The period from after the draft until training camp is when teams rework their front offices. That’s among the busiest times of year for me, because it’s the period after the GMs and executives have been hired and fired, and the fallout begins at the lower levels.
Here’s a look at the trends so far and a few thoughts on what’s happened and what’s ahead.
- I’ve had a few people say something along the lines of, boy, it sure has been a slow season for scouting changes so far, and I have no idea what they mean. The Panthers wiped out almost their entire pro scouting department today. The Bears parted ways with two scouts, one of whom has won multiple awards (and who is widely respected in the community). The Cardinals are down two evaluators, one of whom was their college director. The Bucs said goodbye to two more staffers, one of whom won a Super Bowl (with the Colts) and went to the division championship game (with the Jaguars). Oh, by the way, we’re still not a week past the last day of the draft. It’s been an incredibly busy — and surprising — “scout season” so far.
- So why is this happening? I’ve addressed this on Twitter, but in case you missed it, last summer was a very busy one for hiring and firing in analytics departments. Yes, NFL teams are always looking to get younger and cheaper at the national scout/area scout level, but there’s got to be a reason why so much experience has been thrown overboard so far this year. The only thing I can come up with is that teams are planning to reinvest that money in number-crunchers.
- I’ve been asked if colleges will start hiring these experienced scouts, and my guess is, not yet. One reason I think that is because I’ve tried (hard) to get a lot of ex-scouts jobs with schools with no luck. The other reason is that schools don’t need evaluators as much for the transfer portal — they’ve got a coaching staff and dozens of volunteers to help plow through film. But the real reason is that the portal is less like the draft and more like free agency. Actually, there’s a third reason — teams would rather pay coaches than evaluators, and there’s only so much money to go around.
- So with so many vacancies, where will the new hires come from? My guess is that most come from within. We’ll see scouting assistants and scouting coordinators get promoted into the lion’s share of these jobs. Many of these seasoned, competent evaluators will stay on the street, unfortunately. I know a few scouts will resurface, but historically, those scouts aren’t rehired. I hope I’m wrong.
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