It’s that time of year again.
Once the last week of July rolls around, it means one thing: it’s time to cross the 49th parallel to scout National Football League camps.
This will be my 14th year looking for talent at NFL camps. Wally Buono, my boss when I worked with the B.C. Lions, sent me out for my first time back in 2003.
Since then these trips have taken me across the United States, watching hours of film, watching hours of practice, driving hours on the highway system and spending hours in the airports.
And now, as a national scout for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, I have been assigned nine teams to scout. My trip will take me as far west as Denver and as far east as Spartanburg, SC where the defending-NFC champs, the Carolina Panthers, have their camp.
Our team covers all 32 teams – not all teams do – and the result of what many personnel people in the Canadian Football League call ‘The Grind’ will be a database with reports on several hundred players. It’s an intense month that is extremely important to all CFL clubs. It is also a great way to establish relationships with NFL personnel. I have been scouting the NFL for 14 years and as a result I have gained many contacts and made a lot of friendships with people in the NFL in player personnel.
So what is the process? How do we get all those reports?
Well, it’s pretty straightforward. We talk with the pro personnel people with the NFL clubs we visit to find out who we should look at first. Then it’s time to eyeball our possible prospects on the field in practice and, if the NFL team allows it, in the video room in their offices. We also attend NFL preseason games to see players in the heat of the battle. We take all those notes and then create a report for our database.
That report will include testing data for a player such as his height, weight, 40-yard speed, 20-yard shuttle, three-cone drill, vertical jump, broad jump, and bench press. We marry up what we see on the field with what we see in his testing results and then find out about a player’s character. Every player is given a grade which is outlined in the Bombers’ own scale. Careful consideration of all the information gathered goes into a grade for a player and it means that at the click of a button, we can have loads of information on a particular player.
It’s a lot of work, and I know all player personnel people working in our league would say it is so worth it. It certainly is a grind! But it is a passion and I wouldn’t have it any other way!
Practice 1 of NFL Road Trip 2016 is in the books. Man it’s hot. 93F. Feels like 95F. The key-Sunscreen & Hydration!!! Go Bombers!!! A photo posted by Craig T Smith (@craigt.smith) on
Craig Smith, a native Winnipegger and lifelong Bomber fan who has worked in the CFL with the B.C. Lions, Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Saskatchewan Roughriders, is the club’s new National Scout.
He will be filing reports from his visits to NFL camps regularly to bluebombers.com over the next few weeks.
