Perhaps the scariest thing I ever experienced in draft meetings involved a player who nobody on my team particularly liked. Our area scout gave this safety a free agent grade and, when I cross-checked that school, I did the same. Then three members of our defensive coaching staff said they had only watched the first half of one game and had turned it off at that point because the player was so bad. But after the safety’s pro day, these same staff members said they were confident he may have been second best safety in the draft. As a result, we ended up placing him above Bob Sanders on our draft board. Fortunately for us, someone else drafted him (and he never turned into a quality starter), but it once again showed how dangerous it is to evaluate so differently from how a player works out in shorts and a t-shirt to his actual production on the field.
Another time, the area scout I was working with gave a college running back a free agent grade, which was seconded by others on our team. However, the man in charge of scouting at the time brought up that this player had been an outstanding high school athlete and had been recruited by some of the premier programs in the nation; he thought he was clearly more gifted than many of the backs in the draft. All of a sudden, this player was rated as a second/third round pick on our draft board. We didn’t end up drafting him, which was a stroke of luck — he never amounted to the talent that the head scout saw.
I am always amazed when I look back and see how many players are selected due to odd circumstances or hunched or faulty logic. The next year, I’ll reveal more tales from my experiences in the NFL, so keep checking in.
Russ Lande writes about college scouting and the NFL draft for Sports on Earth. He is GM jr. scouting and college scouting director for the CFL’s Montreal Alouettes and the Big 10 Network. He is a former scout for the Cleveland Browns and former scouting administrator for the St. Louis Rams. You can follow him@RUSSLANDE.