Tag Archive for ‘Futures’
Futures: Why Scouting Gets a Bum Rap – A Front Office Overhaul
Scouting gets a bum rap. “Of course Waldman would say this,” you proclaim. “He’s a scout!” I may perform the fundamental role of one, but I am not a scout. This elicits laughter from my friend Ryan Riddle. The Bleacher Report columnist who holds Cal’s single season sack record and played with the Raiders, Ravens,… Read More ›
Futures: Uknown, Unsung, and Underappreciated
When you’re in my line of work, the most memorable players are often the unknowns, the underappreciated, and the underdogs. One of the most memorable for me was a player I watched in September 2006, whose performance against a top-ranked Tennessee Volunteers defense was so good that it belied his 24-carry, 72-yard box-score entry. Here’s… Read More ›
Futures: The Hybrid RB Evolution
March is the month that I take 14-to-18 months of research and use it to generate rankings and analysis for the April 1 Rookie Scouting Portfolio publication. The labor involved in this compressed time period involves a workweek with hours averaging in the triple digits. I believe this will be the last year I have to… Read More ›
Football Outsiders: Three in the Boiler
A series I started this year at the RSP blog is The Boiler Room. One of the challenges involved with player analysis is to be succinct with delivering the goods. As the author of an annual tome, I’m often a spectacular failure in this respect. Even so, I will study a prospect and see a play unfold that… Read More ›
Futures: Arkansas RB Knile Davis
When I saw the 2012 Lewin Career Forecast, I had already studied Russell Wilson. In fact, I told a panel of draft analysts on a National Football Post podcast (beginning at the 17:42 mark) that included Josh Norris, Wes Bunting, and Josh Buchanan that Wilson was my sleeper quarterback in this draft. I was cynical… Read More ›
Futures at Football Outsiders: UNC Guard, Jonathan Cooper
Explosive, agile, and purposeful, Cooper has what it takes to play in the NFL for a decade if he can stay healthy. There was an important decision to be made at the offices of Futures this afternoon: the boss or the wife? The work boss saw Knile Davis run a 4.30-forty at Indy; calculated the… Read More ›
Futures: DE’s Bjoern Werner and Damontre Moore
As a football fan, odds are high that you at least had a brief love affair with professional wrestling. Mine lingered a while. It was an obsession lasting long enough that when I think of defensive ends, they remind me of the ultimate “heels” from professional wrestling promotions: big, bad, freakish athletes capable of putting… Read More ›
Reads Listens Views 12/14/2012
Listens Thank You Fantasy football is slowing down and draftnik season is heating up. I’ll be here and at Football Outsider’s providing analysis of the 2013 prospects as I compile my research for the 2013 Rookie Scouting Portfolio, which will be available for download April 1. If you’ve never seen the RSP publication, 2006-2012 versions… Read More ›
Futures: Texas FS Kenny Vaccaro
Studying football players is a solitary pursuit. So it feels good when a performance catches your attention and months later you learn that it did the same for another writer, scout, or talent evaluator. Everyone enjoys that kind of validation. One of those moments occurred last spring when I was watching Keenan Allen. As fun… Read More ›
Futures: Florida TE Jordan Reed
Last week, I wrote about Notre Dame’s Tyler Eifert and how his skills fit into the growing pantheon of versatile tight end play that is in vogue in the NFL. But versatility can have a number of different meanings depending on the talents of the player and his fit within an offense. The word doesn’t necessarily mean… Read More ›
