The Rookie Scouting Portfolio (RSP)

RSP Film Room

Photo by Kevin Stanchfleld.
Photo by Kevin Stanchfleld.

The Rookie Scouting Portfolio publication is built on play-by-play film study. While most readers love the RSP because they don’t have to do the thousands of hours of tape study to gain insights about the incoming NFL class of skill players, I document everything I see about a player in the back of the book so everyone can see “my math.” Even so, most football fans have a thirst for learning more about the game and they often express thoughts along the lines of, “I’d like to watch film with Matt Waldman.”

The RSP Film Room Hangouts gives you the opportunity to do just that. Once a week, I’m inviting fellow draft writers to join me on a Google Hangout to spend an hour or two studying Draft Breakdown cutups of prospects. We let the tape roll and share our thoughts, ask each other questions, ooh and aah over the great plays, and laugh at the ridiculous things that happen in the game that’s our national passion.

It’s an educational experience for me, my guest, and the viewer. You can find a list of the videos here and you can get email updates with links to my new stuff by clicking “Follow” at the top left corner of the page. You can also subscribe to my YouTube Channel (Matt Waldman), if you prefer.

 Sterling Shepard leap2016

RSP Boiler Room (Short Videos, 5-15 minutes)
RSP Film Room Shorts (2 minutes or less)
RSP Film Room (Long Videos)

2015

Special Topics
Quarterbacks
Running Backs
Wide Receivers
Tight Ends
Offensive Linemen
Defensive Linemen
Linebackers
Safeties
Kickers

Yes, kickers are football players, too (but hell no, I’m not studying them…just seeing if you’re paying attention)

For analysis of skill players in this year’s draft class, download the 2015 Rookie Scouting Portfolio – available now. Better yet, if you’re a fantasy owner the Post-Draft Add-on comes with the 2012 – 2015 RSPs at no additional charge. Best, yet, 10 percent of every sale is donated to Darkness to Light to combat sexual abuse. You can purchase past editions of the Rookie Scouting Portfolio for just $9.95 apiece.

49 responses to “RSP Film Room”

    • Physically, he could play the position. Whether he could make the conceptual-technical transitions is question that would be better answered with workouts and interviews. He’s a good enough running back for the NFL. His 2014 tape displays improvement from his 2013 tape (the film room example of him you just saw). I think Ajayi is one of the more intriguing backs of this class.

      Reply

  22. Hi Matt, just wondered what had happened to the Jaelen Strong film room episode? Seem to get an error when I try to access it. Great site, enjoy it a lot, keep up the good work!

    Reply

    • Thanks James. I’ve made that video private for the time being. I’ve seen the Pac-10 removing video content that feature highlights of conference games and this is the one Film Room that qualifies, so I thought I’d remove it from public consumption ahead of time.

      Reply

      • Thanks Matt. Shame, I watched the first 20 mins of it and bookmarked it to come back to. Nevermind.

      • This is Trey Williams uncle, I on behalf of my family would like to thank you, we don’t ask for favors or untruths, just fairness, u gave that. Tyson Williams is his brother from Texas Tech he didn’t get the fairness so thank u. Trey has improved on blocking and running between tackles . I think in part because of u. He also tries to improve daily not just as a player but also a person, and he is strong about praising god for the opportunity to be where he is in life

      • Mr. Johnson. With the exception of fan moments where I tell everyone very clearly that I’m being a fan and veer for the outrageous, my football analysis always comes from the standpoint of rooting for the player to succeed, regardless of the positives and challenges that I see from his game. I’m looking forward to seeing how Trey’s career unfolds. Thank you very much for sharing and it’s nice to know that Trey is working at his craft.

  27. can you do a film room study on Perriman and Waller? I’m obviously a Ravens fan…

    Reply

      • I’ve watched several RSP Film rooms, but I’ve never seen one so nitpicky. This one was bad, very bad. My god, you didn’t say anything good about him until 55 min in and then he was still nitpicky. You didn’t bring up separation issues with Jaelen Strong and his are worse than Perrimans. He catches with his hands, unlike many others and the drops came early in the season. He didn’t have many after that. I can see so much value in Perriman as a first round pick. In Ozzie I trust.

        I may be a Ravens fan, but I’d think the same thing if I were a Skins fan. Too nitpicky, do this one again with someone else. BTW, was he a Steelers fan!

  28. Most of Perrimans drops came in the beginning of the season, he improved tremendously.

    Reply

  29. Neil,

    It’s obvious that you’re a huge fan of Perriman based on the fact that A) you requested a film room B) you commented on the drops comment before you even watched the video an C) you’re unhappy about the criticism of the player.

    Gene’s criticisms of Perriman are all sound from a football perspective. He’s giving his opinion of what separates a first-round receiver from a receiver taken later. His standard is that the receiver needs to be ready to produce at a high level immediately You may disagree with that standard, but I suggest you consider that NFL prospects–not good NFL players–represent the 99.9 percentile of all adult football players in the world. A quality starter in the league is in the 99.99 percentile and a star is in the 99.99 percentile. The differences between these talents are extraordinarily small.

    These small differences are a matter of details that seem like nitpicking, but they matter. If you’ve ever been in a performance based field with an extremely high level of competition for a job spot then you can imagine how much the smallest details and high level of consistency separate world class from what is merely “good.”

    Perriman has first-round athleticism, but he doesn’t have first-round tools. Does it mean he won’t develop into a first-round caliber player over time? Of course he has that opportunity. Is he performing close to an NFL starter who can function at a high level as an all-around receiver? Not yet. The tricky part of NFL evaluation is that there has to be a good mix of having high standards for what the player does now and what you project he can learn on his own or with the help of teammates and coaches over the next 6-24 months.

    While I believe Gene represents a school of thought that expects a first-round receiver to function like a consistent starter with his route running and pass catching, there is another school that believes there is some wiggle room for how a player will fit in a scheme that will maximize what he does well and initially limit some of what he has to improve upon. However, many of the things that Gene discussed are addressable areas for Perriman over time that makes him a good prospect, but just not a top one.

    However, saying that Gene is a biased fan is an inaccurate statement. He does excellent work that you may disagree with because he holds players to a different standard, but he’s not biased because you think he hates your team.

    Your desire to bring Strong into your debate is like comparing apples and oranges and it shows that you’re probably missing the overall point of this program: We’re watching one game, providing commentary on what we see on this tape in a vacuum. We may talk about what else we have seen, but no one on these shows is claiming these toughts as a definitive scouting report based on what we see in the program. Every guest has a different standard and different insights and I allow them express those.

    But let’s talk about Strong for a moment. Strong and Perriman will have different roles for their teams because their traits and skills are different. No one evaluating Strong will expect Strong to achieve separation in the same way they will expect it from Perriman.

    I appreciate that you’ve watched these film rooms, but I’d urge you to consider this perspective. You may not agree with all the takes, but I’m not doing these just to tell people how good player is, but what it takes to play positions at the highest level. Sometimes it means spending a fair amount of time talking about the negatives. We mentioned that Perriman is a very good prospect that may seem like we’re “Hating on”, but we emphasized that we’re focusing more on what he needs to work on and that we’d both be glad to have him as a WR prospect.

    Although you may not have enjoyed your favorite prospect getting dissected, thanks again for engaging.

    Best,

    Matt

    Reply

  30. First and foremost thank you for the follow up, you are great about getting back to your fans. I definitely was ranting and may have gone overboard. Especially with my comments on Gene being biased. Perriman wasn’t my favorite prospect, but I definitely feel he has the tools to be one of the top WR in this draft class. His hands aren’t as bad as many say. As I said, most of his drops occured in the beginning of the season. I also didn’t have a problem with criticism of Perriman, only that he was criticized for doing the same thing that many other wide outs do the same amount of times yet they were not critiqued.

    Criticism is good as you learn from it and it is good for the average fan, such as myself, but critiquing one player and not the other for the same exact thing was my issue, not the criticism itself.

    Thanks for all the hard work that you put into this and bringing on amazing guests that we would never be able to talk to as average fans. Is it possible to do a live online review with your guests, ie us being able to type in questions that we may have to either you or your guests?

    Reply

  31. Do you have any film reviews on Buck Allen? I love that the Ravens took him in the 4th round. I have a bunch of friends that are skins fans as I live in the area. I was shocked they drafted Matt Jones over him. Absolutely shocked.

    Reply

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