Latest / Scouting the League / Soapbox time! Lack of Development - and the answer....
Transcript
- Rodrik David @RightStepAdv: It's Monday, September 21st. Welcome to Scouting the League. Today I get up on my soapbox for something I've been pushing for for about a year now. That is development. Does it exist anywhere in the NFL from coaching to the front office, players, staff throughout the building? Why is it something that NFL franchises are not investing in? And what is the ultimate result going to be? My thoughts coming strong today here on Scouting League. Before we jump in though, make sure you head over, like, subscribe, share this podcast wherever you're listening and watching, whether it's the audio version on Apple Podcasts, whether it's that video portion over on YouTube. That video portion is really nice for things like tomorrow's episode with Jordan Seaton, when we talk to Dane and Jordan coming up, which going to get to. So wherever you're at, hit those buttons, commenting, talking, interacting, all those kinds of things. We love to hear from you. So make sure you're heading over. Doing that. You can follow me on Twitter at right stepav is the spot for that. That is my website as well, rsafootball.com, right step advising. Everything I'm doing in the football world for agents, players, coaches, teams, franchise, organization, no matter who it's at, bringing something to the table with my experience as a pro scout, as a college scout, and as a coach back in the day. So make sure you check all that out. Quick message here from the spot where you can get all your evals right, step scouting. So make sure you go check that out over at rightstepscouting.com. Great spot to get those evals. Now we got the fresh film, really fun looking at players from across the country. Make sure if you're a scout or an aspiring scout, scouts are gonna be a big day for you pushing for you in the industry. Thescouting community.com is gonna be the spot to hit me up, to join, to get your voice heard. If I haven't talked to you already or already about the development piece, this may be the time to do it. So the scouting community dot com go check all that out today and last but not least get the best insoles that will upgrade every pair of shoes you have over at blue maca.com use code scouting20 at checkout let them know we sent you get a little discount on that order blue maca.com insoles are in my shoes that I wear all the time work shoes day shoes so make sure you check them them out as well blue maca.com code scouting20 Tomorrow we look at Jordan Seaton now of the LSU Tigers getting beat up a little bit about after this week's game against all miss. We'll see what that tape looks like. We'll see what the traits look like. This week also plan to join us as Neil and I sit down with Dane Brugler of the Athletic Prospects Process and more. Questions for Dane, make sure you get them in today, as we will sit down with him tomorrow and get that recorded for Wednesday, talk about his top guys. where we agree, where we disagree, what he's looking for. And then next week, same thing. Jordan Reed, WSBN, friend of the program, sits down with us as well. So questions for Jordan, hit me up as well for either of these guys at Right Step ADV. If you have a question on a prospect, a process, whatever it may be, fresh film, fresh eyes as we talk to to two of the two two of the good ones in the draft world football world. But today Soapbox all about development. Since my time with the Falcons, I have seen a different picture of what football looks like from the outside. I have I've been in some interviews. I've asked some questions of those interviewing me that honestly made them bristle a little bit here after the fact that they didn't like that question. Well, there's a reason they don't like it, and one, because it's missing in a big way. Nobody likes to have their Their holes, their blind spots pointed out. The good ones do it, the good ones and address it. But again, it's one of the big reasons I started and have developed the scouting community, which I talked about already. I've had conversations with scouts from across the NFL. Nearly someone from all 32 teams, still got a couple teams that you know, traditionally a little bit quiet, a little bit more closed off. So again, still working on those. But when I start talking about development, it's really about what are you doing or Most of the time, what I've learned, what they're not doing, what they say they're doing with no follow-through, specifically on the scouting staff side. I'm gonna mostly hit on that today. But again, it's going to have its tentacles reach out to every department of what an NFL organization is needs to be. I'm gonna I'm gonna stay away from the college front because again, there is still so much that has to be laid out on the college front office side. It is a different beast with pro the way programs are going. There it's probably still a couple years of settling before college programs can really develop this. And then obviously you talk about budget restrictions. You talk about the differences in the way programs across the country. So again, I'm gonna focus on the NFL side because there is structure. There is a a system in place that should be happening that's not. So again, I'm gonna stay on the NFL side at the college level. It's all about win now. It's short window. Again, from a Player standpoint at the college level, we hear it all the time. Players are not being developed at the college level. Well, again, ultimately, that is not the job of any coach, especially though at the college level, in a landscape where it is win now. Do this for us in our system, and that's all we care about. I it the quarterback position is probably the biggest thing. And we're gonna. We're gonna keep your reads really simple. We're gonna be telling you from the line of scrimmage, from the sideline. Again, I've talked about it on this program. The quarterback that has control is going to translate better to the NFL. But again, if you do something really, really well at the college level and will fit in the right offense. Again, you may not need to necessarily develop beyond that right now. That is the college level at the NFL level. It is really short-sighted to stick with that philosophy, that motto. Now, again, NFL teams want to find a role, find a fit, find something that you do that's going to allow you to be a good player. But when you start talking about the you know a a player being on a roster, keeping a core, keeping a group of players together, the development piece has to be a part of that. There has to be a focus. It can't just be, hey, you are good at this. That's all we need you to do in the NFL. That will get you beat. That will get exploited. You can only live in that way so long. Teams are going to come after that when there is a limitation. And again, lack of development will lead to that limitation showing even longer. The the issue at the NFL level, again, I think is well beyond a head coach and a GM wanting to put something in place. This goes to ownership and goes to the people that are writing the checks. And again, that is where it can be hard when you're when you're wanting to present something as a new idea to ownership, as a is a newer or as a developing, as a front office that has had some success, it becomes either, hey, You know, win some games and we'll we'll we'll integrate this. Win some games and we'll do this. It it shouldn't be it win and do this because the development is going to lead to wins. The development is going to lead to success. It's an ownership issue. And the franchise, 32 systems, 32 structures, there should be a model for development. That goes beyond whoever the head coach and the GM is. Those guys have to be in lockstep. They have to be on board. They have to be, you know, involved in a certain way, but they shouldn't be the sole factors. They shouldn't be leading this charge, which again, I'm gonna make the point, there's gotta be a dedicated position. The ownership has to be like, hey, we are going to bring people, people in players, coaches, scouts, front office, strength and conditioning staff, diet, nutrition, life skills, player engagement. Every aspect of the organization has to be involved with this because it is all going to factor in and be a factor. If ownership does not have these systems in place, a new GM, a new head coach, maybe come in, have some success. By year two, they're starting to integrate this. And then by year three or four, as we've seen, again, things start to look good. They go south in a hurry. If it's on the head coach and GM only to do this. Again, you're hitting reset on the entire development of the organization as soon as either of those or both of those positions change. If that model is in place and a head coach and GM steps in and says, wow, this is really good and good, you know, we've got a development person right here that is running all this. They're the person I need to go to. They're not going to be the end-all be-all. There's always going to be people that, you know, head coach, GM are going to use that trump card to keep somebody in place that maybe. Is lacking, maybe has not shown development, maybe not doing the things they need to do. But again, that should be a trunk card, not a standard hand that you are dealing with as an organization. And that is why it's organizationally that it matters so much. Again, every aspect of the organization has to be a part of. Strength and conditioning, you should be constantly developing, evaluating them. And again, that's going to lead over and carry over to what the product is. field. Again, from a diet nutrition, again, that's probably going to lead over itself over to the not only the the field, but the training room as well. Again, your athletic trainers, the the the doctors you have in there evaluating them. Again, that's a tall task, but again, there's simple things that I'm going to get to that can be done in that life skills. Again, players that can function and be trusted on their own. Again, if not, again, NFL teams, some NFL teams spend a lot of money Just managing players' lives, keeping noses clean, keeping them out of trouble, keeping them out of the headlines. That's great. Hey, what if we just develop that person to take care of themselves, to be an adult, to you know, manage their money financially? Again, that's all part of it as well. So again, it's got to be an organizational structure thing. Hitting on a couple of these p these specific things. Coaching wise, again, I've talked about it with defensive head coaches. You've got to always be thinking about who the next offensive coordinator is. But again, It should be the case for everybody. Coaches always have to be getting better, maybe expanding their network. There's certain coaches. Again, Bobby Turner, a guy I was with in Atlanta, now out in San Francisco, like Bobby T was at a spot in his career where okay, maybe there's not a ton of development. Maybe he's not wanting to widen his sphere. He is really good at what he does with running backs. There's going to be cases like that. Again, it was, you know, it it it's the d maybe the older guard that hey you get to a certain spot you're kind of penciled in. Yeah, if only we had that in the scouting world, I'm gonna get to that. But again, you've always got to be thinking about it. Who is good at what? What element is this coach bringing to the table? Where can we press them? Where can we expand them? Again, Raheem Morris went from defense to offense to wide receivers, defensive coordinator. Hey like Raheem has really developed in his time. And again a lot of that started When there was a need and a willingness by DQ to say, hey, Raw, you're gonna do something different, something you haven't done. You're going to either develop and get better, make us better, is going to allow you career opportunities, or it's not gonna work out. You're gonna step back into your role. We'll just find that out. Again, these spots where you're going to stress, where you're going to be creating a little bit of stress, that is going to happen. The evaluation of the coaching staff also has to happen outside of just the offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, and head coach. Pro scouts should be developing or should be evaluating coaches. Scouts as area scouts, college scouts as they're working in the spring, as they're communicating a little bit during the fall, as you get into cross check evaluation draft time. There should be evaluation happening across departments. Again. Scouts develop evaluating coaches, coaches evaluating scouts. Again, if there's not some symmetry, if there's not some agreement, if there is butting of heads in these areas, it's probably going to tell you whether is it a communication issue, is it a an issue with the way they're viewing players? Again, there should be some say, not all the say, but this cross-department eval has to be a part of it. And for coaches, if you're not developing coaches, if you're not pressing them, getting them better, you're going to end up hurting yourself. Cause when You do have success and you get poached. These guys go other places. If you're not building from internally, you're starting over, you're starting something new. As we see with the Texans happening right now, it seems to be an issue where again, that offense does not look right. You've got a really good franchise quarterback again with another OC. again, I I expected in his second year now that this offense would be a little bit better, but again, you're seeing the issues when you have. Constant change on one side of the ball. I experienced in Atlanta going from Kyle to Sark to Dirt. No continuity, no structure, nothing. Again, if you could keep a Matt LaFleur, a Mike LaFleur, at least for a couple of years, develop from within Mike McDaniel. Again, a bunch of really good offensive coaches that went on to up other opportunities, had the opportunity to keep them. Didn't happen in Atlanta. Ultimately, it hurts. On the scouting side, again, there's a little bit more of a track to a develop. As a scout, and you go from this again, a scouting assistant, intern scouting assistant to area blesto, NFS, kind of somewhere in that area. And then again, maybe you go to an area an area regional, national, maybe you get some pro scouting experience, but are you being evaluated where it actually matters? Again, it can certainly be hard when an NFL team says, Hey, we only evaluate for our team, which means The 245 players that get drafted and go elsewhere. Okay, so you you're saying you can't evaluate your the your scouts based on those. Again, I guess it's an argument, but again, within those reports, is there some consensus? Are the three or four, five, six reports, are they all within a pretty tight range? Are you agreeing? Hey, this guy's a good to very good athlete, everybody in that range. If somebody's further than that, there's probably an issue. With the way that player is being seen. And it's got to be ironed out. It's not just, we have a difference of opinion. Yeah, that's too big a difference of opinion because there is a standard for what an athlete is, for speed, for change of direction. It has to be nailed down. And if you're not spending some time looking at that, then it matters. Then it's going to affect you because again, the further you are apart on a player, the harder it's going to be to come into consensus. The wider range your reports are going to be, the more important the Higher ups are going to be in deciding that. And again, somebody is right, somebody is wrong. It is not simply just an average of those. So again, for for for nearly on all NFL teams, as I've talked to scouts from across the NFL, as I've done the work on this, the it's a giant no. We're not being evaluated. And even if we are being evaluated, we're not being developed. They it's lip service. It's a Yeah, check a box again, very little eval, very little development done. again, it's insanity. It's hey, we're gonna do the same thing. We're gonna send our scouts out, we're gonna grab the information. you know, another year, again, another 500 year. Yeah, let's just do it again to see maybe, maybe better results. So front offices have gotten smaller. I think they're gonna continue to get smaller because of some of the issues. Again, AI is going to allow you to be a little bit more efficient. We've got more data, which allows you to be more susp efficient, but at the end of the day, the leadership, the the decision making, the source development, things that none of these outline outside services offer, and things that should and can be evaluated have to be evaluated and have to be developed. Evals can be tough, yes, but what about punctuality? What about getting due dates, reports in on due dates? What about schedule efficiency? that's a crazy thing. Are you scheduling Efficient with your time, efficient with your travel, efficient with your visits? Are you financially efficient? Are you spending a lot more money as an area scout than you should be based on what's average? Based on what other other scouts with your team are doing? What about cross-checking? What about communication with coaches, with directors? what about on visits? What are pro liaisons saying about you as a scout when you are in there? How many NFL teams are doing that? Again, I've asked the question. not very many. It'd say, yeah, I think he's a pretty good scout. He is always personal little in our building. Well what about in the visit? There's scouts I hated being around because they were terrible for pro liaisons. It was a question I asked at the symposium this year and again was glad when I believe it was Jay Mandelosi talked about, hey, please tell us. We have to be able to evaluate these based on the feedback from pro liaisons. NFL teams should want to know who they're good at. Scouts at visits are and who is not. And that is the only way that you can continue to push it forward. Presenting public speaking, that is a part of scouting. If you can't, without being nervous, without fumbling over your words, get through an eval on a player in front of a head coach, GM, offensive coordinator, owner, perhaps. Again, you either better be working on that or you better not be asked to do it. Or it's time to say, hey, within our system, we need you to be able to do this. You can't do this. It's time to move on to a different organization. Let's help you find something. Special project. That's one of those big ones. Again, my time in Atlanta, not many special projects. Did a couple kind of things on my own as a pro scout. But again, special projects should be assigned to stress to see, hey, where does this person, this scout, pro college, wherever it's at, where can where do they excel? Do they excel with data analytics? We need to pair them with somebody over here. I want to see how they work together. Special projects are a great way to, you know, open up the eyes, expand that bubble of where their work is at a little bit that's going to allow you to see, hey, this person is really good in this area. We did we didn't know that. We kind of thought they'd struggle here. They're a really good communicator, evaluator. They really know how to, you know, communicate the numbers to the evals, to the boxes. They're improving this area. That is one of the great spots, which again, some teams. assigned special projects and there's really ever not ever any follow through on it. That was some feedback I got. It's like I get told to do this every year to develop and I never hear a second thing about it. That's not that that's busy work. Don't just give busy work if you're not going to follow up on it. So again, are you are you on the Forever Scout track, area scout track? do you have a penchant for management? Again Area scouts who are really good at character maybe not be as good at evalues. Again, that person should remain in their role. Either work on their evaluation or they're in this role forever. That may mean a slight, slightly slower pay increase. Maybe their area changes a little bit. Again, but if they're really good in that area, and I know some people who were really, really awesome source development, finding out the answers, getting the character, and then you heard him talk about players, and it's like Yeah, I disagree with that, but wow, that was fantastic. What you were able to dig up on this player. Good. Lean into that. Lean into the part that they are the best at. Yes, you can still work on that other part, but again, there's probably a ceiling over there on that part. Take what they do best and run with it. Develop one, develop both, develop the other. Lean into the strength, boast, bolster it. College directors, pro directors, do not have the time to now look at all of this. Again. College directors are doing so many reports as things trickle up or trickle down through the funnel to get to higher ups. Pro directors, same thing. You're hitting advances, you're hitting free agents. You are so busy during the time of year where you should be evaluating some of this stuff. You you you can't dedicate the time it needs to it. So you've got to think in a new way. And that is where NFL franchises ownership has to take a step. This has to be a dedicated position. The team that attacks it first, that gets this system in place, I think is going to have a huge advantage. They're going to be so much better, so much more stable, so much more growth. People will want to work for that organization because they know they're going to know exactly where they stand and they're going to get better. but again, it's about pinching pennies. It's about probably some self-indictment, some self-evaluation. Hey, we have not been very good in this area. Again, We all know a muscle doesn't grow without some stress, without a little strain, without some working out. It's no different for this area of NFL franchises. Development has to be involved. I've laid out a plan. I've talked to a couple teams, haven't gotten maybe more than a first conversation, but NFL teams, again, it's kind of an acknowledgement. It has to be pushed to ownership. Ownership Again, it has to come from you guys. It has to come from higher up, even than the head coach in the GM. This has to be in place for 32 franchise or the game of football is going to be heard. We're already seeing some effects of it. Early season play up and down all over the place. It has to happen. It's going to make the game better. It's going to, you know, cause some scabs to be peeled off that need to be peeled off. And it's going to allow teams, franchise, organizations, and ultimately the game of football to be better. man, that's my soapbox. Thoughts, comments. Perhaps a scout or two out there that wants to share with me more of your thoughts. I'm always going to protect you. I'm never throwing you under the bus. I want to help and develop you. Let me know at right step ADV. Probably have my cell phone number if you're a scout as well. So hit me up. You know where to find me. Tomorrow, all about evaluating for the 2027 NFL draft. It's gonna be old lineman Jordan Seaton of LSU. He goes under the spotlight. Wednesday, Dane Brudler. Make sure you get your comments, thoughts, notes in on that one. The soapbox can be put away for now. It's not far away because I'm probably gonna get back up on it soon. So I will not be done there. But I will see you tomorrow as together we will keep scouting.