Hey Folks,
I’ve been ill for the past week and I was in Baltimore the week before on a family trip. I’ve only had enough energy to direct to the paid gigs. However, beginning next week I will be posting with greater frequency.
Best,
Matt
Date Archives September 2011
Talent and Production: The Great Emotional Divide
This is my seventh year studying the on-field performance of football players. I can say unequivocally that I know more about the techniques and strategy of the game than I knew when I began. I’m also beginning to realize that I have learned just as much about player evaluation during the four months I have spent creating content for this blog. However, much of what I have learned from my interviews of colleagues has less to do with technique, strategy, or what to physically seek from a player and more to do with what none of us know.
Things that even NFL GMs and personnel directors will never know for sure:
How a player will manage the great emotional divide that must be crossed in order to transition from college talent to productive pro.
The process is something that my friend and colleague Sigmund Bloom describes as trying to gain a complete view of a scene when the vantage point is through a keyhole. We only have clues that help us determine whether a player is equipped to cross this break. Continue reading
Reads, Listens, Views 9/23
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Greg Pruitt – there’s a lot of Pruitt in the best of Reggie Bush. I doubt there was a fine on the Chargers defender in`73.
I’ve been under the weather this week, so my regular posting schedule has been disrupted somewhat. However, a sincere thank you to those of you who continue to the make the Rookie Scouting Portfolio Blog a part of your regular reading schedule. Continue reading
Travelle Gaines: API Director of Elite Athlete Development
Travelle Gaines gets people to do things they never thought they could. Considering that most of these people are elite college and pro football athletes makes his job fascinating. Gaines lacks the formal education of a trainer (kinesiology, physical therapy, etc.). His educational process was more old school: apprenticeship and experience. A former college football player and workout warrior, Gaines credits legendary LSU strength and conditioning coaches Tommy Moffitt and Gayle Hatch for what he’s learned about training.
Gaines has clearly taken these lessons and added his own perspective to develop a clientele that includes some of the best football players in the world: Chris Johnson, LeSean McCoy, Percy Harvin, Bob Sanders, Jon Beason, Matt Hasselbeck, Ryan Mathews, Marcus Trufant, and over 100 others. Gaines is now the director of Pro Training at Athletes’ Performance Institute. He agreed to take some time to have a conversation about his career, his role and process with training football players, and the transition required to go from college to pro football.
Continue reading
Suggested Reading
In recent weeks there have been a lot of new readers to the Rookie Scouting Portfolio. This site is constantly evolving and one of the things I intend to do during the next few weeks is to add a page that categorizes links to every article on the blog for easier navigation.
Whether you’re new to the site and haven’t had a chance to delve into it or you’ve been returning for a while, I thought it would be a good idea to provide some suggested reading:
Interviews
If you became acquainted with the RSP blog from the Greg Cosell or Dan Shonka conversations, I highly recommend checking out these posts.
Conversation with NFL Draft Scout’s Chad Reuter: This is the first part of a series of conversations I did with Reuter. It was pleasure to engage in football talk with a dedicated, intelligent evaluator of talent who uses his economics and player evaluation skills to present research information to NFL teams.
Conversation with National Football Post’s Wes Bunting: Just like Reuter, Bunting does the work. I should know, their processes sound eerily familiar to my early mornings. A very interesting read.
Film Study
Grinding Tape: Chad Spann – Stiff arms and Green Dogs: How often do you get to read an interview where the interviewer and the subject are studying football together? This excerpt from a 2-hour study session (Just search “Chad Spann” for more) includes play diagrams and explanations of what the NCAA’s 2010 touchdown leader was thinking about with each play.
Walk on The Wild Side
The Unwritten Rules of Football and Life: These are transcriptions of podcast editorials I occasionally deliver at The Audible’s Thursday Night Roundtable with Sigmund Bloom and Cecil Lammey.
I’ll suggest other pieces each week until I create the navigation page. I hope these are enjoyable reading for you.
RSP Flashback-NFL Fastforward: QB Mike Kafka
Marty Mornhinweg said 2010 rookie quarterback Mike Kafka is the best first-year passer he’s seen pick up an offense in over 15 years. In training camp this year, the only question about Kafka has been his arm strength. Last Sunday when Mike Vick collided with his own lineman and suffered a concussion and Vince Young was unable to go with a bad hamstring, Kafka was put into the lineup. The second-year quarterback went 7 for 9 for 72 yards and demonstrated good poise and decision-making.
Who is Mike Kafka and is he just a warm body or another Brian Hoyer-Matt Flynn with a Matt Schaub-like future?
I think Kafka has to flash the arm strength and accuracy in the intermediate and deep passing game to warrant the Hoyer-Flynn comparisons. At the same time, the rest of his game shows a lot of promise. Based on my college analysis of Kafka, I think it makes complete sense that he’s in an Andy Reid style offense.
If he starts in Vick’s place I think we’re going to see a lot of plays that fit Kafka’s strengths:
- Crossing routes and wide receiver screens
- Play action on early downs
- Boot legs
Think of Reid and Mornhingweg taking the “Jeff Garcia” chapter from their play book.
Below is my analysis of Mike Kafka against the Ohio State Buckeyes from the 2010 Rookie Scouting Portfolio. Continue reading
The Pats Two-TE Sets: A Long Time Coming?
Aaron Hernandez and Rob Gronkowski combined for 13 receptions, 189 yards, and 2 touchdowns against the Dolphins on Monday night. Yesterday they combined for 11 receptions, 143 yards, and 3 touchdowns against the Chargers. If you’ve been reading this blog throughout the summer then you know the hybrid position has been a common theme.
While I’m not certain the Patriots intended to incorporate two tight end sets immediately into their base offense when they drafted Hernandez and Gronkowski in 2010, I think they envisioned it. These are two very different types of players so redundancy wasn’t the intent. Continue reading
Reads, Listens, Views 9/15
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Gene Upshaw at his best.
Thank you to those of you who are making the Rookie Scouting Portfolio Blog a part of your regular reading schedule. As I’ve been saying weekly, if you like what you’ve seen thus far, please consider these three acts of kindness: 
- Subscribe to this blog. It’s free.
- Share this blog with your friends.
- Send me feedback.
And then consider performing one special act of kindness to yourself: Get my publication The Rookie Scouting Portfolio. Those who buy it love it.
The RSP is a 120-150 page rookie report loaded withanalysis, rankings, and player comparisons of over 150 offensive skill position prospects. And unlike any publication remotely of its type, I also show the reader my work with an appendix containing hundreds of pages of game study notes as well as my position-specific scoring checklists adopted from best-practice methods for performance evaluation.
In the coming weeks, I’ll be posting more prospect analysis that you’ll likely see in the 2012 Rookie Scouting Portfolio, which will be available here for purchase in the early spring.
Back issues of the RSP (2006-2010) are available for purchase by emailing me.
Reads, Listens, Views
It’s this time of the week where I share what I’ve been reading, listening, and viewing each week – football, fantasy football, and non-football.
Football – Two Links from writer Alen Dumonjic, who does an excellent job of analyzing the game.
Goal-Line Stand – This is a part of the website The Score. I strongly recommend Alen’s contributions. He does a fantastic job with X’s and O’s and explaining football technique.
Inside the matchup: Patriots vs. Dolphins by Alen Dumonjic courtesy of Boston.com – I know this is last week’s game but the analysis is insightful and explains concepts that go beyond this game.
Non-Football
Sewing her way out of poverty By Nicholas D. Kristof – The inspiring story of a married mother in Kenya who resorted to prostitution to support her children after they pushed out of her house by her husband who brought in a new wife. The mother learns to sew, creates a business, and with the help of a microsavings program earns enough to work her way out of poverty.
Super-Earth: Newly discovered planet could potentially support life By Denise Chow
Tidal Turbines: New sparks of hope for green energy from beneath the waves by Colin Woodward – A town on the Maine coast is the Kitty Hawk for green energy.
A Photo Essay on the Great Depression
Entertainment
El Nino performed by the late, great Michael Brecker – perhaps the one saxophonist who built on what John Coltrane did (while also performing with the likes of Aerosmith, Cameo, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, and over 900 albums of music of every genre).
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Dan Shonka Part V: Scouting Gigs
I think it’s accurate to describe Ourlads’ Dan Shonka as one of the ultimate practitioners of football evaluation. Shonka has 39 years of football experience as a player, college recruiter, college coach, and a combined 16 years as a NFL scout for National Scouting Service, the Philadelphia Eagles, the Washington Redskins, and the Kansas City Chiefs.
Last week, Shonka agreed to speak with me about scouting, players, and the NFL. The scheduled 60 minutes became two hours of football talk that flew by. Dan was afraid I got more than I bargained for, but I told him that I got exactly what I wanted – just more than I could have expected.
In this final installment of our conversation, Shonka tells how he became an NFL Scout and shares some of his experiences in the field. Continue reading
Dan Shonka Part IV: Prospects Past and Present
I think it’s accurate to describe Ourlads’ Dan Shonka as one of the ultimate practitioners of football evaluation. Shonka has 39 years of football experience as a player, college recruiter, college coach, and a combined 16 years as a NFL scout for National Scouting Service, the Philadelphia Eagles, the Washington Redskins, and the Kansas City Chiefs.
Last week, Shonka agreed to speak with me about scouting, players, and the NFL. The scheduled 60 minutes became two hours of football talk that flew by. Dan was afraid I got more than I bargained for, but I told him that I got exactly what I wanted – just more than I could have expected.
In this segment of the conversation, Shonka talks about pro prospects from the past and present, including two players he thought would be great who didn’t pan out, a sneaky-good runner he and Wes Bunting both like, and his take on Andrew Luck. Continue reading