Doug Whaley

Buffalo Bills general manager Doug Whaley watches practice during NFL football training camp in Pittsford, N.Y., Tuesday, July 22, 2014. (AP Photo/Bill Wippert)

Orchard Park, N.Y. — Doug Whaley is the face everyone sees.

The Buffalo Bills' second-year general manager is the one who steps behind a microphone after the Bills make a draft pick. He gets the final call on personnel moves and was the face of the trade in which Buffalo moved up to the No. 4 overall pick to select wide receiver Sammy Watkins in the 2014 NFL Draft.

The decision was made in an instant, and Whaley was the man behind the decision. But the inner workings of the deal, and the entire draft, had been ongoing for almost 12 full months and required the work of dozens of people in the organization.

Whaley has now seen the NFL Draft from all angles. He started as an area scout and worked his way up to the being the Bills' general manager. At times, he misses the scouting part now that he has more on his plate than evaluating talent.

The NFL Draft comes into focus for a few months every year, but Whaley knows it's a year-round business. People might not see it, but there is more to the NFL Draft than watching some game film and writing a player's name on a card before turning it in to the commissioner.

Here are 10 things you might not know about the NFL Draft scouting process with some input from Whaley.

1. It starts in the spring

The Bills have been preparing for the 2015 NFL Draft since they went to BLESTO meetings in the spring. BLESTO is a national scouting service that the Bills and other NFL teams subscribe to. The Bills get a list of hundreds of names, all potential NFL Draft picks entering their senior seasons in college. Underclassmen aren't considered until they declare for the draft following the season.

From there, each area scout starts mapping out a strategy. Which schools will he visit during college football training camp? Which games will he be at on Saturdays? The scout wants to hit as many schools as possible and gather as much information as possible to help paint a picture of a prospect for Whaley and the rest of the personnel staff.

"We try to get a look on guy early, middle and late to try to see how a guy progressed or regressed during the year," Whaley said. "The bigger schools we'll still probably go in twice. Then you leave a little time at the end just in case someone popped up or started playing well that you hear about."

2. The schedule is a grind, and Whaley loves it

A typical week for an NFL scout goes something like this: Drive to a school, gather information, head back to the hotel, eat, write up scouting reports on players, go to sleep, wake up and drive to the next school.

"It's 'Groundhog Day' for three months," Whaley said.

But there's a smile when Whaley talks about the scouting process, despite the intense grind. He was an area scout for the Seattle Seahawks back in the 1990s. That's how he broke into the league, and he says it's where his heart is.

"That's how I grew up," Whaley said. "That's where I made my mark in this business. That's all I know. If you grow up on a farm, you just know farming. Getting into this business, I grew up as a road scout, and that's when I'm happiest when I can get out on the road. It's just all I know. It was the second job I had, and I had it since I was 24. I've been doing it for 17 years, so it's second nature to me."

3. Scouts juggle tasks in the preseason

The summer isn't all about college camps for scouts. Whaley brings in the scouts during training camp to have them help assess the roster and see what the team looks for in its players and could possibly need down the line. Then when the preseason rolls around and NFL cut day starts creeping up, Whaley has the scouts either attend preseason games or break down tape on preseason games to help him get eyes on more players that could be coming available.

4. They aren't even looking at juniors

Most of the NFL Draft talk right now is centered around quarterbacks Marcus Mariota and Jameis Winston. But both of those players won't come into play for the Bills until they actually declare for the NFL Draft. NFL teams don't focus their attention on underclassmen because there are too many seniors to cover. After a while, it's not hard to have tunnel vision on the seniors.

"You're so focused on the job at hand and you want to focus all of your time and energy on getting the guys right because if you start deviating and taking your attention on a junior, then he doesn't come out you've missed something on the guy you're supposed to be evaluating."

5. Scouts hardly have a chance to enjoy the moment

To an outsider, being a scout seems like the perfect job. You get paid to watch college football games and travel the country. Sometimes, Whaley admits, he has gotten caught up in the excitement of rivalry games, but work gets in the way eventually.

"It's human nature," Whaley said. "When I was younger and you go to the Iron Bowl (Auburn vs. Alabama) or Ohio State-Michigan, yeah it's exciting. But when you get there, then you just focus your attention on the job at hand."

6. Investigation is part of the job

Whaley notes the Bills put an emphasis on getting a live look at a player in addition to watching him on film. But another aspect of the scouting process is doing background work on a player. When the Bills draft a player like Seantrel Henderson, who had multiple suspensions in college, they need to make sure they know what they're getting.

"We rely heavily on our area scouts to do that," Whaley said. "They've fostered relationships being in that area, going to those schools year after year or two-to-three times a year. We rely heavily on those guys to get the background information because you really want to find out what makes this guy tick.

"A lot of times I'm not there in the scouting process to look a guy in the eye and say, 'You know what, I truly believe him' or 'You know what, I don't know about this guy, he seems a little shaky.'"

7. Draft day is actually not that hectic

The Bills will generally build their first draft board before going to the NFL Scouting Combine. At that point, they are able to have face-to-face meetings with prospects and get a better feel for them as people. This is the part of the process in which coaches can get involved.

College scouting director Kelvin Fisher, director of player personnel Jim Monos and Whaley have seen every player, so they oversee the entire process. The area scouts get together and start forming a consensus opinion on players.

"The job of a scout is to paint a picture of a player," Whaley said. "Even though I may have seen him, let me see him through your eyes. So the job of us, the over-the-top guys, gather what you think of the player, what he thinks of the player, what I think of the player and come up with a collective player for the Buffalo Bills and how he'll fit on our team."

So by the time the NFL Draft rolls around, the Bills have gone through so much preparation that it can be a bit of a lull.

"Everybody always says draft day is hectic," Whaley said. "No, draft day is actually really boring because we've got all of our work done. We're ready for every scenario.

"It's hectic up to the draft, but on draft day, we're bored out of our minds."

8. It takes a while to get comfortable

Whaley broke into scouting at a young age, but he didn't feel totally comfortable right away. The Bills general manager said it takes between three and five years to start to develop a style. That's because by then a scout has a catalog of players he has scouted to reference each year.

"So if you liked a guy, you think he's a first-rounder," Whaley said. "He gets picked in the first round but didn't perform like a first-rounder. You have that guy in the back of your head, so if you see a guy that reminds you of him, you say, maybe I shouldn't put him in the first round, I'm going to put him in a lower round."

9. Scouts deserve a bit more credit

Whaley calls his scouts every chance he gets. He knows the grind they are going through and now knows how much he needs to lean on them as a general manager. So he wants to make sure they know how valuable they are, even if much of what they're doing isn't seen by the public.

"I think that's underrated, and I wouldn't say undervalued to us, but to the public, an undervalued job," Whaley said. "What they do and the sacrifices their families make, that's why I try to shed light on that any time I can.

"I look at it this way; When anybody buys a ticket to a football game, they're buying a ticket to the talent on the field. The people that unearth the talent on the field are the scouts. They are the forefront of us getting that talent, procuring that talent and putting it on the field for you when you buy that ticket."

10. People don't want to leave

With the hectic travel schedule, time away from family and lack of credit, an NFL scout might seem like a rough job. But Whaley, who is now paid more as a general manager, says he misses it. Not many people leave the job, either, unless they get promoted. Once a scout gets his chance, that job doesn't come open for a while.

"The turnover rate is so small," Whaley said. "It's not an expanding business."