Former Titans scout Blake Beddingfield pulls back the curtain on the draft room moments that still resonate years later.
By BLAKE BEDDINGFIELD
Misses in the draft are part of the business, whether a player is selected before your team’s turn is up or you miss evaluating the player and round.
Some of the decisions have long-term effects on a team and cause holes in a roster that continue for years. Draft misses affect a roster for four years (length of a rookie contract) and force the organization to spend extra resources to cover the misses.
It is important to have a front office built from the bottom up, and I say that as someone who started as a scouting assistant and spent six seasons as an area scout. With the NFL draft being the lifeblood of a roster and organizational health, the team needs talented scouts and evaluators who have an eye for talent but are also good at acquiring information from coaches and schools.
The trend in the NFL today is to have more scouts who are just information gatherers and have very little say or influence with the general managers. The front office needs a director-level scout who is a good roster builder and understands the present and future of the roster. The organization will also need to merge analytics and coaching evaluations with the traditional scouting model, and it is ultimately on the general manager to balance all the different areas and ultimately make the final decisions.
