Aug. 28-Sept. 3

In the August 13 edition of the Friday Wrap, we introduced our undertaking aimed at sniffing out which scouts are the best ones in the league, based on a vote of their peers. Today, we provide more details on what’s ahead for this first-year project. Here’s how it will work.

  • Monday, we’ll send out the “ballots” (a Survey Monkey link similar to what’s sent out each year to conduct our salary survey) to all NFL scouts, evaluators and administrators, pro and college. 
  • Ballots will include two lists, one for the NFC and one for the AFC, with about 200 names on each.
  • All scouts listed will have at least five years’ experience in a full-time scouting role (i.e., not analytics, and not a scouting assistant or intern). 
  • Voters will select 10 names from each conference.
  • Everyone with a current job in a league scouting department below the level of GM will receive a ballot, but no one else.
  • We’ll send ballots out three more times before suspending voting in late December, then announce the winners (with short bios) in the Friday Wrap in October. 
  • The 10 highest vote-getters in each conference will be honored, and we’ll recognize them at the ITL Combine Seminar in February in Indianapolis. 

With around 600 scouts and evaluators, our goal is to get ballots returned by 100-150 voters. Given the schedule scouts are keeping this time of year, we know it’s a big ask, but our hope is that voters can find a minute while waiting to interview an academic counselor or killing time before practice starts. 

Here’s how we encourage voters to make their selections. Consider the following qualities: 

  • Bold: Is the scout confident in his assessments? Is he willing to “stand on the table” for a prospect he believes in? Will he assert himself and be willing to emerge from groupthink?
  • Articulate: Can he express what he likes, or doesn’t like, about a prospect? Can he paint a picture that everyone can understand?
  • Resourced: Does he have contacts who will return his calls? Can he get past the party line and gather difference-making information using his network?
  • Thorough:  Is he detail-oriented? Is he passionate enough to go the extra mile to find out what makes a player tick? Does he watch film until his eyes lose focus to make sure he’s got the drop on a prospect?
  • Organized: Does he get the job done in an orderly fashion? Does he keep up with his assignments and get his reports in on time? When it’s time to run a pro day, does he show up with everything he needs, then promptly present info in a clear manner?

You may have noticed that the first letter in each criterion spells a familiar name. Last week, we eulogized our friend, former Rams scout Danton Barto. We will honor our friend by referring to the winners from both conference as members of the 2021 “Bart” List, as Danton was known by his friends. We see it as one more way to honor the anonymous road warriors who give so much but don’t always share in the glory that comes from winning on Sundays. We hope to grow the Bart List to include separate votes on pro and college scouts, or to divide by years of experience. Still, this is a start, and we’re excited to see how this year’s vote goes. 

Here’s a look at what else we saw, heard, read and said in the business of college and pro football this week. 

Catching Up: You’d have a hard time finding a more seasoned evaluator than Jerry Reichow, 87, who just retired from the Vikings a year-and-a-half ago after 59 years with the team (five as a player). We caught up with him this week.

  • Where are you living and what are you doing now?: “That’s the problem. Since that pandemic got the best of me, you just sit . . . so I can’t do a lot of physical stuff. We just moved to Tucson a month ago from Santa Fe, N.M. My wife has some health issues, so her health is much better down here. We were in Santa Fe for 30 years. When I left Minn, I went to Santa Fe because my wife had a business down there, and I quit doing national stuff and just did the West Coast for the Vikings.”
  • Do you miss the job? What do you miss most?: “I do miss it. I enjoyed going to talk particularly to certain schools, certain coaches. I got to have a relationship with them, and that was very interesting. But now I miss it because I have nothing to do. It’s terrible. I read and then read and then read some more. The pandemic is where it really started. It got me. Now I’m at the age if I fall, look out.” 
  • Do you keep in touch with any of your former colleagues?: “No, unless they might be coming down this way and they give me a call. We don’t do much of that anymore, either. I used to call a few of the scouts. (Vikings national scout) Mike Sholiton, I call him. He’s a good friend and a good guy, and If I can help him, great. But there’s not many of them left. That’s the worst part.”
  • Do you go to any live games (HS/college/pro)?:  At Minnesota, they have us up probably once a year, but I think I missed it last year because New Mexico shut down and we couldn’t see anything. But over here (in Tucson), I’m a couple blocks from the university, and I have a friend who wants to introduce me to the new coach. So I’ll go watch them practice and go to some of the high school games here maybe.”
  • Are there any players you love to watch and/or feel close to due to your work in the game?: “I skip around and watch some of (the games), and kinda keep up with them. (The players) change (teams) so much now. It’s not like it used to be, where Dick Butkus is with the Bears, and you didn’t have to worry about that. But that’s changed, of course. They make a hell of a lot more money now, I know that.”

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.

Noel Scarlett, 1974-2021: Noel Scarlett, 47, a former NFL and CFL defensive lineman who’s been a boisterous and passionate part of the College Gridiron Showcase coaching staff since Day 1, passed away Wednesday. We, the members of the CGS staff, won’t forget his in-your-face instruction, his vocal chiding of offensive linemen (and especially their coaches) when his defensive linemen bested them in drills, and the spirit and camaraderie he brought to fellow CGS staffers each year. Scarlett was also the defensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator at Texas College, and previously ran his own combine prep service, Dallas-based 4th and Inches Sports. His son, Argyle edge rusher Jadon, will carry on the Scarlett name as a member of the 2022 recruiting class at Texas A&M. CGS founders Jose Jefferson and Craig Redd are considering ways to memorialize Noel for his contribution to the showcase. We’ll keep you up to date. In the meantime, please keep the Scarlett family in your prayers.

Rep Rumblings: This week, we had two reports. On Tuesday, we took a long look at all the changes at the Shrine Bowl in Eric Galko’s first year running the game, including a new scouting staff and several new partnerships. We also looked at a young agent who moved to a bigger agency and more. On Thursday, we checked in with the Hula Bowl, which will also have a new executive director this year; examined a Stanford prospect’s ties to current and former NFL players; and looked at a prominent NFL player who’s currently unattached for representation. Check out this week’s reports – and every report since 2013 – here.

Early grades on the 2021 NFL Draft class: We won’t know for years which teams did best this spring, of course, but with 53-man rosters named and practice squads set, we know which players did best already. Though rosters are a moving target as teams make final tweaks, we took a snapshot of teams’ player lists as of Thursday AM and made some initial observations about where the ’21 class was deepest,  which teams loved their UDFA signings the most (and which one wasn’t so impressed), the three draftees who are still looking for teams and plenty more. Make sure to check out all our thoughts here, and while you’re at it, sift through all our posts going back to June 2014. 

Agent Changes: We finally began our slow crawl back to being on schedule with our signature reports as we rolled out our June edition this week. What we found was 20 changes, including one by a top-shelf defensive lineman who just can’t seem to find the right match (he’s on his fourth agency in his five NFL seasons). It was a volatile month across the league as this year’s total for June was more than double last year’s total during the same period. It was busiest for cornerbacks and wide receivers, as four from each position made changes in June, bearing out the trend that the fastest players tend to be the quickest to make changes in representation, as the numbers always show. Make sure to review all the agent changes in the league going back more than a decade here.

Next week: We have football! While NFL games are still a few days away, Labor Day is traditionally a big weekend for college football, and – like all normal people -- we’ll have several games on as we work on next week’s content. As we mentioned earlier, we’ll polish our scouting ballot this weekend in anticipation of getting out the voting link on Monday. There’s still some work today before everything is ready, but we’re looking forward to finding out who the leagues’ evaluators prize among their own peers. We’ll also have our regular features, such as our Rep Rumblings, our Profile Reports (Temple, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M and Texas State – just 26 schools to go), our Succeed in Football post, new additions to the NIL Grid and Scouting Changes Grid and maybe even a surprise for the aspiring scouts among our members. Of course, we’ll save a little time to enjoy the bustling schedule of games this weekend and Thursday’s Bucs-Cowboys opener. We know you will, too. And while you’re watching, make sure to check us out, too. Happy Labor Day, everyone!