The Year-Round Scouting Process

"I think some guys just have an innate ability to see it," he said. "If you work at it, I guess you could develop it. But I believe, even as a young scout, I had a pretty good fix on it. I could see things. Then you have to be able to express it, put it on paper, without writing a novel. You know, get to the point. What can he do? What can't he do? Can this guy contribute to our football team? Can he make it? Why will he make it? Why won't he make it? It's neither a science nor a crap shoot. It's an understanding. I don't know, I just had a feel for it, and a love for it." Accorsi noticed. In fact, he saw a general manager in the making." - The GM

Scouting football players for the NFL Draft has been described to me as being as complex of a process as there is in sports. No matter what time of year it is, there is always scouting to be done. Beginning right around Memorial Day when teams convene to receive lists on top prospects for the upcoming year, the NFL Draft, which is always scheduled for the last weekend in April, has turned into a year-round phenomenon in which scouts are constantly scouring the country trying to find film on the next hidden gem for that year's upcoming class. To give readers a better idea of what it takes to put together a final draft board, write a Draft Preview, and to consistently produce among the best in the business in projecting mock drafts, here is a detailed look at my year-round process of evaluating college football players for the NFL:

June - August: The beginning of the year-round scouting process begins for me in early June in which I put together initial rankings based on my early observation of the

previous season's underclassmen. After developing an early list of players to keep an eye on, my attention turns to the prior season's film and game tape that I have available, in which I spend roughly 10 hours a week on average watching film during the summer. Multiplied over 12 weeks during the summer, I have about 120 hours of film study under my belt before the season even starts. In these detailed notes, I make observations about a player's overall game with a broad understanding that they have a year-to-two years to continue to develop before I need to write a final scouting report on them. During this three-month process of watching film, I also continue to tweak my rankings to my liking, adding and dropping players as needed. Once the new, updated website goes live on August 1st of each year, I have the opportunity to show my followers what my initial feelings are regarding this year's crop of players. As I watch film during the month of August, and during the season, I still make adjustments to the rankings, as needed.

September - December: The heart of scouting lies in watching the players on the field. I've always been a strong believer in the idea that what a player does on the field should far out-weight what he does off the field at a Combine or Pro Day. Because of this, by the end of the season, I believe that I have a very good feel for where my rankings are at every year. The first half of the college season allows for me to continue to familiarize myself with some players, especially those of which I didn't have the chance to watch during the summer. During the second half of the season, I believe that this is when the players have the opportunity to separate themselves and establish themselves as elite players. Such is the case of Cam Newton from last season; the first half of the year, the scouting community had the chance to get to know Cam, before he used the second half of the year to prove worthy of being taken with the No. 1 overall pick. The bowl season, which extends into January, is used for minor touch-ups on players that I already have a good feel for, as well as one last opportunity to find any players that I hadn't been able to see during the regular season. During the season, I also produce rough drafts of my mock draft, continuing to try to sharpen my craft. On average, I do about two-to-three mock drafts a week. Once the season ends, the real fun begins.

January: Once bowl season concludes, I spend roughly two weeks re-watching any games that I had recorded for extra viewing. When the underclassmen make their intentions known in the middle of the month, this also forces me to go back and review any games from the previous season to get up-to-date scouting reports on the juniors and redshirt sophomores. This part of the year is also when I begin the early formatting of "Shawn Zobel's Draft Preview," which takes an excrutiating amount of time to produce. During the fourth week of January, for the last four years, I attend the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama, a premier all-star game that features the top seniors in college football.

Like almost all scouts, coaches, and executives in the league, I arrive on Sunday for the week-long event and leave on Wednesday. The three days of scouting from Monday-Wednesday is what brings the flock of scouts to Mobile, which gives talent evaluators an opportunity to see the top players competing against each other in a neutral setting. While I don't aggressively update my rankings following the week of practices and subsequent game, I tend to make a decent amount of adjustments to my rankings. I treat that week as a good opportunity to decipher whether, for example, an offensive tackle is worth an early-first or late-first round pick, or if he doesn't have the same attributes in person that I thought he did on film. Having the chance to watch players during the summmer, during their senior seasons, and then at the Senior Bowl is one reason why I believe that I have found a high success rate in projecting upperclassmen to the NFL. As soon as I return from Mobile, I finish up my last notes, transcribe from my notebook to my computer the hundreds of hours worth of notes that I've compiled before beginning the daunting task of writing the "Draft Preview" for that year.

February: For the first three weeks in February, I write profiles on roughly four-to-five players a day leading up to the NFL Scouting Combine. Because I pride myself on being able to see nearly every player in person that I write profiles on (I saw 238 of the 251 players I wrote on in the 2011 Draft Preview), I work completely on seniors in the weeks leading up to the Combine. By the time I head to Indianapolis, Indiana for the five days of workouts, I have written about 75 player profiles. At the NFL Combine, I have the opportunity to watch all 300+ players that are participating, mainly taking mental notes on minor adjustments I'd like to see in each respective player's game, as well as whether I need to make any changes to the grade that I had given or was planning on giving to a player. While I use the main measurements from the Combine mainly as a way to compare with other similarly-rated players at a specific position, I use the Combine more as a way to get a better, in-person feel for each respective player's athleticism. There are different varieties of athleticism, and being able to see each player in on-field workouts alongside the large group of his peers gives me a better idea of how to grade each player's raw athleticism.

March: After returning home from the NFL Scouting Combine, I spend another three weeks cranking out about 75 more players, just like in the weeks leading up to the Combine. This gives me a total of about 150 players with one week left before publish date. Being a college student, spring break has proven to be extremely valuable for me the last five years, and is also a prime reason why I haven't been on vacation in five years. During my one-week spring break every year, I write 10 players a day for 10 days; 100 players in 10 days. When you consider that each player takes, on average, an hour to complete, it is safe to say that this isn't a process for the timid. By the end of the week, my health is usually poor, I am both physically and mentally drained, and I "lie exhausted on the field of battle, victorious," as Vince Lombardi was once quoted. My publish date is usually a few days after the completion of the "Draft Preview," which gives me some time to catch my breath before I focus my attention to shipping the book to my devoted followers as well as continuing to sharpen, polish, and finalize my mock draft.

April: What seems at times like the best month of the year, with interview after interview, it is very hard to be patient and wait for the draft to come after completing the "Draft Preview." This is the time of year when I soak in the great feeling of completing yet another extensive edition of the "Draft Preview," while also focusing my attention on my mock draft and my goal every year of topping ESPN's duo of draft analysts. Since 2004, I've attended the draft live in New York every year. While some believe that the day of the draft is when I should be working the hardest, I tend to allow for myself to enjoy the draft while also being able to reflect on another year of hard, productive work.

May: Once the draft is complete, I immediately dive right into the process of publishing in-depth draft grades for every team. While some will make the argument that grades shouldn't be given until three-to-five years after the draft, I believe that if you feel you did a good job of accurately projecting the players to the next level, you should be able to grade the draft with confidence. The month of May is usually devoted to completing the draft grades as well as finishing up another school year. As soon as the year ends, a new one begins at the beginning of June, and the cyle of the Year-Round Scouting Process continues once again.