The NFL Scouting Process

Scouting process just beginning

 

By Gil Brandt NFL.com Senior Analyst -- You might find this hard to believe, but almost every NFL team is getting ready to send at least three scouts to another scouting combine later this month. It'll be in sunny Florida, it'll be crowded with scouts who will be discussing the positives and negatives of many young men, but there won't be a single player there. This is thanks to the NFL's pair of scouting organizations: BLESTO and National Football Scouting. Each of these organizations is made up of scouts from different teams, and all except five teams "subscribe" to one of these groups. Who's in which group? See for yourself: BLESTO National No affiliation Atlanta Arizona Baltimore Buffalo Carolina Indianapolis Chicago Cincinnati New England Cleveland Denver Oakland Dallas Green Bay Washington Detroit Kansas City Houston New Orleans Jacksonville N.Y. Jets Miami Philadelphia Minnesota St. Louis N.Y. Giants San Diego Pittsburgh San Francisco Seattle Tampa Bay Tennessee   You'll notice there are some intriguing alliances made. For example, all four members of the NFC West are in National, as are Kansas City, Denver and San Diego (all three part of the AFC West). Chicago, Detroit and Minnesota are all in BLESTO, along with rivals Dallas and the Giants, Pittsburgh and Cleveland, and Miami and Buffalo. Also, five teams -- the Ravens, Colts, Patriots, Raiders and Redskins -- aren't a part of either group. They choose to scout by themselves, keeping things "in house."   The point of these groups is that they are time savers and money savers. Instead of 27 teams independently travelling to each school -- from major college campuses to remote gyms in the middle of nowhere -- the two combines will cover them. From there, only a single report is filed and shared with the other teams as part of the group. That information-sharing process takes place in Florida (this year, BLESTO will be in Orlando while National will be in Longboat Key, Fla.). At the meetings At these very underpublicized affairs, area scouts will give their reports and a numerical grade on all of the 2005 draft-eligible players they have seen in action and work out at what they call "Junior Day" at campuses (more on that in a bit). The process is a bit more complicated than it sounds -- once a scout gives his report, there's a second opinion given from another scout. His report may sound a lot like the first scout, or it might be completely different. The grade could be the same, or it could be better or worse. There's an old phrase: "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." Bet you never thought that would apply to an NFL prospect, but it does. The grade given lends an idea to teams where a player could be drafted. This way, the teams will know who the big-ticket guys are, who the mid-round guys are, who the late-round guys are, and if their scouts think differently, who the sleepers are. Now that teams have these grades, they can decide which schools their scouts are going to cover in the fall. This will even give teams an idea which small schools are worth going to on a regular basis. Thanks to last year's events, players like Jason Babin (Western Michigan) and Ricardo Colclough (Tusculum) were put on the map for scouts to discover. Both were taken with picks in the top 40 of last month's draft. Of course, none of this can be done without the aforementioned Junior Day. What is Junior Day? How do BLESTO and National Scouts know how tall a player is or how much they weigh? Well, they don't run around with tape measures and scales chasing down collegiates on their way to class. Thanks to the college sports departments, the draft-eligible players take part in a workout much like a Pro Day just for these scouts. At some point after the college season and spring practice, schools will schedule their Junior Days. Iowa had its Junior Day after spring practice was over, while places like Kansas State did it after its Pro Day. Everybody has a different way of doing it. Iowa strength and conditioning coach Chris Doyle has been putting together Junior Days for a while, so perhaps it's better if he explains what happens: "We start at 12:30 p.m.," Doyle said. "I meet with the pro scouts and just run down the list of who our draft eligible guys are. I give them an athletic background, a profile of each player, and information about the history of the players' physical development over their four years. "Then we go to the weight room and the seniors are there waiting. At that time, we do measurables (height and weight, hand size and reach). Then we go to our indoor facility, go through a warm up, they run a 40-yard dash, complete with times for the first 10 yards and the entire distance. After that we have the players run a short shuttle, which gives the scouts a chance to judge their change of direction. After that, we give the guys 20 minutes to shower and change, and they take the Wonderlic test. That's pretty much Junior Day."

IFSB Scouting Process

    The IFSB Scouting process is similar to that of BLESTO and National although on a much smaller scale as our primary clients are professional indoor football teams. We are time and money savers for Indoor teams like BLESTO and National Football Scouting is for NFL teams but because IFSB's scouting budget isnt even in the same stratosphere as the NFL we rely on entry level scouts, retired players, small school coaches and college interns all across the country who love the game like we do to gather accurate information on the best available free agents. They attend the Pro days,  College All Star games and hold combines after NFL training camps. Pro prospects are measured , timed and tested in drills and are graded on a scale that takes into account not only their NFL potential but also their NFLE, CFL, AFL and indoor potential.We scout many of the same players that the NFL does but our focus is on the prospects that are most likely to be early NFL camp cuts or simply unsigned free agents who were listed on NFL Draft sites.

    Some players may be small school All Americans  or were Div I backups whose development may have been slowed because they were stuck behind an All American. We also realize that some players just become better football players or develop into better athletes after they get out of college. Maybe the light bulb goes on a little later for some or they mature and become harder workers when met with adversity.

    With AFL salaries steadily increasing over the years players can now make a decent living playing the indoor game.However,  the indoor game is totally different from outdoor football and players may need to develop their game in a secondary indoor league because most AFL teams want players with indoor experience.

    Because the AFL and AF2 leagues require most of their players to make the roster as dual position players many one dimensional , single position players may be best suited for leagues like the UIF & NIFL. These leagues rules makes the game more compatible to outdoor football because they have 1,000 yd rushers and thus the linemen can develop their drive blocking and run defense skills in these leagues.

    By the time these leagues season begins in March, the previous years draft class has already been out of playing competitive football for over a year. In order for these prospects to be able to keep up with the next NFL Draft class they must stay active.The indoor leagues provide a great parking place for these players to stay in game playing shape. If the player is dominant in the indoor game from March until May he increases his chances of getting into the CFL camp in early June while at the same time he can learn the indoor game and develop a position on the other side of the ball to make him more appealing to AFL teams the following winter.

    IFSB also offers players the opportunity to have updated scouting reports written for them to point out their strengths, weaknesses and overall analysis so they have some direction. Usually most free agent players scouting reports end after college but IFSB has a staff of scouts who can offer to breakdown current indoor film and write professional , updated scouting reports so the players accomplishments,  improvement, and development does not go unnoticed. These reports will be shared with AFL, CFL and NFL personnel.

    Our objective is not only to increase the caliber of play at the indoor level but also to offer guidance & player advancement services to legitimate pro football prospects......

"If a player wants to play in a higher level league like the AFL, CFL or NFL and he has the ability to do so but is a little rough around the edges and has not played competitively in over a year than he is most likely spinning his wheels and getting nowhere. Realistically there is a 2-3 year window of opportunity for a player once he completes his college eligibility to make it and stick with a big league club and if he is not playing somewhere to stay active during this time and getting current game film and updated scouting reports then he is selling himelf short" -

Ken Robinson, Pro Personnel Director, Indoor Football Scouting Bureau