The NFL DraftWelcome to Primetime.

Lesson Goals

• This lesson attempt to guide you through the draft process by teaching you the fundamentals of

• The draft itself

• The draft build up process including the Senior Bowl and the Combine

• Draft trades

• You will be asked to complete an assessment of your knowledge after this slideshow.

The NFL Draft

• The NFL draft the is the most important part of the NFL offseason

• Many jobs in the industry including scouting depend on the success of the team’s draft.

• Teams that do not draft well have a lot of turnover at the end of the season.

• As an NFL scout your contribution to this process is very large. How you evaluate players will be a large piece of the overall puzzle.

The NFL Draft• The draft is a three day process.

• There are 7 total rounds in the NFL draft.

• The best players are usually picked in the first few rounds.

• This is not a rule; as there are exceptions to the rule. For example, the starting quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys, Tony Romo, was not drafted at all.

• The draft order is determined by reverse seeding of the final standings of the previous season.

• For example, the team with the worst record for the season gets to pick first.

• If teams end the season with same record their draft position is based on the strength of their schedule

• For example, if Team A played teams with an average win percentage of 70% or more and Team B played teams with an average win percentage of 50%. Team B would get to pick before Team A.

The NFL Draft• Each team initially starts with one pick in each round.

• These picks can be traded for players or other picks.

• For example, at the beginning of the 2013 season the San Francisco 49ers traded Alex Smith (QB) to the Kansas City Chiefs for a 2013 2nd round pick and a 2014 2nd round pick.

• These trades are made by the General Managers with support of their team owner.

• All trades are sanctioned and signed off by the NFL Commissioner.

The NFL Draft

• If a team feels as though they don’t need such a high draft pick they can move down in the order of the draft by trading their pick for more picks.

• Teams that feel as though a certain player left on the draft board are worth a higher pick than their own can try to trade up with another team to get that player.

• In each situation the team is trading their draft pick. The team who is trading their higher draft pick get more draft picks in the later rounds from the team trying to move up higher in the draft.

• There has been a formula developed for this purpose which is on the next slide and you can also download it from the page that this slideshow is located on.

The NFL Draft• By looking at the chart you

can see that the first pick of the first round is worth 3000 points.

• The last pick of the draft in round seven is only worth 3 points.

• So take a look at this hypothetical situation. A team with the 7th pick in the first round (1500 points) wants to trade up to the 3nd spot in the first round (2200 points). They would have to give up more picks that have a value equal or greater than 700 points to be able to move up in addition to their pick they are trading.

• So they would have to give up their 2nd round pick (510 points) and their 3rd round pick (235 points)

NFL Draft

• These trades for picks can also include picks for the next two to three years as well. The value on this picks are about 100 points less than their current position.

• For example, a team trades up from the 13th spot (1150 points) to the 2nd spot (2600 points) with a difference of 1450 points.

• They can trade their 2nd round pick (460 points) and their next year’s first round pick (1050 points) and move up into the position they want.

• Trades like this happen all the time; the largest trade in recent years happened in 2012 when the Washington Redskins traded their 2012, 2013, and 2014 first round picks to the St. Louis Rams to acquire Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III.

Now you try!

• What would a team have to do to trade from the 3rd pick of the 2nd round to the 29th pick of the 1st round?

• Remember that a team with the 3rd pick in the 2nd round has the 3rd pick in every round

Answer• When a team trades from the third pick of the 2nd round (550 points) to

the 29th pick of the first round (640 points) there is a difference of 90 points.

• A team would trade their 2nd rounder (550 points) and their 4th rounder (104 points) and that would be considered fair.

• A team could also trade their 2nd rounder (550 points), their 5th rounder (41 points), their 6th rounder (27.2 points), and seventh rounder (14.4) points and it would be considered fair.

• However in these two situations the team trading more of their picks away would want to trade as few picks as possible leading the first situation to be the most likely.

The NFL Draft• You may be wondering why you would need to know this information

as a scout and not the GM.

• As was alluded to in a previous lesson, NFL scouts and general managers work hand in hand to evaluate the players and make draft selections.

• Knowledge of the draft and its processes makes you a better scout and more valuable to the general manager.

• It is also not uncommon for general managers to be former scouts. So learning all your can about these processes can put you in a good position to be promoted to various positions across the league.

The Draft Process• The draft is a three day event, but the beginnings of the preparation

for the draft begin almost instantaneously after the previous years draft.

• Scouts will be sent out to go to college level spring games and clinics to begin the year’s long evaluation process.

• Pat Kirwan, former GM of the Jets, emphasizes one thing that should be made clear.

• “Scouts are not decision makers; they are information gatherers. It is their job to provide the head scout all the data he needs to decide which players he should see in person as the season goes along.” –Take Your Eye of the Ball: How to Watch Football by Knowing Where to Look.

The Draft Process

• During the summer, most scouts get a much needed break for a few months before training camp starts.

• During training camp, NFL scouts watch and evaluate the players that their team just drafted and picked up in free agency as a check on their abilities.

• During training camp, team needs become much more apparent and it allows the scouts to figure out which positions that they need to look carefully at.

The Draft Process

• Once college practices begin, the scouts hit the road for the long haul trying to go to as many games and practices in their region as possible to gather the best possible data to be handed up the line.

• After the college season has ended scouts will attend as many college bowl games as possible to scout players on the best teams in college football

• After the college bowls are over the scouts go to the two college All-Star games

• The East-West Shrine Bowl game

• The Senior Bowl

The Draft Process

• The Senior Bowl is one of the premier events in college football and a very important step in the draft process

• It is a one week event that includes the best seniors in college football playing together and against one another

• There are two teams each coached by an NFL coaching staff• For example the 2014 Senior Bowl was coached by the staffs of the Jacksonville Jaguars and

Atlanta Falcons

• A benefit of the Senior Bowl is that each team can watch the players in 1v1 drills

• For example, a team needing an offensive tackle can watch all the tackles take on all the of the defensive linemen

• This allows the teams to view the strengths and weakness of each player up, close, and personal.

• The most important benefit that teams have from the Senior Bowl is they can get a feel for the coachability of the players

• Players that are not viewed as coachable tend to fall in the draft and may not be drafted at all.

The Draft Process

• The next step of the draft process is the NFL Scouting Combine

• The combine is always held in Indianapolis, Indiana at Lucas Oil Stadium.

• The combine is one of the most important steps for draft prospects; it allows them to show off their mental ability, the strength, and their speed.

NFL Scouting Combine

• When NFL prospects first arrive in Indianapolis they are immediately measured and weighed.

• College listed height and weight are usually different from official measurements made at the combine.

• Teams want to make sure that the prospects that they are interested in meet certain physical criteria for the position that they want them to play.

• After they are weighed and measured, they are given a comprehensive medical exam to check for potential injuries and to check up on healing injuries. These reports are given to every team.

• Following the medical exam, they are given an general mental ability test

• Wonderlic test

• 50 questions in 12 minutes

• The highest scoring positions are usually offensive linemen and quarterbacks.

NFL Scouting Combine• The next step of the combine is team interviews. Each prospect will

meet with almost every team in the NFL

• These interviews allows players, coaches, and general mangers to get acquainted with each other

• Typical questions include football acumen and clearing up any off the field activity that could be deemed potentially detrimental (e.g a player with a history of drug usage)

• The next part of the combine is all about the players physical abilities.

• Players that are injured do not have to perform any drills at the combine; if their injury will be healed before the draft they can perform drills for teams individual or at their schools Pro Day.

NFL Scouting Combine• The first drill that players complete is the bench press

• They are asked to bench press 225 pounds as many times as they can

• The bench press is a measure of upper body strength and is typically more important for offensive and defensive linemen where upper body strength is crucial

• A good bench press performance typically doesn’t help you, but a bad bench press could mean that you lack the required strength to play your position

• The next drill completed is the 40 yard dash

• This drill measures how fast the player can ran 40 yards.

• Most times run between 4.3 seconds to 5.1 seconds

• The 40 yard dash measures a players agility and explosiveness.

NFL Scouting Combine• The vertical jump and broad jump drills measures a players lower body

strength and lower body agility

• In the vertical jump players jump straight up from a standing position as high as they can.

• In the broad jump players jump from a stand position forward as far as they can.

• The 20 yard shuttle, 60 yard shuttle, and three cone drill measure a players ability to move in space, their agility, their flexibility, and their stamina

• These three drills times are usually combined into one score using a formula that is unique to each team.

• Besides these standard drills, each position as different drills to complete

• For example, quarterbacks throw the ball and wide receivers run routes and catch the ball.

The Draft Process• After all of the scouting during the season, after the season, at the All-Star

games and at the combine its time for an NFL team to begin putting grades on players and developing their list of players they want to draft.

• When teams have a list of players that they are interested in they send the scouts to interview almost everyone the player knows including parents, friends, former coaches, current coaches, teammates, pastors, community leaders, etc.

• The reasoning behind all the questions is that a team does not want to select a player that will not fit in with their locker room culture or select someone who has a history of crime.

• For example, the New England Patriots selected tight end Aaron Hernandez in the 4th round of the 2010 draft. They ignored critical warning signs about a players past. Hernandez had been associated with a gang in his hometown and it now waiting for trial for murder.

Conclusion

• That concludes this lesson

• You should have learned the basics of the NFL draft, how to calculate fair draft pick trades, and the process and build up to the NFL draft.