Touchdown Wire

The process for evaluating prospects is any draft class beings years before — for coaches moving from the NCAA to the NFL, it can start with players they tried to recruit out of high school, and watched all along the way. In an NFL sense, it begins with the area scouts, who are watching and rating all their prospects from season to season, with an obvious increased focus as those prospects prepare for their coming-out seasons. Once the season is over for NFL teams, whenever that happens, it’s then time for all the area scouts to arrive at the facility to meet with the home staff including scouting directors, coaches, and executives. At this point, beyond positions rankings, NFL teams start to put together their bog boards — the top prospects for them, regardless of position, with need and internal positional value factored in to whatever degree.