TALES FROM THE SCOUTING TRAIL: Scouting NFL Training Camps

While many talented Canadian Football League players enter our league straight from college, the primary source for American talent comes in the form of players who have fallen out of the NFL.

Every year hundreds of talented rookies enter the NFL, pushing veteran players out of the league. With only limited spots available, there are inevitably an abundance of talented players without NFL opportunities who are looking to continue their football career.

It is a CFL scout’s job to identify which NFL players fit the Canadian game and might become available in the near or distant future. And with the nature of the Negotiation List — which enables teams to claim rights to 45 collegiate or pro players at any given time — being early to identify potential CFL talent pays dividends.

When NFL teams open training camp, there are nearly 3,000 players rostered across all 32 teams. Once final cuts are made and active and practice rosters are set, around 800 of those players find themselves out of work.

Once those 800-some-odd players are cut, there is a mad dash among all nine CFL teams to add their favourites to the Negotiation List. If a team can correctly identify which players will become available before cutdown day, they have a potential advantage over the rest of the league.

While it is certainly possible to scout back-end NFL players from the comfort of one’s own home by watching games on television or turning on the coach’s film the next day, most CFL teams prioritize sending scouts to as many NFL training camps as possible.

In order to have the best possible information about players to potentially sign, the Blue Bombers organization sends scouts to all 32 training camps. This enables us to get an in-depth, in-person look at the players, see where they are on the offseason depth chart, and meet with NFL pro scouts to discuss some of the players on our watchlist.

Beyond gaining an understanding of each player’s strengths and weaknesses, attending training camps allows scouts to learn about the work habits, learning capabilities and personalities of the players. It also allows us to see how certain players have developed or regressed from year-to-year.

This is undoubtedly the busiest time of year for out scouting department. This year, for example, I will personally be attending 10 training camps and scouting approximately 400 players across the Northeast and Midwest United States in a one-month period.

While the NFL training camp grind is an exceptionally laborious process for CFL scouts, it is also one of the most exciting and rewarding times of year.

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Cyril Penn is a Blue Bombers U.S.-based scout who writes regularly for bluebombers.com.