Latest / Scouting the League / Preseason Football!! What really matters.....
Transcript
- Rodrik David: It's Monday, August 17th. This is Scouting the League. Preseason football is rolling, and for serious football fans out there, a lot of roster evaluation is being done. But if you were a pro scout for an NFL team, what would you really be looking at? Today I talk exactly that. What you should be looking at, thinking about, and mostly not getting to And before we dive in though, make sure you head over, like, subscribe, and share this podcast wherever you are listening and hopefully watching as well. Apple Podcasts and the YouTube is the spot to be. Get tuned in, subscribe to both those channels. Make sure you're commenting every chance you get. Head over to my website, rsafootball.com, for my background, everything I am doing at Twitter. on Twitter at right stepadv is where you can find me as well. Thoughts, comments, notes, what you want to hear in the future all the time. If you are a scout or an aspiring scout, want to work in the industry, make sure you check out thescoutingcommunity.com for resources. All I'm doing to help everybody in the industry professionalize it, balance it, maybe give scouts a little bit more power when they go sit down with their GMs. But the scouting community.com is the spot for that. If you're an agent, A player, a school, anybody out there that wants a report, head over to RightStepscouting.com for my brand new website that's gonna bring in a small team to do evaluations, one-liners, video reports, no matter what it is. Head over there, request your reports today, get evaluated by myself, or maybe a couple other people who I'm bringing in. Right stepscouting.com is the spot for that. Make sure you get the insoles that will upgrade every pair of shoes you have. Over at blue maca.com. Code Scouting20 at checkout will let them know we sent you. Get a little discount on that order. Those blue maca insoles will upgrade every pair of shoes you have, whether you're walking hallways, walking sidelines, or doing anything in between. athletes, that non-slip insole, or that planner fascia support, that split carbon fiber. Turftoe insul, maybe the one you need. BlueMaca.com. Agents, you need to have it for every player, every client. Those clients need them as well. BlueMaka.com, code Scouting20, while you're there. This Wednesday, live at 10 a.m. Eastern on YouTube and Twitter, Neela and I will go live on Scouting the League with executive director of the Senior Bowl, Drew Fabianic, the 2027 Senior Bowl Outlook, players to watch in all things football. Make sure. You set your alarms and tune in for that one. That is this Wednesday, 10 a.m. Eastern Time. Drop your questions at right step ADB over on Twitter if you want to get them in there or drop them in the notes on this YouTube episode as well. If you have questions, get them in there. Tomorrow we dive back into quarterbacks in our 2027 draft scouting series with Oregon signal caller Dante Moore. Where does he land and what do I need to see this fall to lock him in to that expected? Five pick, but today it's all about NFL football, all about the preseason teams are getting snaps in. And as I have talked about here on Scouting the League, three years as a pro scout gives me some unique insight to what is being really evaluated across the landscape. As we get into our preseason talk, a few things to remember. And this is one of the big ones that everybody loves the competition, loves these undrafted free agencies, these day three guys. At the end of the day, 90% plus of roster decisions probably already been made. 45 or so players are locks or near locks to make the roster. That is the vast majority of that 53 man roster. Again, I've looked at rosters where 51 of the 53 players that are going to be on that opening day roster. Again, you can basically write those names in. So you're talking about four to five guys. probably competing for two roster spots are really what you want to pay attention to. What are you looking for then from an evaluation standpoint? Again, you're thinking about practice squad spots. You're thinking about potential trade pieces. If a guy really stands out, you've got a big influx of players, man, we just have really loaded running back room, wide receiver room, and this guy's really standing out. Again, maybe you're thinking about trading that player because again, you subject them to the waiver wire. 32 team or 31 other teams are going to have a chance to pick that player up. So again, while we love the competition, we love the battles that these guys are facing. Again, most roster spots are probably spoken for. So again, you really want to focus in on those ones that are going to matter when it comes to making the 53. If you're very serious about it, all right, who are these developmental guys? And again, that is what that evaluation from a pro scouting standpoint is really going to be about. Is practice squad spots and who Has those developmental traits. We talk about traits all the time. Every position, you're evaluating traits. Yes, everything matters, but those traits to tell you how high is the floor, how high is the ceiling is going to tell you what that player is going to be. Some teams really want developmental players on their practice squad. We want these guys for future. They just need more time. We've lost a little bit of that as more and more college players are sticking around college programmed, and maybe. in some situations getting developed a little bit more, but some teams absolutely want those developmental traits. Show me something in some area that you're special at, that you're very good at, excellent at, and we will find a way to develop you. While some teams, they kind of go the other way. Hey, kind of forget the developmental aspect. We're going to reload next year. We just want good practice players, consistent, healthy. Sometimes that means veteran guys that are going to line up, know what to do every week, and give our guys on the 53 that are going to be lined up on game day the best chance, the best look. So again, take that development out of it. Let's just keep players that are good, solid veteran people, forget the developmental traits. We'll pick a veteran, smart player over a guy with higher developmental traits. Some organizations are better at developing players. That is without question. There are teams that, hey, Agents are going to send their players to this roster if their guy is a quote unquote developmental guy because they know that organization tends to get the most out of guys with these traits, with these other teams. Again, it's either not a priority, it's not a philosophy, maybe it's a lack of continuity and structure. Whatever the reason, or some organizations do a better job. But again, that's always going to be the case. When you get into season, In season time is not developmental time for a lot of players, and unless you have that character that's going to be a first in, last out extra guy, because in the NFL, it's about winning every week. Everything else often gets pushed to the back burner or completely off the stovetop because it's only about winning every week. So again, it can be a organizational thing, practice squad, developmental thing, and all that's gonna matter. You gotta know who you're evaluating for. And what that player is. One of the things that can be really deceptive during preseason is those stats. Stats can absolutely be deceptive. Guys, lighten up the scoreboard. And in reality, from a pro-scouting standpoint, yeah, pretty, pretty okay, you know, film, pretty okay development, pretty okay reports be in. Who you're playing with and who you're playing against can make a huge difference. Again, let's pick pick a couple teams, Green Bay. Maybe, hey, we really want to get look at these two or three. So we're going to put them in really early against maybe an opponent's ones who that roster has maybe more roster questions. We want to see this group of ones running. So all of sudden we have twos and threes running against ones on the other side. Man, those stats could be really ugly. But for Green Bay, who's got their backups, you may see some things that you really want to need, want or need to see. So again, One of those things as a Pro Scout, you have to be really locked in on who is on the field. Do we have ones, twos, threes on each side? One, twos, threes. What is this coaching staff? What is this front office trying to see with this roster in this game? Again, there are head coaches across the NFL that have worked together. Hey, we want to see ones versus ones, twos versus twos. We're gonna kind of match it, mirror it. But then again, there's plenty of head coaches where like, hey, we're focused on us. I don't care what the other side is doing. We're gonna see these guys in these situations. And that can really affect those stats. Again, you get guys that men are just lighting it up. We find a matchup that a quarterback likes. The quarterback, the wide receiver have developed really good rapport. Hey, he's gonna get thrown every ball just because that rapport, that comfort level with them. Again, all of a sudden the stats are really good. And then again, you look at the film, you look at the way they've done it, and again, it can be really deceptive. It's like, there's nothing really special. Yeah, I know the stats are really nice, but at the end of the day, is that what's going to be What puts this player over the top? Stats can be deceptive. Absolutely have to know the full context. And that's always going to come down to it. Context matters for all these players. One of the things it's often forgotten about, too, is we get in, especially with new coaching staffs or coaching staffs with a lot of change, coaching staffs are trying to figure out logistics as well. With play callers, with new head coaches, who's going to be signaling? How are we doing substitution? Who's in the box? Who's on the sideline? How is it all working together? There is no better way to simulate that for a coaching staff than in preseason games. You can switch it from quarter to quarter, half to half, week one to week two, but coaching staffs have to figure that out as well. And again, not very many teams are gonna head to their stadium and try to run through that stuff during the preseason. There's too much going on, which means you're going to be doing it, probably working through your own growing pains throughout the preseason, which can make things a little bit muddier for that on-field product because again, it is absolutely essential that the coaching staff know the way they're gonna operate. You have a good feeling for, no, it really didn't quite work out the way it was supposed to this week. Let's switch it up next week. Coaching staffs have to figure out those logistics and preseason is the time to do that. Sometimes you want to see situational football as well, a two-minute drive in the middle of a quarter. Maybe you want to see your starters Backups, third strings, whoever it is. Hey, we're gonna run a two-minute drill in the middle of the third quarter. Again, this comes down to hey, we're gonna communicate maybe head coach to head coach. Hey, this is something I'm gonna want to see. This group, so be prepared. This is what we're gonna do in the middle of the third quarter. Has to be communicated to officials because you hey, could we speed up? We want to we want to simulate this. Can you simulate it along with us? Good practice for the referees. Again, maybe that's gonna be communicated with the other side as well. You may see. A two-minute drive. You may see, hey, we want to run some four-minute football. We want to try to get a kicker in this situation. Again, trying to simulate certain things in games, in live situations is absolutely going to matter. So again, it's like, hey, why are they going tempo all a sudden with these series? Again, we want to see the way a quarterback or the way a center, the way our coaching staff Gets through this two-minute situation. Like I said, with that logistics. Again, you want to see everybody handle it. And again, preseason football is the time for that practice. Forget the product, forget the outcome, forget how pretty or ugly it looks. That is how you smooth out all those wrinkles during the preseason. Sometimes you also want to see the other side of the ball. This becomes a really tough one. Hey, why'd they run it three times and punt the ball? Well, maybe that. Head coach wanted to see the defense play a little bit more than his offense. Maybe there's more questions on that side. Again, seeing the other side of the ball. Hey, we're going to be really aggressive on defense because we need a turnover. Or here's the thing: at the end of the day, if they score, I don't care. I want to get my offense the ball back. I want to get a punt return or a kick return or a look in this situation. Let's get it flipped to the other side by doing certain things, certain play calls, certain guys on the field. Let's get get the offense or the defense back on the field so we can see some. Again, it becomes hard, a hard balance because you want as a coach, as a front office, to put these players in the best situation for them to highlight. But at the end of the day, coaches are trying to think about what is going, what do we need to do to make sure we have the best team come cut down time, come week one and through the season. And when you are doing that, that is going to require you to Sometimes make decisions that will be at the expense of a player maybe putting his best forward or doing something on film. That's just the nature of the game, the reality of the situation. But it is going to be about putting your franchise in the best situation. You can only pin things on a player to a certain point because from the outside, we can only guess sometimes, hey guy was supposed to do this. I think they were looking at this situation. They were trying to get this ironed out on their on their sideline. Whatever it is, don't rush to judgment when it comes to preseason football. You probably have to let three weeks, four weeks play out if you get that Hall of Fame game. You've got to read between the lines. You've got to try to guess a little bit, make them educated guesses on those situations, which comes back. Understand the context of your team, your roster, that coaching staff, everything. So questions about the preseason, hit me at right step ADV over on Twitter or drop something in the comments here. Tomorrow we talk quarterback Dante Moore of Oregon on our 2027 Draft Scouting series. And Wednesday, tune in live on Twitter and YouTube as Neil Stratton and I sit down with Drew Fabianich, executive director of the Panini Senior Bowl, 10 a.m. Eastern Time. Make sure you have your alarm set for that one. Questions for that one, drop them in the comments here. Drop them over on Twitter at Right Step A D V as we are into football season real games coming soon. So keep. Yeah on scouting.