receiving, 81 catches and 14 TDs, and he was the CFL Offensive Rookie of the Year. Then the next season, a lot of teams came and looked at him from the NFL, and I thought he was going to get bought out of his contract but he wasn’t. So we went into the (CFL) season, and could never get back on track. He had several nagging injuries — a shoulder, butt, and ankle injury — and I think he finished the season with like maybe 200, 300 yards receiving, if that. He was kind of worried he’d have to stay in the CFL, and I told him I wouldn’t do another CFL deal.

“So our first workout was with Indianapolis, and our second was with Minnesota. Then he went to Kansas City, then Green Bay, then Seattle. Seattle was his last workout. (The workouts were) like boom, boom, boom, one after another, even while I was on vacation. NFL teams had wanted to wait until the (CFL) season was over, so they worked him out starting in February, and it went all the way up until April, and (Seattle) resigned him right before the NFL draft.

“He made the practice squad the first week, then they cut him and sent him home. Then they brought him back, and I don’t remember the date. Then they cut him again, and he worked out for Washington. Washington didn’t sign him, so the Seahawks brought him back, then cut him again. I think the Seahawks cut him four times (total). So then he worked out for the Giants but didn’t sign, and finally the Seahawks signed him in October, latter part or in early November, and he was on the roster ever since.

“I didn’t really have to bug teams (to get him workouts), but when it first initially started, I called several teams. After Indianapolis called back and we got a workout, after that first workout, I told others, ‘he’s starting to get interest, and if you’re interested, you need to get in this pool, he’s gonna make a decision pretty soon,’ and several teams called but never could schedule workouts, and after the Seattle workout he signed.”

WSW: A Woman Scorned

28 Wednesday Jan 2015

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I haven’t treated readers to a War Story Wednesday in quite a while, so I thought I’d pass along something of note that happened here in Arlington, Texas, during preparations for the College Gridiron Showcase.

Tuesday was weigh-ins, maybe the most important event of the week for the 106 players on CGS rosters. For National Football Scouting, which always conducts weigh-ins, it’s always a hassle getting the players where they’re supposed to be, then getting them lined up and into their shorts so they can be weighed, measured and paraded across the stage so team officials can check out body types.

As everyone assembled yesterday, there were three players still unaccounted for. After several phone calls and rooms checked, game organizers found two of them, but a third was still MIA. Turns out there was a good reason for that: he was being stalked by a his ‘baby mama.’

The story we heard was that this young man was behind on child support, and had been located by the mother of his child, who lives in the Dallas area or nearby. Intent on getting her money, she started blowing up his phone early-morning Tuesday, challenging him to produce the necessary funds or risk her showing up and causing a big scene in front of scouts and team officials watching players’ every move.

Apparently, the gamble worked, and he was ready to make good, but there was a problem: she wasn’t waiting around for weigh-ins to conclude. That meant that, mid-weigh in, the young man had to find an ATM machine. Fast. Only, he couldn’t find one in the hotel lobby, so he had to run across the street to a convenience store, half-dressed, where the frustrated former paramour was waiting. He quickly withdrew the money and sent her on her way, keeping scouts waiting to get his height and weight.

The story has a happy ending for all concerned. After sprinting back across the street, he stripped down to his shorts, stepped on the scale, and satisfied the needs of the assembled evaluators.

Hopefully, the coming months will be less eventful for the young man as he seeks to make his NFL dreams come true.

A Football Extravaganza

21 Wednesday Jan 2015

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This week is the Senior Bowl, which makes it a big week in the life of college and pro football. Though the media is starting to catch on to the energy, the personality and the football buzz of the week in Mobile, I still think this game (and this week) is one of the hidden gems of football. Here are a few thoughts.

  • I know of at least two people here this week that are budding members of the pro football business who have come here to find their place. No doubt there are many more. One of them is my assistant, Murphy, who’s invaluable to me, but who wants to get an unvarnished look at the life of a contract advisor. I’m happy to help push him out of the nest. Though this is his third Senior Bowl, this week he’s asked several top agents what it takes to be successful in this business. To their credit, they’ve pulled no punches. To Murphy’s credit, he hasn’t flinched at the answers. He’d be crazy not to be given pause by their responses, but so far, it looks like he’s unbowed. Everyone he’s spoken to is a leader in the business, with a lengthy career and a growing practice. You just can’t find that kind of expertise anywhere else in the league except at the Senior Bowl.
  • Of course, there’s more than just agents here. All 32 teams send most of their scouts and often their coaching staffs, too. You also get a lot of college coaches who come to go to bat for players on the rosters or to see if they can land a job in the NFL. It’s a little like a coaches convention, though my sense is that it’s not nearly as popular as a ‘jobs clearinghouse’ as it used to be. I think the AFCA Convention has replaced it in that vein.
  • Though you don’t necessarily have to be a credentialed part of the Senior Bowl to get a lot of out of it, getting credentials isn’t automatic. Yesterday was one of the rare times I got a first-person account of someone almost wasn’t approved. For the most part, if you’re in the business or can make a credible argument that you are, you’ll be approved. Many times, a person’s credential identifies him as merely a ‘friend’ of a player in the game or some other NFL official. I’ve seen it.
  • Even if you’re not credentialed, you can still come and be a part of the week. Having a tag around your neck gets you on the field and gets you into the various galas in the evening, but if you just want to go to practice, you can sit in the stands without getting hassled. What’s more, the Renaissance Riverview Plaza Hotel, the game’s nerve center, is open and the people are very hospitable. At night, people converge on a handful of bars in downtown Mobile, but only a handful, and they’re easy to find. Last night, walking thru the downtown area, it was clear there were several establishments that wanted Senior Bowl business, but only 2-3 that were actually getting it.