Continuity in college scouting dept means that WFT should have continued success in this month's upcoming NFL draft

Not many NFL fan bases pay much attention to the front office personnel below the level of General Manager, but in Washington, where the team operated without anyone in the organization having the General Manager title for most of the years since Charley Casserly was fired in 1999, there has been consistent discussion of who was in charge of personnel and draft decisions. The often confusing list of organizational vice presidents, senior vice presidents and other organizational titles has kept a number of front office executives in the spotlight in Washington for years.

Possibly no one had been more popular with fans than Kyle Smith, who recently left the Washington franchise. When Ron Rivera was hired in January of 2020, much of the media and fan discussion centered on the relationship between Smith and the new head coach. Would Rivera, who was put in charge of the entire football side of the franchise, promote Smith to General Manager, or would he seek to bring in his own team?

Smith’s stock seemed to rise, initially at least, when he was almost immediately promoted from Director of College Scouting to Vice President of Player Personnel last year. It seemed to signal that Rivera, who had spoken glowingly of Washington’s recent draft success, might be preparing to promote Smith to General Manager in the near future.

This off-season, the tenor of Rivera’s comments about Smith began to change, and it became clear that not all was well in the relationship between coach and the primary architect of the draft. Then Martin Mayhew was hired as General Manager at the same time that Mary Hurney was brought on as Executive Vice President of Football/Player Personnel. Kyle Smith packed his bags and moved to Atlanta, where he now works as the Falcons’ VP of Player personnel.

With Smith’s departure, concern has arisen regarding Washington’s ability to continue the draft success that they’ve enjoyed in recent years. It seems as if those concerns may be overstated.

College drafts are not the work of one man, even if he is the key decision-maker. Instead, the draft is the culmination of a year-long process of evaluation that includes dozens of people. The heart and soul of the process is not the GM or other executive who faces the media to discuss the team's strategy and picks, but the men (and it is a position dominated by men) who work as college scouts, watching endless hours of film in their basements and hotel rooms and travelling a large section of the U.S. to build and maintain relationships with coaches, staff, players and their families in an effort to gain an informational edge that will make the difference on draft day.

NFL Personnel groups are divided into two halves: college scouting and pro personnel. The college scouting side spends 364 days per year preparing for the upcoming draft. The Pro Personnel side evaluates the team’s current roster and evaluates players from other teams that could be targeted in trade, free agency or via waiver pickups.

In Washington, while there has been considerable change on the pro personnel side recently, the college scouting group has been remarkably stable through the recent upheavals in the Washington franchise.

Here’s the list of scouts that worked for the team prior to Rivera’s arrival in Ashburn:

Of these eight scouts, only Cole Spenser has left the franchise in the past year. He appears to have been replaced by Ben Caprio, who has been with the team since 2017, having begun his NFL career with the Colts in 2015.

In addition, the Assistant Director of College Personnel, Tim Gribble, who has been with the Washington franchise for 19 years, remains in place.

The team also has a BLESTO scout, Ronald Rose. BLESTO is a scouting cooperative; Mike Shanihan initiated the Washington franchise association with the group when he arrived as the head coach in 2010. A recent article explained BLESTO’s role in the scouting process:

BLESTO is one of the two major league-wide scouting programs all teams collect data from. It’s a way to get a jumpstart on future classes…with the BLESTO scout often keeping an eye towards next year’s class. For example, with it being Pro Day season, those scouts are working towards the 2021 crop and attending junior pro days to get a baseline level of who the scouting department should monitor this fall.

The name “BLESTO” originates from the teams who originally comprised the organization: Bears-Lions-Steelers Talent Organization. There are more teams than that today, 12 in all, but the catchy name has always stuck.

A good sign for the future

This stability among the scouting ranks of the Washington franchise all speaks to a high level of stability in the college scouting process, which should translate into another successful draft.

Every player drafted in 2020 is currently on the WFT roster. The team’s first-round selection, Chase Young, is a generational talent at the DE position, and was voted a captain by his teammates last season. Third round selection, RB Antonio Gibson, and 7th round safety Kamren Curl each started at least ten games last year, and both appear to be inked in as starters in 2021. While 4th round offensive lineman Saahdiq Charles missed virtually his entire rookie season with injuries, head coach Ron Rivera has indicated that he will play a major role with the team in 2021. Late round picks LB Khaleke Hudson and DE James Smith-Williams contributed as rookies and should see expanded roles in the ’21 season.

While the 2019 draft will probably always be remembered for Daniel Snyder’s pick of the draft bust Dwayne Haskins, the rest of the draft holds up well. Montez Sweat has been outstanding in his first two seasons, and seemed to flourish opposite Chase Young in Jack Del Rio’s 4-3 scheme. Picking Terry McLaurin in the third round may have been the ‘steal of the draft’ as the wide receiver seems destined for eventual Pro Bowl honors and a long and successful career in burgundy & gold. While there were some misses in the middle rounds, the team added some genuine talent with three late-round picks, drafting LB Cole Holcomb, WR Kelvin Harmon, “the people’s corner” Jimmy Moreland.

Related:

Terry McLaurin, Cole Holcomb and Kamren Curl are on-track for CBA-Mandated Pay Raises

Five of the eight players picked by Washington in the 2018 draft remain on the team’s roster, the most notable being starting DT Daron Payne, who, along with his former Alabama teammate, 2017 first rounder Jonathan Allen, form the “Alabama Wall” as the interior of the Washington defense. They are backed up by Tim Settle, a 5th round 2018 pick, and Matt Ioannidis, drafted in the 5th round of the 2016 draft.

Other notable recent draft picks include starting center Chase Roullier, who was taken in the 6th round of the ’17 draft, and Kendall Fuller, drafted by Washington in the 3rd round in 2016.

This year’s draft runs from Thursday, April 29th to Saturday, April 30th. The Washington Football Team holds the 19th pick in the first round, and has a total of 8 picks in this year’s draft. The team acquired an extra third round pick when they traded OT Trent Williams to the San Francisco 49ers, and they swapped their 6th round pick for the 7th rounder from the Las Vegas Raiders in the trade to acquire OT David Sharpe. Looking at the depth chart, draft priorities are likely to include LB, OL and TE, as well as depth at the TE and CB positions. The team also needs to sign a long snapper, though that position is most likely to be filled with an undrafted college free agent.

Follow Washington Football Report to see more articles like this.

...

Follow