Sept. 24-30
Last year, we decided to take a chance and try to recognized the one group that plays a fundamental role in what happens on Sundays, but remains largely completely anonymous: the scout. The goal was to ask today’s active NFL evaluators who, among their peers, is the best.
When all was said and done, there was no way we weren’t bringing back the BART Awards – named for the late former NFL scout, Danton Barto – in 2023. Still, we felt we could make the awards better, so we took a few chances. Here’s a look at some of the changes, some of the questions, and other assorted items related to this year’s vote and how it will look different from last year’s polling.
Who can vote?: We tried to cast a really wide net. Pretty much, if you’re listed on your team’s website under the scouting department heading, we have tried to email you a ballot, and will for the next four weeks. Figuring out email addresses isn’t always easy, of course, but we did our best based on each team’s email template. If you got this email, you’ll get a ballot, as well. If you didn’t, and want to vote, please let us know. Alternatively, if you are an active NFL scout reading this because it was forwarded to you, and you’d like to vote, please provide an email and we’ll add you to the distribution list. Just respond to this email or DM us on Twitter at @InsideTheLeague.
Who’s eligible?: We tried to canvas and include as nominees members of every team’s scouting department except (a) general managers (the goal is to bring recognition to lesser-known evaluators, and GMs get plenty of exposure), (b) scouting assistants (they’ll get their chance eventually) and (c) anyone involved in analytics or operations.
This year, we included pro scouts, too: We labored over how much a team’s pro scouts actually know other teams’ evaluators. Will this vote devolve into pure homer-ism? It’s a risk we took because we feel strongly that pro scouts are scouts, too. By the way, we’ll be adding a new pro department honor to our voting in January for the ITL Combine Seminar’s awards presentation.
Management vs. staff: We got some (well-intended) criticism after last year’s polling when we lumped upper-level executives – DPPs, vice presidents, senior personnel executives and anyone else with “director” in their title – in with rank-and-file area scouts. We tried to correct for that this year, so basically, if you were a national scout/cross-checker or anyone on a lower staff tier, we put you in the “field evaluation” group.
How did we decide who’s eligible to receive votes?: We feel that if you are in the top five percent of your peers, you deserve recognition. With that in mind, we identified three groups – pro scouts (executive and field), college scouts (executive) and college scouts (field). The breakdown looks like this:
· In each conference, we counted about 50 total pro scouting evaluators (executive plus non-executive) across all 16 teams per conference, so we decided to honor three from this group.
· We counted about 70 executive-level college scouts and evaluators in each conference (again, DPPs, vice presidents, senior personnel executives and anyone else with “director” in their title) across all 16 teams per conference, so we decided to recognize three in this space.
· Finally, we counted 130-140 “field-level” college scouts in each conference (per 16 teams each), so our survey asks voters to choose seven.
We hope this has allowed members of each group to get their just desserts while stopping far short of making ours a participation trophy.
But you got some jobs wrong!: There’s little doubt we did. Deciding who does mostly college vs. mostly pro scouting among the 600-odd professionals in NFL scouting departments is not easy. When in doubt, we put evaluators on the college scouting pile. It’s a work in progress. Where we find out we were wrong this year, we’ll do better next year.
Being surgical: Last year, all active NFL scouts got the same ballot. This year, we’ve segregated balloting by conference. Maybe that’s a mistake – there are no conference divisions at practices, in college field houses, or at all-star games – but we’re hopeful this creates more accurate voting. Our thinking: a scout is more likely to keep a keener eye on the evaluators in his division and conference than those who aren’t.
When will we know who won?: Last year, we announced the winners immediately after our four weeks of voting were concluded. This year, we’re going to keep everyone in suspense: we’ll announce winners at our annual seminar in Indianapolis. We hope it adds a bit of excitement, mystery and even grandeur (?) to our BART List awards.
Miscellaneous: Voting will continue throughout October, with the voting links sent out today and every Friday in October and the survey closing at midnight on Halloween. Only active NFL scouts will receive the voting link, and they can vote only once. Winners will receive a plaque and an invitation to our big shindig in Indy, where they will be recognized.
OK, that should cover it. Got more questions? Respond to this email. We wish the best of luck to all of NFL scouts and evaluators, and a hearty congratulations, once again, to last year’s winners. We are excited about bringing a well-deserved spotlight to the people who play a key (but unsung) role in the best game every invented. If you’re an active NFL scout, you just received a ballot link in your inbox. Please help us out by voting.
In the meantime, 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: Chris Snee, 40, spent four years on the road evaluating players with the Jaguars. We caught up with him this week.
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Where are you living and what are you doing now? “I still live in New Jersey. We’re in a nice area, the schools are great and the kids love it. There were thoughts about it, but we didn’t uproot to Jacksonville. So we’re still in northern New Jersey, and I recently took a job at Boston College. I had been up there a couple times in the spring, and talking to Coach (Jeff) Hafley, I told him if nothing cracks in the NFL, I would love to help. He, of course, was very supportive, and the minute I said I’d like to come up, he got it done quick. I’m up there a couple days a week and then the others, I’m home remotely, watching film. It’s something I enjoy doing. In January, I’ll be at TEST. I’ve known of their facility and their training and the success they’ve had, and (former Giants guard) Rich Seubert is down there, and he asked me to come down. His kids have been training there, and Rich is as close a friend of mine as anybody, so I value his word. (TEST owner) Kevin (Dunn) asked if I wanted to be a part of the combine prep program, so I told him I would. When I was scouting, I did the fall visits, but I also enjoyed being the pro day guy, the one who holds the bag. It allows you to look the kid in the eye. So some days we’ll both be (at TEST), some days one of us, but it’s two guys with knowledge of the game and experience at the highest level.”
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Do you miss the job? What do you miss most? “What I miss is, I was able to work with a couple of great guys in Jacksonville. I miss the camaraderie. When you’re done playing, you’re in search of your new game day experience. I coach my kids, but that’s not filling the game day void. For me, (scouting) was filling that war room void. I was fascinated watching (former Jaguars GM) Dave Caldwell do it. The board fascinates me. For me it, got my juices flowing. That part I miss. Moving forward, (if I got back into scouting) it would have to be with the right (GM). You gotta find a guy that you trust. To me that’s what it’s all about. You gotta work for the right guy, the right organization. It was a good four years in Jacksonville.”
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Do you keep in touch with any of your former colleagues? “Yeah I do. There’s probably 4-5 guys from Jacksonville that I talk to, and I just saw a guy at Boston College that I hadn’t seen in a few years. There’s also a few guys that have moved on to other teams. There’s a good 15-20 that I check in with regularly, or that check in with me. The game has changed. The offensive line position is tougher and tougher to evaluate. Now that I’m (coaching) at BC, you put on high school film and it’s challenging trying to project what these guys will look like. At least with high school kids you have time to mold them. You have less time with college kids (when they move to the pros).”
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Do you go to any live games (HS/college/pro)? “My (older) son just graduated from high school, and he’s playing football at Tufts University, so I bounce around high school games (with my younger son). We’ll bounce around games and look at the high schools he might choose. Then we’ll go to a Giants game once or twice a year. It’s eight years removed from my playing days, but it’s still challenging for me to watch a Giants game in person. I can sit at home and make comments and voice frustration, but when I go to a game, it’s just hard for me to watch a complete game. I was just at the game Monday night and I volunteered to do suite visits and visit fans. I don’t know why but it’s hard for me to watch a game.”
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Are there any players you love to watch and/or feel close to due to your work in the game? There’s a few guys I played with in New York. (Giants offensive lineman) Justin Pugh, every now and again, I’ll see how he’s doing, how his body’s feeling. When I played, he was young, but now he’s at the point in his career where I was when I played with him. Then, among younger players, one of my first road trips was to scout (Colts guard) Quenton Nelson, so I got to talk to Quenton, and he was a Giants fan, so he was pretty excited to talk to me, so I’ve gotten to watch him and I follow him. I watched (former Rams tackle) Orlando Pace growing up, and then it was (former Seahawks and Vikings lineman) Steve Hutchinson and (former Chiefs guard) Will Shields. I tell kids today, you gotta watch the game. When I was scouting, I used to ask kids, ‘name three offensive linemen you model your game after,’ and it’s amazing how they can’t name any. You should be constantly trying to make yourself better all the time.”
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.
Zoom boom: We’ve got a busy Zoom week ahead of us next week. Let’s take a look at what’s ahead.
· Tuesday and Wednesday: We’ll have the first two editions of our special four-class NIL Zoom session with Sammy Spina of Vantage Management Group. If you checked out our Zoom last month hosted by Sammy along with Athliance’s Peter Schoenthal, you already have a sense of the depth at which Sammy knows the name, image and likeness business. If you wonder how credible Sammy is on the topic, consider his client list. Does the name Marino mean anything to you? How about Pickett? Anyway, Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET, he’ll cover how to find and recruit NIL clients and how to network, both vital parts of an NIL practice. Wednesday, at the same time, he’ll cover how to make NIL campaigns memorable, a key way to create business that leads to more business. He’ll return Oct. 11-12 to wrap up the series. For a whole lot more details on what’s ahead over the next two weeks and which crucial questions he’ll answer, check out our blog from last week. Cost is $100 plus tax for all four classes ($25/class), so for about two tanks of gas (OK, maybe one), you can learn a lot you didn’t already know about the hottest topic in sports representation. Ready to sign up? Do that here. And don’t forget, if you sign up, you get all four videos, so you can watch whenever you want.
· Thursday: Normally, we wait until the NFLPA rolls out the complete list of newly licensed agents before we start our monthly instructional videos, but not this time. We’re gonna get a jump on things by inviting Octagon Football’s Murphy McGuire to talk about his experiences as a rookie NFL agent at 8 p.m. ET Thursday, Oct. 6. And what a rookie year it was, as not only did he pass the exam on his first try the year the PA made the test markedly harder, but he was the only independent rookie agent with a draftee in 2016 (and a reality series about it, to boot). Check out this week’s blog post at Succeed in Football to hear more about the topics he’ll address and questions he’ll answer. Best of all, Murphy’s Zoom session is completely free for ITL subscribers. Not a subscriber yet? Fix that here.
As always, all registrants for our Zoom sessions will receive relevant links and info the afternoon before the session. We look forward to seeing many of you this week.
Rep Rumblings: This week, we had four reports. On Monday, we passed along news that a talented college QB has signed an NIL deal with a major agency, plus we looked at NFL ties for players at Virginia Tech and Wake Forest and more. Tuesday, we looked at exciting news on what’s ahead for TEST Football Club and X3 Performance and Physical Therapy, two of our combine prep partners, plus we looked at the search firm going to work in Atlanta with the departure of Georgia Tech’s head coach and AD. On Wednesday, we had important news for agent hopefuls who tried but failed to pass the NFL Agent Exam this summer due in part to technical issues. We also had a few late-breaking additions to the Scouting Changes Grid. Finally, on Thursday, we had news of a late-breaking scouting change for an NFC team, plus we looked at the NFL ties to players and coaches at Morgantown and more. Review all our Rep Rumblings going back 10 years here.
Can the player you’re recruiting really play?: It’s just too much of a risk of time and even money to pursue a player unless you’re absolutely certain he’s on NFL radars. But how do you know, especially if you’re a contract advisor who doesn’t have a mile-long list of contacts in scouting? We have a suggestion: use our guy. Blake Beddingfield spent 20 years scouting for the Titans and the last several years as the team’s Director of College Scouting. Got a player you want a report on? All we need is a name, position and school. We’ll handle the film. In 24-48 hours, for $100 plus tax, you’ll have a one-page report with strengths and weaknesses that you can use to immeasurably improve your stature in the eyes of the player you’re recruiting. Every potential draftee wants to know how he can level up his game, and Blake’s reports are the perfect solution. Contact us and let’s get started.
Next week: As we approach the halfway mark of the college football season and the quarter mark for the NFL, there’s plenty cooking here at ITL HQ.
· We’ll wrap up our Profile Reports with Western Michigan, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
· Once again, we’ll try to produce our 2022 NFL Draft by the Numbers. We think we’ll have it this time.
· Voting on the 2022 BART List will continue.
· Former Chiefs President and GM Carl Peterson will join us for our Catching Up feature in next week’s Wrap.
· We’ll work on our Know Your Scouts series, which features our annual detailed breakdown of each of the 32 scouting departments. Our series kicks off next week.
It’s football season. Let’s celebrate! Come see the party we’re throwing at ITL here.
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