NASHVILLE, Tenn. – With nearly 1,000 personnel professionals, ranging from grizzled veteran NFL scouts and executives to volunteer, unpaid student-workers in the collegiate ranks, descending here this week in Music City, one early-morning session Tuesday leaves many staffers leaning against walls and ringing the doors.
Ted Monago, senior personnel executive for the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams, and Carter Wilson of the Big 12’s Cincinnati Bearcats are peeling back the curtain on methods for finding undervalued players.
Which they define as follows:
“For starters, what is undervalued,” Wilson says. “For the scope of this discussion, it is going to be about their eventual NFL Draft slot versus their recruiting rankings.”
They’re sharing video of recent college stars on divergent paths who all now are in the NFL. They open with Braden Fiske, the Michigan City, Indiana, native, who’s coming off an All-Rookie season with the Rams on the heels of a college career spanning four years at Western Michigan and a final, breakout-season at Florida State.
Monago and Wilson share video of Fiske, beginning as an offensive lineman in high school and continuing through to his 2023 season at Florida State.
More importantly, they’re sharing traits they seek to define for Wilson in identifying potential college recruits and Monago for charting potential Draft selections.
Football Character is defined as following:
Competitive spirit
Mental toughness
Physical toughness
Dependability
Passion for the game
Self-efficacy
They’ll pose key questions, such as examining the bottom-level expectation for a player versus his potential top-end production.
“Floors vs Ceilings
“Floor: What is the player’s makeup and how will they impact the ecosystem around them?
“Ceiling: What is the player’s physical and athletic upside that can be developed?”
More importantly, they ask the capacity crowd, “If he’s lacking in any of the football character traits, what’s his likelihood of reaching his ceiling?”.
“Unlikely,” is the resounding answer.
But Fiske’s film, even as an offensive guard for his Michigan City prep team, shows promise to the room. His body changes from a flat 6-foot-3, 240 pounds as a prep senior to 6-3.5, 292 with a 76-inch wingspan – testament to his broad shoulders somewhat mitigating his 31-inch arms.
“He is a little bit short-armed, but that’s not a killer, not the end of the world if you have other tools,” says one college personnel staffer.
“He shows initial quickness, even on the offensive line, he’s able to get out and cut off defenders.”
“His body control and balance shows major improvement from high school to college: One of the fundamental things you see of guys are growth-potential, especially when they have a lack of core strength early in their career. His ability to stay and displace blocks is super telling,” Wilson notes.
“He has ability to roll his hips on contact, bring your hips to the contact” says Jaden Mack, Kennesaw State’s assistant director of player personnel.
“I think I see a lot of football traits, second-effort, passion, toughness,” another staffer shares.
Rashawn Slater is another example. His high school clips from Clements High School in Sugar Land, Texas, show immediate promise, and he’s sporting a verified 269-pound weight at the time.
“Long arms, thin ankles, athletic, higher calves, potential to be an athletic mover,” are the descriptions.
Today, Slater is the NFL’s highest-paid offensive lineman on the heels of inking an $114,000 deal with $92 million guaranteed with the Chargers, the team to draft him following his standout-career at Northwestern.
In the room today is Kevin Kelly. Currently, he’s Clemson’s first-year director of player evaluation and acquisition. But he’s just months from being the Chargers’s director of college scouting and a major reason Slater now anchors onside of the Bolts’s offensive line and Joe Alt the other one.
“We really liked him as an elite athlete, even in the NFL he is,” Kelly tells the room. “The best part about Slater is his versatility. He’s 6-4, arms like 34 inches. He’s an All-Pro left tackle in the NFL and he just signed the richest contract (for an offensive lineman). But he could be All-Pro at center, guard or right tackle.”
In fact, Slater breaks the mold for the Chargers.
“We actually moved our number down to 6-4,” says Kelly, noting before Slater the Chargers wanted their tackles to measure 6-5 or taller. “I think he’s the best left tackle in football. He’s a dancing bear.”
-original.jpg)
Among other players under review is Kenneth Walker, the fourth-year running back with the Seattle Seahawks with his college career spanning Wake Forest to Michigan State. Picture and video show Walker’s thick trunk, even on a recruiting visit to Wake Forest, that can at times supersede a top-end speed that isn’t considered runaway-fast.
“I can tell you seeing him twice a year, he’s not fun to tackle,” says Monago, with nearly a quarter-century of NFL experience. “He’s taken advantage of the (NCAA Transfer) Portal.
“He goes to Big Ten, has a productive year and now he’s up in Seattle. So, he went ACC to Big Ten and now a quality NFL back.”
-original.jpg)