Matt Waldman’s RSP Scout Talk with Russ Lande: Tight End Evaluation Lessons and Mistakes

The Rookie Scouting Report Boiler Room uses game tape to determine Clevland Brown TE David Njoku's (Miami) Skills & NFL Draft Stock

The Rookie Scouting Report Boiler Room uses game tape to determine Clevland Brown TE David Njoku's (Miami) Skills & NFL Draft Stock

Matt Waldman’s RSP Scout Talk podcast with Russ Lande begins a series devoted to evaluation misses and lessons learned. This week’s episode on tight ends underscores the theme of waiting on a revolution. 

This episode of Scout Talk with Russ Lande is an informative conversation about the tight ends who we didn’t evaluate well and what we learned from it:

  • Lande’s story about Butch Davis and Jeremy Shockey.
  • Waiting for Godot: Why scouts were often too early with their valuation of players who would fit in the NFL today but no 7-10 years ago.
  • Jason Witten and What Is Athletic Enough? Witten is much quicker than fast as well as a troublesome template for evaluating the athletic ability of good receiving tight ends who can block but not win downfield.
  • Joe Don Duncan: Strong enough, quick enough, and tough enough, but size matters.
  • Nick Vannett and the first-game bias that can occur with an evaluation.
  • Chase Coffman and the issue with high-cut builds.
  • It’s All About the Shoe Size: A story about safeties that applies to builds for specific positions.

If you missed the episode on wide receivers or the show on running backs, they are worth a listen.

For the most in-depth analysis of offensive skill players available (QB, RB, WR, and TE), download the 2021  Rookie Scouting Portfolio for $21.95.  

Matt’s new RSP Dynasty Rankings and Two-Year Projections Package is available for $24.95

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One response to “Matt Waldman’s RSP Scout Talk with Russ Lande: Tight End Evaluation Lessons and Mistakes”

  1. Great show! Loved the final discussion you two had.

    I think the hardest part about TE valuations is just how few targets and opportunities TEs get. It’s far too easy to overvalue one play (or a handful of posts) as being an intrinsic quality of a player. The representative sample sizes are just so low that it’s hard to definitively say, unless it’s Harrison Bryant being targeted 150 times over three seasons.

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