National Football League

NFL scouts forced to adjust how they evaluate talent during pandemic

Updated Jul. 20, 2021 8:13 p.m. ET

Rob Rang

By Rob Rang
FOX Sports NFL Draft Analyst

The pandemic has been hard on everyone, and NFL scouts are no different.

Besides the concerns we all share – the safety of our families, friends and ourselves – scouts are tasked with evaluating players at a time when many had their seasons cut short. Sure, most players had tape over previous seasons for scouts to pore over, but many fans don't realize just how much effort scouts put into evaluating not just the player but also the man.

As one high-level scout put it: "Probably 60-70% of our job is getting to know the kid as a human being. Everyone focuses on what he can do on the field, but that is the easy part, the fun part. What kind of person is he off the field? Is he someone that might embarrass the franchise someday? That is the stuff that takes digging and talking to multiple people, including the player.

"The lack of human-to-human interaction is the single biggest difference between scouting this year and any year in the past."

Scouts are analytical by nature. They sometimes crack jokes to players or ask questions of trainers, positional coaches or former teachers in order to create a reaction, to watch for the slightest hesitation or smirk and to listen to the words said in reply.

Their best opportunities to do so, of course, were largely taken away this year, with some teams, conferences and entire leagues canceling their seasons. That was followed by more gaps in the scouting process.

The East-West Shrine Bowl – the nation’s longest-running college football all-star game – was canceled in January. So too was the NFL Scouting Combine, where the medical and psychological evaluations and face-to-face player interviews have always been more important to evaluators than the workouts fans and the media fawn over.

NFL scouts used to be able to evaluate most prospects in a controlled setting, but with the combine canceled, they've had to change things. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)

Clubs are still holding meetings with players, of course, but rather than sharing meals at high-end restaurants prior to or following Pro Day workouts, they are often being held via Zoom calls, which make the subtleties scouts are trained to spot more difficult to catch.

Adding to the issue is the fact that some players hold video meetings with dozens of scouts and coaches at the same time, eliminating opportunities for the close, personal investigations that are the lifeblood of the profession.

Players opting to hold interviews with individual clubs can understandably grow weary of answering the same questions over and over again, perhaps showing less enthusiasm on their 20th or 32nd interview than their first and thereby turning off an NFL scout or coach who previously had a high grade on the prospect.

Pro Days themselves are vastly different than in the past. Some schools are requiring scouts to show proof of vaccination to attend workouts, and many are limiting the number of evaluators from each club who can attend.

Other programs – such as those in the state of California, for example – have the college coaches running the positional workouts, rather than scouts. The "hands-on" poking, prodding and pushing that NFL scouts and coaches usually do were tossed aside like a disposable mask this year.

In reality, for many senior prospects, Pro Day workouts have long been little more than a final opportunity to show off for the home crowd and former teammates. That's because in prior years, most players had already received plenty of exposure in games and at the Combine.

But with the Combine and so many games canceled this year, Pro Day workouts might be the first (and perhaps only) opportunity scouts get to see some of the underclassmen in person.

That is a drastic difference from a year ago. Even though many Pro Days were canceled last spring, as one longtime scout put it, "95% of the work was done by the time COVID changed things for us last year."

If they held games at all in 2020, colleges across the country limited the number of scouts who could attend. Veteran scouts who had sometimes been allowed to wander freely on the sideline prior to games or practices had to adjust.

Even the Senior Bowl – which did a remarkable job of keeping players, coaches, talent evaluators and the media safe while conducting workouts and the game – limited NFL teams to 10 representatives this year.

How are scouts responding to the challenges, and what are they doing differently this year? I asked these questions to a series of area scouts, scouting directors and general managers.

What I found was that every club in the league is, like always, focusing on what can be seen on tape. Further, without the apples-to-apples comparison of workouts that the Combine provided, some talent evaluators appear less interested in the results of the various Pro Days. They are quick to point out that players who opted out of the season have had a full year to master their technique for the 40-yard dash or 3-cone drill. They believe this has led to some of the eye-popping results we've seen this spring.

Teams have long adjusted times by a few hundredths of a second in either direction based on the surface players are tested on, using the Combine track as a baseline. They do this to help compare the results from Pro Days across the country.

Others are incorporating new technology – such as GPS data from live games – to gauge the speed and quickness of players on the field, viewing this as a better gauge than whatever numbers players might put up without pads during a Pro Day workout.

All of those interviewed, though, acknowledged that evaluating this year’s draft is going to be quite a different challenge than it was in the past.

While scouts are not going to admit they were not personally as dialed in on this year’s prospects as they normally would be, some acknowledged that they know others in the industry who felt this way.

There was some thought that teams would take even more time than usual to thoroughly evaluate the incoming rookie crop. Others anticipated some teams might be more willing to simply deal picks away for veteran players.

So which teams have the advantage in such a chaotic year?

Clubs with veteran scouting departments already in lock-step with their coaches have a built-in head start. Similarly, fans of teams employing scouts with long-standing relationships with college powerhouses such as Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State should feel confident.

More than in any other NFL draft in history, however, the ultimate winner could come down to simple math, with the teams holding the most draft picks at a clear advantage.

Even the best prospects can get hurt, and with that understanding, some have equated the NFL draft to simply throwing darts at a board.

With the NFL having released the official draft order on March 19, it is clear the Minnesota Vikings (11) and Philadelphia Eagles (11) will hold the most darts this year, with Dallas (10), Green Bay (10), Jacksonville (10) and New England (10) the other clubs with double-digit picks.

Seven years of working together would seem to give Minnesota general manager Rick Spielman and head coach Mike Zimmer an advantage as well.

Given this is his first year as a head coach in the NFL, it will be fascinating to see what influence Nick Sirianni will have on longtime general manager Howie Roseman in Philadelphia, with the Eagles’ bounty of picks.

For the Eagles and the new faces in Jacksonville especially, with the relative lack of experience in the NFL and the challenges scouts are facing in this unprecedented year, the dartboard analogy has perhaps never been closer to the bull's-eye.

One of the most recognized names in the industry, Rang has been covering the NFL draft for over 20 years with his work found at FOX, Sports Illustrated, CBSSports.com, USA Today, Yahoo, NFL.com and NFLDraftScout.com, among others.