Aug. 7-13

With preseason NFL games under way and evaluators already crisscrossing the nation, we can officially close the book on scouting changes for the 2021 offseason. However, while all the assignments have been made and we know who’s “in” and “out” of the scouting community for the coming season, there are still a few moves we’ve yet to learn about. 

That’s why we’re combing through media guides and team websites to sift out the last undiscovered moves. And once we’re done, there’s something exciting ahead. We’re out to find the ten best scouts in each conference. 

We’ll do this by conducting an online vote, and we’ll poll only active NFL scouts in September. The format will be very similar to our annual salary survey, which we conduct in January and February leading up to the annual ITL Combine Seminar which, we hope, will be back in person in Indianapolis (and not online, like last year) in 2022. We’ll ask each participant to select the 10-best scouts in each conference, AFC and NFC. No one is required to vote for 10, but no one can vote for more than 10. Votes won’t take place in any order; we’re just trying to determine who the top 10 are in each conference. 

Here are the ground rules:

  • No GMs or de facto GMs; this vote is for the people with boots on the ground.
  • No analytics or cap officials; traditional evaluators only.
  • Minimum five years in a scouting role (not cap or analytics).
  • Each candidate must have been with an NFL team on Draft Weekend 2021.
  • Only full-time scouts on pro or college side; no scouting assistants.
  • No one in their first season on the job: college scout, pro scout, administrator, etc. 
  • No combine scouts; again, we’re looking for a higher level of experience.

What are the criteria? It’s more than just which scout has the most players from his region drafted, which one is best with the clicker in the film room, or which one has the most reliable watch at pro day. It’s also about which one asks the best questions of the pro liaison, comes back with the most insightful analysis after all-star interviews, and has the best network to find the info no one else can find. 

We hope to have the results sometime in October after four weeks of voting, and we’ll announce them here, in the Friday Wrap. We’ll also formally recognize the winners at our seminar in February. We hope it’s another way to bring some recognition to some of the hardest-working but least-honored people in the pro football world. 

We need a few more weeks to finalize our ballots and make sure everyone included satisfies all the eligibility requirements. Will we screw up on a few names? Most assuredly, but we’d rather risk making a few mistakes than to put off giving scouts a platform to bring a little attention to the best people in the industry, especially as traditional scouting takes a backseat to new methodologies that are still to be proven. Maybe the members of the scouting profession can shed a little light on the people they respect the most, and maybe that will help a few key people remember there’s still a place in the tame for people who’ve paid their dues and learned a few things about not just the game, but human nature and how today’s player fits into today’s league.

If you’re an active NFL scout, look for the ballot in your inbox in a couple weeks. In the meantime, here’s a look at what else we saw, heard, read and said in a busy week of college and pro football business. 

Scouting Changes Grid: The end of the summer, when team media guides are released, is always the best time to catch up on scouting moves and confirm the ones we heard of this year. Here’s a taste of what we found out this week:


All of these moves have been added to our Scouting Changes Grid, which you can access here.

Who’s the best scout you’ve ever seen?: At Inside the League, it’s not just about the game today but also the game’s history. That’s’ why, on Thursday, we asked that question to several former NFL administrators and executives. 

  • Ron Hill, former Broncos, Cowboys, Falcons and Jaguars executive said it’s Walt Yowarsky. “(He) played at Kentucky for Coach (Bear) Bryant and was the MVP in the 1951 Sugar Bowl vs (Oklahoma). He played in the NFL from 1951 to 1958, then coached in the league before becoming a scout for the Dallas Cowboys for 23 years. He was a great mentor and the best evaluator I have ever been around in this business. He was a great man and a true friend.” 
  • Former Raiders executive Jon Kingdon said, “In the post-Ron Wolf era, I would list two scouts: Bruce Kebric and Kent McCloughan. Both were reliable, consistent, committed, and had a conviction in all of their reports. I highlight them over some other fine scouts because of their seniority. We only had one scout that I worked with that lacked in every one of those qualities.”
  • For three-time NFL GM Randy Mueller, “it was Pat Mondock, formerly of the Colts, and he was with me In Seattle and New Orleans. Consistently gave you the information without an agenda and always made a point to know exactly what we were looking for from a criteria standpoint.” 
  • Former Bucs GM Mark Dominik liked former Bears and Chiefs executive Mark Hatley. “He had that knack of seeing it quickly. Look, we all miss, (but) he had conviction and really grinded at his job.” 

We asked seven other former NFL executives and they all had their own responses, each one of them listing someone different. Find out who they are and who they picked in this week’s Succeed in Football post. 

Catching Up: Tom Ciskowski, 66, spent 27 years in scouting, all with the Cowboys, running the team’s draft for several years before finishing up after the 2019 NFL Draft as the team’s senior personnel executive. We caught up with him last week.

  • Where are you living and what are you doing now?: “I live in McKinney, Texas. My wife and I bought a house up here, kinda way up in the sticks almost, but we love it. There’s more green to look at rather than at our house in Coppell. I work with my wife at St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry and on the board of The Pines (Catholic) Youth Camp in Big Sandy, north and a little east of Tyler.” 
  • Do you miss the job? What do you miss most?: “I probably miss the camaraderie with the guys and just the evaluation, looking at guys, seeing who can upgrade the team and this and that, and that’s the main thing. I do not miss writing the reports.”
  • Do you keep in touch with any of your former colleagues?: “Yes. Jim Abrams with the Raiders. Also, Walter Juliff with the Raiders. (Cowboys scouting consultant) Terry Gray on the pro side, and (Cowboys area scout) Sam Garza on the college side, and that’s basically it. I’ll text (Cowboys executive) Will (McClay) from time to time, and wish him luck on this or that, but I understand that about scouting. I’ve done it, and you can have a plan to grade five players that day, then other things come across your desk and things come up, so I don’t like to bother people during the season. I know time is critical in that role.” 
  • Do you go to any live games (HS/college/pro)?: “Yes. I go to home Cowboys games and I plan on doing that again this year. Our daughter is going to North Texas, she’s an art major and wants to teach art in high school, and my wife and I are considering (season tickets) there. I will for sure, but my wife doesn’t like the heat. I don’t know if I‘ll do it in 2021, but probably in 2022, I’ll buy the home game package and see how it goes. Also, Rick Villarreal was the AD at North Texas, and he got that new stadium built in Denton. . . and we’ve become friends. He stayed in Denton and I’ve met some of his associates, so I won’t be going in cold.” 
  • Are there any players you love to watch and/or feel close to due to your work in the game?: “Well, (OT) Tyron (Smith) was a guy that we drafted when I was running it, and it breaks my heart when I see all his injury issues, because (our defensive ends) were telling (our coaches) they’d never seen a player with as heavy hands as Tyron. His first 2-3 years, he was unbelievable, and I think he’s still a really good player, but not to where he was. I think barring injury he would have been a slam dunk hall of famer. I don’t know how he’s viewed now, and I don’t even know how many Pro Bowls he’s had. It’s a popularity contest, but a few years he was a Pro Bowler and I think certainly his past performance had a lot to do with it. I’ve also followed (LB) Sean Lee, and when he played and was healthy, he was an excellent football player. Then . . . (former OH LeSean) ‘Shady’ McCoy. I wanted him so bad because (former Cowboys QB) Tony Romo had told me, ‘I always feel like I gotta make a play down the field,’ and if we had gotten Shady McCoy, if it’s not downfield, just throw it to Shady. And then I really liked (former LB) NaVorro Bowman. We passed on him as well, but in scouting, there were always some we took that didn’t turn out, and some we didn’t, too, so it all levels out.” 

Review the latest from other former NFL scouts and executives by accessing our Catching Up archive here. Want to hear from a former scout, or know someone who may be interested in being interviewed? Let us know.

Pro development ahead: Though the crush of the NFLPA exam is over, the work isn’t over for us. We’re setting up a subscribers-only series of Zoom sessions for later this month and September which is aimed at giving the next generation of NFL scouts and agents tips on how to be successful. There will be no fee to join these sessions – as long as you’re an ITL client. Though we’re not quite ready to release our schedule, or our guests, we have a former NFL scout with two Super Bowls on his resume and an expert on NIL with tips on how to get into the race, especially for those test-takers still waiting for their results. We’re filling up our roster and setting our schedule. Got someone you’d like to hear from, or a topic you’d like addressed? Let us know. In the meantime, stay tuned.  

Next week: We’ve got a lot of projects ahead, but plenty of work yet just to get caught up. Hopefully, this is the week we finally get right on our Agent Changes for June and, perhaps, even July, which would set the table for us to offer our August update next week. Fingers crossed. We’re also winding our way toward the end of our Profile Reports, with just 40 reports to go. Next week, we’ll have Pittsburgh, Purdue, Rice, Rutgers and San Diego State. For our weekly blog, Succeed in Football, we’ll try to look at the league’s personnel profile as we approach the start of the season, or we’ll take a look at our third-quarter Zoom schedule in more depth. Still to be determined, but we’ll have something for sure. In our Rep Rumblings, we’ll continue our team-by-team look at the scouting changes we missed, and we’ll pass them along (we’ll also add them to our Scouting Changes Grid). Of course, the NIL chase never stops, and we’ll continue to scan the industry to turn up all the buzz and we’ll plug it into our NIL Grid. There’s no newsletter this week, but we’ll be resuming the ITL Rising Contract Advisor Newsletter just as soon as the results are in on the 2021 CBA Exam. If that’s not enough for you, don’t forget about our YouTube channel, our books and our podcasts. Want more? Got ideas? Let us know. Or . . . maybe it’s already on the site. Find out here.