Nors
Benched
- Messages
- 22,015
- Reaction score
- 1
Chargers scouting corner
Chargers.com - Free Exclusive Content
Monday, January 31, 2005
This page presented by
Jimmy Raye with Dennis Abraham
Leading up to the 2005 NFL Draft, Chargers Director of College Scouting Jimmy Raye will update fans on the team’s preparations for the draft and provide an insight into the Bolts’ scouting department. In his first installment, he breaks down the scouting process and discusses the recent Senior Bowl.
The Chargers college scouting department has nine people, including me. There are five area scouts, and then we have two other guys, John Spanos and Mike McCarthy, that scout a limited area. We also have Ed Langsdorf, who is a scout for the National Scouting Combine, which is an NFL scouting service.
My job as director of college scouting, more or less, is to organize the college scouting season. In the offseason, I’ll map out the schedules for each of our college scouts. Every one of our scouts is located in a different area of the country. What we do is take the schools from each of those areas and condense the list down to the best schools for the scout to go to that year. After that happens, I visit all the top players in each of those guys’ areas. Basically, I’ll cover the top-150 players in the country. I serve as one of the over-the-top guys for all the area scouts.
How we evaluate players is first, the area scout will write his report on a player. Then we’ll have another scout cross-check the player and write his report. I’ll write my report and, in a way, I serve as a tiebreaker if there isn’t a consensus opinion between the prior two scouts. Sometimes there will be a fourth guy, which is Assistant General Manager Buddy Nix, who also looks at a player. All of that information helps General Manager A.J. Smith make an overall decision before the draft.
A basic report includes a “skills” section, where the scouts will break down each guy’s specific skills. If it’s a defensive back, it might be his backpedaling, ball skills or defending the run. Then there is a summary section where the scout will take into consideration all of the player’s skills and tell you how he best fits the Chargers’ needs and where the player might fall in the draft, etc.
When I scout players at schools, I watch a player on game tape to get some background information and collect data. Then I’ll watch him practice. Some teams will stick around for the games on the weekends. I’ll only do that in specific instances because I’m usually traveling to our games. I try to get all my work done while I’m at the school during the week.
The reason I like watching practice is because many times a guy can look a certain way to you on tape and you might say, ‘This guy looks about 6-5, 300 pounds.’ But then when you go to practice, he might be a thinner-hipped, skinny-legged athlete. His build or physique may not fit what we’re looking for. So it’s always good to see a player in person and up close.
The schools we visit and the players we look at are determined before the season. The National Scouting Combine will meet in the spring and they’ll compile a list of players to look for. They’ll give us a list with grades for the players, and then we decide which players to go see.
Some places you automatically go to, such as the schools in the Big Ten, Pac-10, SEC and the other major football conferences. But there are always a few schools, like Troy St., Grambling, Louisiana Tech or Eastern Washington for example, that always seem to have pretty good players. So you have to check them out. During the summer, we’ll watch tapes of the schools not mentioned by the scouting service to determine if there are any other places we need to visit during the year.
All of our ground work is done in the fall. At this time of year, we’re checking and double-checking ourselves to make sure what we thought during the fall is the end result when draft time comes. So let’s say I thought a guy was a first-round player when I went to the school to see him in October. Now, I’ll see him in an all-star game or at the Indy Combine or at a workout, and his performance will either solidify what I saw during that prior visit, or I’ll make another determination.
Generally, I’ll go to two or three postseason all-star games to scout college players. This year, I went to the East-West Shrine Game and the Senior Bowl. The practices leading up to the game give you a chance to see players in a controlled environment for a week against some of the better players in the country. At the same time, you finally get to interview the kids and sit down face-to-face. You also can attain accurate body measurements, if you haven’t already. It’s another way to nitpick a guy in an NFL setting.
The Senior Bowl, which took place last week, always has the best talent of any of the all-star games. It’s coached by NFL staffs, so they run their practices just like we would here. It’s easier to evaluate a guy when he’s going against the best of the best. Not every top guy shows up, but most of them do. When you see guys go against elite competition each day, it separates the great players from the good players and lets you know how guys play against certain levels of competition. It also gives you a chance to see players from smaller schools play against better competition.
During the week, I had a chance to catch up with scouts from other teams. As you might imagine, you have to be careful what you discuss to a certain degree. I think everyone knows which players are the best. If L.T. were at the Senior Bowl, everyone would know who the best running back is. But you draw the line when it comes to talking in-depth about some of the lesser-known guys. Nobody wants to tip anyone else off. After all, the competition doesn’t end at the football field.
Your Take
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Have an opinion on this story? Share it with other Chargers.com readers on the team's official message boards.
Top Chargers.com Stories (more)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chargers scouting corner - 01/31/05
Staying the course - 01/28/05
Trip of a lifetime - 01/27/05
Past meets present - 01/26/05
Special teams growing up - 01/24/05
Chargers.com - Free Exclusive Content
Monday, January 31, 2005
This page presented by
Jimmy Raye with Dennis Abraham
Leading up to the 2005 NFL Draft, Chargers Director of College Scouting Jimmy Raye will update fans on the team’s preparations for the draft and provide an insight into the Bolts’ scouting department. In his first installment, he breaks down the scouting process and discusses the recent Senior Bowl.
The Chargers college scouting department has nine people, including me. There are five area scouts, and then we have two other guys, John Spanos and Mike McCarthy, that scout a limited area. We also have Ed Langsdorf, who is a scout for the National Scouting Combine, which is an NFL scouting service.
My job as director of college scouting, more or less, is to organize the college scouting season. In the offseason, I’ll map out the schedules for each of our college scouts. Every one of our scouts is located in a different area of the country. What we do is take the schools from each of those areas and condense the list down to the best schools for the scout to go to that year. After that happens, I visit all the top players in each of those guys’ areas. Basically, I’ll cover the top-150 players in the country. I serve as one of the over-the-top guys for all the area scouts.
How we evaluate players is first, the area scout will write his report on a player. Then we’ll have another scout cross-check the player and write his report. I’ll write my report and, in a way, I serve as a tiebreaker if there isn’t a consensus opinion between the prior two scouts. Sometimes there will be a fourth guy, which is Assistant General Manager Buddy Nix, who also looks at a player. All of that information helps General Manager A.J. Smith make an overall decision before the draft.
A basic report includes a “skills” section, where the scouts will break down each guy’s specific skills. If it’s a defensive back, it might be his backpedaling, ball skills or defending the run. Then there is a summary section where the scout will take into consideration all of the player’s skills and tell you how he best fits the Chargers’ needs and where the player might fall in the draft, etc.
When I scout players at schools, I watch a player on game tape to get some background information and collect data. Then I’ll watch him practice. Some teams will stick around for the games on the weekends. I’ll only do that in specific instances because I’m usually traveling to our games. I try to get all my work done while I’m at the school during the week.
The reason I like watching practice is because many times a guy can look a certain way to you on tape and you might say, ‘This guy looks about 6-5, 300 pounds.’ But then when you go to practice, he might be a thinner-hipped, skinny-legged athlete. His build or physique may not fit what we’re looking for. So it’s always good to see a player in person and up close.
The schools we visit and the players we look at are determined before the season. The National Scouting Combine will meet in the spring and they’ll compile a list of players to look for. They’ll give us a list with grades for the players, and then we decide which players to go see.
Some places you automatically go to, such as the schools in the Big Ten, Pac-10, SEC and the other major football conferences. But there are always a few schools, like Troy St., Grambling, Louisiana Tech or Eastern Washington for example, that always seem to have pretty good players. So you have to check them out. During the summer, we’ll watch tapes of the schools not mentioned by the scouting service to determine if there are any other places we need to visit during the year.
All of our ground work is done in the fall. At this time of year, we’re checking and double-checking ourselves to make sure what we thought during the fall is the end result when draft time comes. So let’s say I thought a guy was a first-round player when I went to the school to see him in October. Now, I’ll see him in an all-star game or at the Indy Combine or at a workout, and his performance will either solidify what I saw during that prior visit, or I’ll make another determination.
Generally, I’ll go to two or three postseason all-star games to scout college players. This year, I went to the East-West Shrine Game and the Senior Bowl. The practices leading up to the game give you a chance to see players in a controlled environment for a week against some of the better players in the country. At the same time, you finally get to interview the kids and sit down face-to-face. You also can attain accurate body measurements, if you haven’t already. It’s another way to nitpick a guy in an NFL setting.
The Senior Bowl, which took place last week, always has the best talent of any of the all-star games. It’s coached by NFL staffs, so they run their practices just like we would here. It’s easier to evaluate a guy when he’s going against the best of the best. Not every top guy shows up, but most of them do. When you see guys go against elite competition each day, it separates the great players from the good players and lets you know how guys play against certain levels of competition. It also gives you a chance to see players from smaller schools play against better competition.
During the week, I had a chance to catch up with scouts from other teams. As you might imagine, you have to be careful what you discuss to a certain degree. I think everyone knows which players are the best. If L.T. were at the Senior Bowl, everyone would know who the best running back is. But you draw the line when it comes to talking in-depth about some of the lesser-known guys. Nobody wants to tip anyone else off. After all, the competition doesn’t end at the football field.
Your Take
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Have an opinion on this story? Share it with other Chargers.com readers on the team's official message boards.
Top Chargers.com Stories (more)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chargers scouting corner - 01/31/05
Staying the course - 01/28/05
Trip of a lifetime - 01/27/05
Past meets present - 01/26/05
Special teams growing up - 01/24/05
