What Do NFL Scouts Look For in the Preseason?

The Cleveland Browns lost to the Buffalo Bills 11-10 Thursday night in their second preseason game. It was far from a pretty performance, even with Johnny Manziel leading a 96-yard drive that culminated in a 21-yard touchdown pass to Shane Wynn. The Browns totaled 232 yards on offense, scored just that one touchdown and a field goal, and committed seven penalties. There were encouraging signs, but they’re far from a finished product. It’s certainly nice to win in the preseason, but it isn’t the end-all nor is it the be-all.

If it isn’t just about winning, the question becomes: What do teams look for when they watch the tape? What matters in the eyes of NFL scouts?

As WFNY did in evaluating the Browns’ 2015 draft class, we acquired some help. I spoke to an NFL scout who pulled back the curtain and revealed some of what goes on behind the scenes as teams try to figure out who will make the final rosters. Our conversation didn’t touch much on the current Browns roster, but rather the process that goes into roster decisions in general.

It is important to note that each team functions a little differently based on its structure and priorities, but the overall process is largely similar across the league. (There’s also a bit of foul language herein; act accordingly.)

Talent evalution

The top priority of the preseason is simple: evaluating talent, especially “bubble” guys whose fates are uncertain. Think of rookies, undrafted free agents, young backups, and the like. Teams focus primarily on grading their own players, but they also have an eye on fringe guys across the league.

Teams open the preseason with 90 players on the roster, and by Week 1 they have to trim it down to 53 (plus 8 more on the practice squad), with a cut to 75 before the final preseason game. That leaves plenty of players for teams — including those in non-NFL leagues like the Canadian and Arena leagues — to scout and potentially acquire.¹ More simply, some 1,000 NFL players are cut during the preseason, with hundreds more available to sign when including the practice squad players — and that’s before considering the non-NFL leagues. Even if such players don’t turn into real difference makers, they can help a team build crucial depth.

The preseason is a different animal than the regular season or playoffs, but scouts take the same approach when they watch players on tape.

“You look at it the same way you would look at any player in any game,” the scout said. “You’re looking at a combination of their traits and their production. You take it with a grain of salt to account for the level of [competition] they’re going against. That’s one of those things you get [better at] with years of scouting, because level of comp is always an excuse people make: Oh, he’s a small-school guy. You can see it. You can tell a guy that’s playing with the threes that’s absolutely dominating.”

“It’s gotta be impactful”

Playing within the scheme, showing football intelligence, and understanding a certain role is important for young players, but more important — just as in the regular season — is production. In order to get noticed, you have to do something noteworthy. That’s particularly true when playing against backups. Seeing a run play develop and filling the hole is certainly a good start for a linebacker, for instance, but actually finishing the play is the difference between being “just a guy” and someone who teams will really think about keeping. For fringe talents, forcing the coaches and front office into a tough decision of whether or not to cut you is about all you can ask.

“If the guy’s playing against the third team, he’s gotta really flash and do something. Just getting a little bit of pressure on the quarterback doesn’t really mean anything; it’s gotta be impactful. For a wide receiver, it’s not just that he had five catches; it’s how were those catches? Was he blowing the top off the defense? Was he big and physical and just manhandling his corner? I think anyone would know it when they see it.

“Our college [scouts] do a pretty good job. You can usually tell; just [the players’] makeup and their intrinsic desire for playing the game and for learning and perfecting their technique. You can tell if a guy’s going to be special pretty early on.”

Wanting it

Part of whether or not a player turns out to be that special sort is his work habits. We hear it all the time, phrases like gym rat and hearing about who’s first on and last off the field. It sounds trite, but there’s truth to it. Think about some of the Browns first-round picks who have flamed out over the years; your Gerard Warrens and William Greens, and even Johnny Manziel in his rookie year, as you read this next passage:

“There’s wanting it, but still going out and getting fucked up and not doing the extra work; then there’s desiring it, where you won’t put a single bad thing in your body and you’re in there at 6 a.m. every day. You ask questions in meetings, and you’re a leader, and a good person around your teammates. That’ll get you a long way, even if you suck.”

But again, it’s about results first and foremost. There’s a reason Rudy wasn’t able to parlay his one sack against Georgia Tech into an NFL career: “The try-hard guy that has no athletic ability will always get cut. Always. He could be the best person you’ve ever met in your life. He’ll always get cut.”

Having enough of “those guys”

Limited players who get after it in practice and in the meeting room still have value, be it as special teamers or backups. NFL locker rooms are big places, so it makes sense to fill it out with as many good guys as you can; imagine if the roster of the infamously dysfunctional Portland “Jail Blazers” had 53 guys on it instead of 12. We often hear about team-wide culture and accountability, which is formed primarily by a team’s leaders. Good foot soldiers, so to speak, help instill that culture into every crevice.

“You have to have enough of those guys. Teams that win consistently, they have a lot of those dudes that desire it, they’re super competitive, they’re good teammates, they just have that type of personality.”

Don’t get it twisted, however. Every single NFL player is not an Eagle Scout. As I was told, “Some guys are assholes.” In an athletic meritocracy like the NFL, sometimes that doesn’t matter. If a player possesses certain gifts, there’s no way around playing him, even if he literally stole candy from a baby en route to the practice facility.

“[Some players] are athletically so much better than those other guys that you would be stupid not to play them. But he’s so undisciplined and he’s so poor with technique and he doesn’t play hard; he’s weak; everything about him is bad other than that he’s an athletic freak.”

So much for that accountability talk.

Veterans and the cliff

As you might expect, preseason doesn’t mean as much for most established veterans — your Joe Hadens and Joe Thomases of the world. Coaches and scouts still watch them, but with a less discerning eye than they watch rookies and other developmental players. The main concern with vets is that they come to camp in shape and that they didn’t lose a step or three in the offseason.

“Sometimes guys fall off the cliff pretty hard. It depends on what it is. For some guys who have an injury history, it’s in their upper 20s, or it’s early-to-mid 30s. You just monitor that to be like, oh shit, this might be his last year, it might be time for him to hang it up. You get to a certain point — say you’re a 30-year-old center; you’re a journeyman but you’re not dominating. There’s a certain point where you just lose your anchor, lose your trigger, and it’s ugly. That’s when those guys usually get cut.”

Other issues could come into play, like a contract dispute (as when the Eagles cut Pro Bowl guard Evan Mathis) or a player losing his passion for playing the game (as when longtime Chicago Bear Olin Kreutz left the New Orleans Saints). It often feels like there’s no NFL offseason, but a lot can change in the few months that a player spends away from his team. Training camp and the preseason offer the first chance to see if anything significant has changed.

“It’s a huge opportunity”

More than veterans losing that fire in the belly or quibbling over salary negotiations, the preseason is about the bottom of the roster. It’s when teams get a real look at whether or not their mid- and low-round draft picks can really play. It’s a chance to find an undrafted free agent who wants it bad enough. It’s a chance to strengthen the quality of the backups across the board, so that when a starter inevitably goes down with an injury, a team isn’t sunk.

“It’s a huge opportunity for a team to build depth on the back end of your roster. It’s not necessarily what gets you game changers, but it could get you guys that down the line could help you as rotational backups or maybe starters one day if you hit it right.

“It happens every year.”

1. Practice squad players are effectively free agents, and any team can sign a practice squadder as long as they’re willing to give him an active roster spot. Practice squad players signed to an active roster are guaranteed three weeks’ pay even if they get cut during that time. [↩]