Floyd Reese breaks down the Intangibles in Draft Prospects

[DraftBoy]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/draft08/columns/story?columnist=reese_floyd&id=3244346

This guy has found many draft gems late in the draft and is working with ESPN as an analyst. His opinion is worth more than anybody you'll read on any other draft site.

[TigerJ]

Nice article, but did he have to bring up the "Music City Miracle" er forward lateral?

[kernowboy]

Floyd Reese should be our GM

[eyedog]

Baby Mike williams had absolutely none of those attributes, and he was the 4th pick of a draft.
What exactly was Donahoe looking at besides the physical aspects ?

[DraftBoy]

Baby Mike williams had absolutely none of those attributes, and he was the 4th pick of a draft.
What exactly was Donahoe looking at besides the physical aspects ?

I think that question is answered by the fact that he is no longer the GM here. He wasnt looking at them.

[LifetimeBillsFan]

Superb find, DB!

There are a lot of fans who will NEVER understand what Reese is talking about in this article and how important those factors are to putting together a team of players who can win: they just are interested in height, weight, 40 times, stats, and whether the player has a name that they have heard the so-called "experts" on TV talk about a lot. These intangibles are sometimes things that you can see in how a player performs on the field, but, in many cases, they are things that can only be seen and evaluated "behind-the-scenes". Yet, they can be key to whether a player develops on the NFL level or not and can make the difference between whether a team decides to select or pass on a player who may seem to have all the right physical attributes.

Nor will a lot of fans ever accept what Reese says about how very difficult it is to evaluate some of these intangibles. What they don't understand is that no draft warroom group for any team has ever been perfect in its evaluations of players--even the best have their busts--but that it really comes down to a matter of percentages: the best evaluators are able to sense/feel which players have the right combination of intangibles more often than those who aren't very good evaluators.

Another thing that a lot of fans will never understand is why a team will keep a player whose production on the field statistically might not be that great or match his salary who, unbeknownst to them (unless they were to take the time to read all of the articles available about the team), is an important and respected team leader in the lockerroom. Just because a guy is a productive star on the field, that doesn't mean that he is capable of being, let alone willing to be, a team leader. And, conversely, just because a guy might be an average player on the field, that doesn't mean that he can't be a guy who all of the guys listen to and follow in practice, meetings and the lockerroom. A lot of fans don't understand how important those kinds of leaders are--especially on a team where the stars may be quiet guys who aren't comfortable being leaders--to the cohesiveness and, ultimately, success of a team--they just want to know what the guy does on the field or, worse yet, see stats (and often are unhappy unless the guy is putting up All Pro stats at that!).

I just hope that everyone here who read this will take these intangibles into account when they try to evaluate the players that the Bills have and the ones that they end up drafting (and signing as free agents) this year.