Month: August 2011

  • Greg Cosell Part IV: The Craft of Evaluation

    Entering my third year of studying film for The Rookie Scouting Portfolio, I had just finished a year of film study that included a player who continues to be one of  the bigger lessons I have encountered, Arkansas running back Darren McFadden. The highly coveted prospect had some raving fans, but I wasn’t one of…

  • Greg Cosell Part III: The All-Timer Game

    I’m a kid in a candy store this week. I get to share with you my conversations with NFL Films senior producer Greg Cosell. One of the few people who not only has access to coaching tape, but also a guy who can call up a coach and talk shop. In Part I of our…

  • Greg Cosell Part II:The Pats TE Duo and Rookies

    Greg Cosell is the co-author of The Games That Changed the Game with former Eagles quarterback and ESPN analyst Ron Jaworski. The senior producer has watched decades of NFL coaches tape – the all-22 angle that very few people gain consistent access. In Part I of this conversation, Cosell graciously undergoes a voir dire of…

  • NFL Films’ Greg Cosell Part I: Personnel Interrogation

    It might be a dream job, but NFL Films senior producer Greg Cosell understands what work is. The process of studying the game of football is a methodical one. Doing it well requires the attention and the appreciation of the minute detail, patience, and a large dose of humility. Entering his third decade with NFL…

  • Reads, Listens, Views 8/26

    Third week of the preseason and those training camp battles are being decided. Thank you to those of you who are making the Rookie Scouting Portfolio Blog a part of your regular reading schedule. As I’ve been saying weekly, if you like what you’ve seen thus far, please consider these three acts of kindness: Subscribe…

  • Quick Announcement 8/25

    I’ve had the pleasure to speak with NFL Films producer Greg Cosell a few times over the years. If you aren’t familiar with his work, read this excellent feature in the New York Times. Beginning Sunday, I will be posting Q&A’s I’ve had with Greg on two different occasions. A 45-minute conversation from three years…

  • RSP Flashback: RB Jamaal Charles

    He was going to make the school forget Adrian Peterson. That’s what Jamaal Charles told the media when he arrived at the University of Texas after Peterson had spurned the Longhorns for Oklahoma. Bold stuff, but Charles did enough to back it up that at times, you at least had a momentary lapse of memory…

  • Walk on the Wild Side: Addiction

    This is an opinion piece of mine from last year that I delivered for my weekly segment “A Walk on the Wildside,” at The Audible on Thursday nights at 10pm EST. The opinions expressed here are not those of The Audible, Cecil Lammey, Sigmund Bloom, or Footballguys.com 12-step programs tell people that the first step…

  • Five Bold NFL Predictions

    I don’t get a chance to sit at the local bar and talk football very often because I’m always writing about it. At the moment I’m feeling like having a long neck on a stool. Since I can’t, I’m at least going to imagine what I would be talking about with a friend of mine…

  • Who is Phillip Tanner?

    If you watched the Cowboys-Chargers preseason game last night then you saw a rookie running back putting on a display of what Cecil Lammey likes to call, “running hot.” There were probably 4-5 running backs in this game that ran hot. However, if I were to provide a photo next to Lammey’s definition in the…