An after-thought on the sports fan calendar 30 years ago, the NFL Draft is now one of the most marketable and highly anticipated events in the world. As evident with the 2019 draft in Nashville, Tennessee, it has now become an event that galvanizes all football fans into one central location. No matter the overall record of teams during the season prior to, it has now become the ultimate seller of hope, as teams welcome all types of former college student-athletes who are expected to one day become the savior of their respective teams, but little credit is given to the individuals making the decisions behind-the-scenes during the three-day stretch that has involved months of data collection.

There are plenty of casual NFL fans that can barely name their favorite teams general manager, but most of these executives were once in the shoes of these selfless and tireless individuals. I'm speaking of NFL scouts — the members at the bottom of the totem pole, who hardly ever get any national popularity or credit for the time, mileage, energy, and effort that they put into their organization to supply fans teams with the apparel of the players that they wear year-in and year-out.

There's a rigorous process that happens during the 300-plus days prior to the exciting weekend that fans get to enjoy. These individuals sacrifice lots of their livelihood, pride, and place their ego aside to get their hands dirty in the trenches throughout institutions across the country.

Months after taking the Indianapolis Colts general manager job, Chris Ballard spoke about the importance of having homegrown talent. Being around the fanbase during the first few weeks at the helm, he noticed that they only garnered Andrew Luck and T.Y. Hitlon jerseys. Outside of that, the rest were legendary players from years past. Realizing that the team failed to have much homegrown talent currently on the roster, it was made a point of emphasis that that was an area that needed to change.

Needless to say, it happened quickly following the 2018 draft after the selections of eventual first-team All-Pro talents in offensive guard Quenton Nelson and linebacker Darius Leonard. Beyond the draft cards being read on draft night, the ensuing tears, loud cheers, or head-scratches following the decision, who are the people that are determining factors behind all of this?

I received a unique opportunity to interview three NFL scouts (who wanted to remain anonymous) about what a calendar year was like for them.

"Rental car workers in multiple cities knowing me by name as soon as I walk through the door” and “over 10,000 Marriott points accumulated” were a few of the many enjoyable quotes that were shared with me. It's an uncommon journey that many don’t have any idea about unless you experience it first-hand.

July-November

May and sometimes the early weeks of June are considered the “down season” for scouts and that is where they spend time with their families and many other duties that they know that they won’t be able to do over the next several months. Mid-to-late June is where things begin to crank up. Meetings about the new draft cycle and prospects are slated to happen often throughout the week.

Scout 1: “It is a grueling, yet enjoyable grind. I can go up to a month and sometimes even longer without seeing my wife and kids, and it really sucks, but it’s the nature of the job. You definitely have to sit them down to help them understand why once you get involved in the business.”

These are the factors that fans don’t get to see nor consider. Once the middle stages of June comes, scouts understand that another yearly cycle is on the horizon.

It is July and officially their busy season. Training camp is somewhat considered the "starting point" of the scouts calendar year even though it realistically starts much earlier than that. During the first few weeks of training camp, scouts sole responsibilities are to examine the strengths and weaknesses of the team, and this is where general managers sit down with the entire scouting department and give a clear description of the types of players that fit their team profile, mold, and baseline requirements.

This helps everyone remain on the same page and develop a list of criteria that they examine when determining which prospects could potentially fit into their culture or locker room.

Also, during these personnel meetings, the director of college scouting from each team is responsible for assigning each scout a certain regional area of the country and that scout is responsible for attending each and every school in that area that has NFL-worthy talent.

They have to find a way to fit all of these schools in their schedule. From an ACC school like Syracuse to a small division-III college like Hobart, scouts have to make sure that they attend every school because while Donovan McNabb was a widely known prospect, you don’t want to miss out on a chance to get an early impression of a small-school prospect like Ali Marpet, who’s in the same regional area.

How do scouts know which prospects are at each school? Every team uses at least one of two national scouting services and databases that are called "National" or "Blesto". Each database contains information about every potential NFL prospect in the United States and Canada that is considered to have next level potential. Included in the databases are measurables such as height, weight and a spring recorded forty-time, but there’s also personal background information included within each prospect page as well.

Scout 2: “I have a lot of schools and prospects to get to within a short time period. I’m not going to waste my time scouting an offensive lineman that’s better in a man blocking scheme than a zone one and my team runs strictly zone concepts. By doing that, I just took minutes away from finding another prospect that can help my team win. Time is very precious with this job, so the databases are extremely helpful when it comes to things of this nature.”

One of the scouts was willing enough to take me through the actual sequence of events of a day when visiting a school to see a prospect.

Before visiting a school, scouts are responsible for reaching out to each programs assigned NFL liaison in order to set up an arrival time. The time is usually set depending on when the coaches arrive at the office on that particular day.

Scout 3: “Some of these schools are different with their times, but I enjoy a lot of the coaches on staff. It’s a big fellowship and you’re initiating and developing relationships with teams in your assigned areas as well. I make sure to bring donuts or bagels and it gets repetitive at some points. My God! I’ve had some coaches send me back because I forgot the bagels or donuts. You have to make sure to bring those. Coaches look forward to that free breakfast, which I think is hilarious.”

The hours prior to lunch are spent watching film and taking notes on each worthy prospect. Scouts also use this time to find background information from class professors, offensive and/or defensive coordinators, position coaches, strength coaches, athletic trainers, and even custodians within the football facility. All of these individuals are people who are surrounded by that certain prospect daily and their opinions are valued highly because of it.

Scout 1: “I want to be able to paint an on-and-off the field picture of this guy by the time I leave that school. There’s been many times that I can tell you that there’s been mixed opinions about a prospect within a building. Does he treat the compliance staff with the same respect that he does his position coach? That’s something that I want to note because it reveals character and our trust factor with him if he becomes a member of our organization. Character goes a long way in our building and there's no way that I can stand on the table for this guy in the war room if he doesn't have it because now I'm putting my job on the line taking up for him.”

Following lunch, scouts would now head to the field where they can see the prospect(s) on the field at practice. Many times, fans ask why scouts and evaluators like to see certain prospects in person, whether that be on the field at practice or at an actual game after watching film on them. The answer was to simply see their intangibles and the aspects that you wouldn’t be able to see on film or TV.

Examining intangibles, body type, pre-game regimen, and if that prospect fits the description that the general manager outlined during their initial training camp meetings are a big part of what scouts look for when going to games in person.

An example shared was former Texas offensive tackle Connor Williams, who ended up as a 2018 second-round pick of the Dallas Cowboys. Texas was one of the schools included in this scout’s regional area. Along with Williams, he was evaluating other players there as well. The tackle was unfortunately not playing in this game due to a knee injury, but he still took extensive notes on him to see how he interacted on the sidelines with his teammates while he was nursing his injury.

Scout 2: “I wanted to see if he was still going to be in-tune with his teammates and helping the guy who replaced him or was he going to be just lollygagging and joking around with others during the game and just be there to wear a jersey on the sideline. Sure enough, he was helping others on the whiteboard, drawing up fronts and blitzes that that team was running and going over other stuff as well. That showed me a lot about him and his care for the teams success. I was extremely impressed.”

These school visits take up most of the fall season for scouts, as they traverse their area of the country looking for NFL worthy talent… wherever it may be.

December and January

Outside of the NFL Combine, these months continue the evaluation and information collecting portions of the calendar year. Scouts begin to prepare for post-season bowl games and all-star contests. The two most popular being the East-West Shrine game in St. Petersburg, Florida and the the Reese’s Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama. These games have grown to become very popular over the past decade and the talent has improved every year.

Scout 3: “I love going to the bowl games, especially the playoff games because it’s another opportunity for us to see some prospects play against the best of the best. It’s very helpful, especially when they’re matched up against a foreign opponent that they rarely ever played against in school history.”

Bowl games and all-star contests are huge opportunities for scouts to confirm their initial assessments or discover someone new who may have not been on their radar much throughout the fall. A past example from the 2017 draft was Arizona Cardinals first-round pick and linebacker Hasson Reddick. The former Temple standout wasn’t one of the headliner names coming into the Senior Bowl, but of all the prospects there, he helped himself the most and it resulted in him be selected on Day 1.

At the all-star games, teams are able to interview any prospect that they choose throughout the week and at the conclusion of practices. This is where scouts and executives are able to add more information to the portfolio of a prospect while they watch them throughout the week.

February and March

These two months are considered the most crucial of the draft process.

Scout 1: “Those two months prior to April, I hate even saying it because that lets me know it’s crunch time and this is where things really intensify.”

The NFL Combine and prospects’ pro days are the two of the biggest stages during the evaluation process. Taking place in Indianapolis every year, the Combine is a large spectacle and it is where every scout in the league gathers to get official testing numbers for over 300-plus prospects. To their choice, prospects will go through medical and on-field testing, positional drills, interviews and take a wonderlic test. A wonderlic test is used to test the I.Q. of players and it varies team to team (and position to position) how heavily it factors into their final grades and big board.

Let’s talk about the interview process.

These interviews with each prospect are basically like speed dating and only last for 15 minutes. There are rooms along a long hallway assigned to each team. The brief meetings are the first chance for the entire coaching staff and members of the front office to have a face-to-face talk with each prospect that they set up an interview with. There are a plethora of questions asked in these meetings. Film sessions, personality, and off-the-field situations are the most frequently asked, but there are always different types of ones that arise.

At the conclusion of these interviews and after compiling the official numbers from the combine, the information is recorded and entered into a team database for future references, specifically when teams set their final draft board. They also can be use to determine which prospect meet the certain baseline thresholds that teams set out yearly. The conclusion of the combine signals the start of college pro days.

Since the early-to-mid 2000’s, pro days have become huge events to the point of national networks televising them live. The 2014 QB class was noteworthy. With Teddy Bridgewater’s non-glove wearing debacle, Johnny Manziel wearing full-equipment while throwing and last year with Sam Darnold having an impressive showing in the rain, quarterbacks garner the most attention, but other positions have started to grab the headlines as well at these events. The growth of pro day coverage has been tremendous and it’s only going to continue to increase in the future.

What are these teams looking for at pro days though? It varies by team. The scout that I talked to marveled over Mitchell Trubisky’s pro day at North Carolina. What I found surprising was that he didn’t care about one pass that he threw on that day.

Scout 2: “I wanted to see how he interacted with everyone and if he was a true leader. Starting such a few amount of games (13), there where a lot of questions about his outspokenness, laid back personality, and if that could lead to . him being a leader of a group of men. How did he talk to his receivers that he was throwing to? Was he in control out there? How did he bounce back from making a poor throw? Those are the things that I wanted to see. Of course, there were a bunch of other teams there for other reasons, but throwing wasn’t one of them for us. It was clear he could do that on film. It was a leadership and personality assessment for us because of the rumors of how reserved he was. He passed our test with flying colors though, and that's why the Bears weren't shy about getting him.”

These are the types of angles that many fans aren’t aware of (including myself) and even something that I learned during this interview process. Each team has their own specific reasons (based on position) for attending pro days and it varies based on the prospect.

April

The first few weeks of April are designed for finishing up the final rounds of top-30 visits and finalizing the draft board. Top-30 visits are assigned dates for certain prospects to visit the facilities of that specific team. It isn't necessarily the top prospects on their board, but rather ones that they want to collect more information on that they weren't able to in previous months or if a new situation arises. Some teams use them to get a head start on the undrafted free agent process, while others use it to further learn about prospects on-and-off the field.

The total number of prospects on a teams draft board varies. Prior to the 2018 draft, San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch came out and said that “We’ve got just under 200 players that we see as draftable players on our board”, while the Patriots are reluctant to exceed 125 players on their final board. The numbers clearly fluctuate and are different per-team.

Thinking all the way back to the summer months of July and August, all the way to this point, there has been a lot that’s been factored into setting this board.

Scout 3: “Long discussions, man. Very long discussions. We’ve had 17 or 18 hour days watching film and setting our final board and trying to weigh the pros and cons of each guy we like. It’s a fun process though and you enjoy it because it’s like a puzzle depending on your situation. Some teams are looking to lay a foundation, while others are looking for correct pieces to build and eventually complete everything.”

Factoring in summer evaluations, post-season bowl games, the NFL Combine, top-30 visits, and pro days, teams have had a lot of chances to gather as much information as possible about each prospect that interests them. All of these variables are factored into setting the teams final big board.

Scout 1: “I’ve been in a war room where we use velcro magnets on an old school board to where we have an electronic smart board that does everything for us. That just tells you how much disparity there is in the philosophies and technology in each war room. The biggest thing I learned about being in there though is just trust your gut, instincts and don’t be scared to speak up in what you believe in about a prospect that you’ve scouted. Some GM’s are different. Some listen to their scouts, while there are some that don’t factor in outside opinions much into their final decisions on draft day. Just know that you’re going to hit and miss on prospects, but just make sure to learn from each evaluation no matter what because none of us can predict the future with these dudes and how they will eventually pan out.”

The draft day stories shared were unique and phenomenal in their own ways. Overall, the day-to-day grind of an NFL . scout can be tedious, but rewarding if your homework and the picks pan out in the future. Looking at the end result, it may seem like a job that’s fun, but little do we know, it is a hectic and rigorous lifestyle.

From basically living out of hotels to being in a room with team owners and all of the organization’s most powerful executives, being an NFL scout is no easy task. Factor in the pressure of putting your job on the line and in the hands of a process that is essentially a well educated guess. The information gathered and opinions formed from it from fans and evaluators are what makes the NFL Draft so fun and one of sport’s most rapidly growing entities on the sports calendar.