In-depth film analysis of NFL Draft Prospects With a Fantasy Football Lens - by Matt Waldman ©2025
We fear what we don’t understand. And what we do understand is often rooted in the past. Statistics are a record of the past. Conventional thinking is also rooted in the past. But what is conventional today was revolutionary yesterday. And what was revolutionary yesterday was often met with skepticism, fear, and scorn.
The round earth theory was revolutionary. Democracy was revolutionary. Civil rights is (unfortunately still) revolutionary. Continue reading
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
I’m a kid in a candy store this week. I get to share with you my conversations with NFL Films senior producer Greg Cosell. One of the few people who not only has access to coaching tape, but also a guy who can call up a coach and talk shop. In Part I of our phone conversation from Cosell’s office at NFL Films headquarters in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey, Cosell allowed me to toss what seemed like an endlessly random array of player names for him to give his takes. In Part II, Cosell participates in a more standard Q&A. In Part III, he agrees once again to indulge my inner football child.
Waldman: Let’s play another game. I name two players Continue reading