Bills Scouting Dept.

[justasportsfan]

My question is about Buddy Nix’s scouting staff. How big is the staff? What level of compensation does the average pro scout receive? Since scouting (i.e. hitting with your draft picks) is going to be so important to the Bills success I would like to see the Bills attract the best possible talent they can find to their scouting staff.

This will obviously require opening the purse strings to entice scouts to work for Buffalo. But, it seems like a great value proposition compared to the millions teams like the Redskins throw at free agent signings (with varying results).

I don’t how much it would cost, but I would think an extra million or two spent on hiring the best scouts would be the best investment the Bills could make.
Go Bills.

Tim N
Alexandria, VA

CB: There are 15 people, counting Nix, Tom Modrak and Doug Whaley on the college scouting staff. The most recent addition was Darrell Moody, who was most recently with the Chargers and serves the Bills as a National Scout, which means he’s not tied to a specific region of the country to scout.

That is one of the largest college scouting contingents in the league. Most NFL clubs average between 8 to 12 scouts. Cleveland, by my count, came the closest to Buffalo with 13. Indianapolis has 12 counting Bill Polian. Cincinnati, meanwhile, has just one person that organizes the scouting department, but their scouts are the members of their coaching staff.

http://blogs.buffalobills.com/2010/10/15/fan-friday-10-15/

[Commissioner]

Re: Bills Scouting Dept.

Whoever scouts defensive lineman stinks..... I hope the guy that ranked Maybin high on the draft board is fired. There's no excuse for missing like that when me and my friends knew he wasn't worth it.... and all we did was look at ESPN highlights and the fact that he had little experience and played college ball at 230lbs.

[k-oneputt]

Re: Bills Scouting Dept.

It's not about the number of scouts but the talent of the scouts.
The Bills can have 12-13 scouts, but if they all suck, which they actually do, what's the difference ?

[Bangarang]

Re: Bills Scouting Dept.

Whoever scouts defensive lineman stinks..... I hope the guy that ranked Maybin high on the draft board is fired. There's no excuse for missing like that when me and my friends knew he wasn't worth it.... and all we did was look at ESPN highlights and the fact that he had little experience and played college ball at 230lbs.

Wasn't Jauron drooling over Maybin and wanted him badly?

[T-Long]

Re: Bills Scouting Dept.

yeah Jauron made the Maybin call, so don't hammer the scouts on that one.

[k-oneputt]

Re: Bills Scouting Dept.

yeah Jauron made the Maybin call, so don't hammer the scouts on that one.

Even if they get a pass on Maybin there are ten years of blown picks to hammer on.

[WeAreArthurMoates]

Re: Bills Scouting Dept.

Even if they get a pass on Maybin there are ten years of blown picks to hammer on.

The difference though now is that our new national scout. Moodey is good one

[Ingtar33]

Re: Bills Scouting Dept.

It doesn't matter how good your scouting staff is if the coaching staff or gm or owner ignore them.

part of what made scouting so frustrating was spending months of your life dedicated to finding the best football players in the country then ranking them, only to have the owner/coach/gm ignore all your work and go after the kid who had the great game in the bowlgame which they were watching at home one night; or who runs a 4.2 at the combine.

This is what happens all the time.

The coaches/owners/gms pay attention to the draft for maybe a month... if you're lucky... the well run teams use that month to learn what the scouts think about the players, and learn a little themselves. Since most owners are old men, it's rare they do this, but it doesn't stop many of them from basically interjecting themselves into the first few rounds of the draft (or if the team is really unfortunate, all if it) anyway.

[Ginger Vitis]

Re: Bills Scouting Dept.

Ingtar is it normal for a GM to hit the road and scout for 2 weeks during the NFL season like Buddy Nix is about to do? Why would Wilson have Nix do this when they have scouts ?

[EDS]

Re: Bills Scouting Dept.

yeah Jauron made the Maybin call, so don't hammer the scouts on that one.

Is this really true? How do we know?

[better days]

Re: Bills Scouting Dept.

Is this really true? How do we know?

It has been reported that Jauron had the 1st rnd pick while he was in Buffalo.

When hired, Nix said he would never take a player that was a one year wonder in the 1st rnd.

Without naming names, he let it be known that he had nothing to do with the Maybin pick.

[Ed]

Re: Bills Scouting Dept.

Is this really true? How do we know?

I don't know if there's proof, but it was reported at some point last year that Modrak actually wanted to draft Cushing. I think it was assumed that he was overruled by Jauron.

[Ingtar33]

Re: Bills Scouting Dept.

Ingtar is it normal for a GM to hit the road and scout for 2 weeks during the NFL season like Buddy Nix is about to do? Why would Wilson have Nix do this when they have scouts ?

not normal at all... most GMs barely pay attention to college football during the season, there are some who do however.

Personally i think it's just theater to make nix look like he's doing something in the middle of this mess. what's he going to see in 2 weeks that he won't see after the season when his scouting dept breaks down the players available for the draft?

Lord knows I couldn’t formulate a solid opinion about anyone in just 2 weeks of scouting.

[Ed]

Re: Bills Scouting Dept.

not normal at all... most GMs barely pay attention to college football during the season, there are some who do however.

Personally i think it's just theater to make nix look like he's doing something in the middle of this mess. what's he going to see in 2 weeks that he won't see after the season when his scouting dept breaks down the players available for the draft?

Lord knows I couldn’t formulate a solid opinion about anyone in just 2 weeks of scouting.

He may not be able to form any solid opinions, but at least it starts the process of getting familiar with as many prospects as possible. With how critical our next couple drafts are going to be, I would hope that everyone in our front office is watching as much college football as possible.

[Commissioner]

Re: Bills Scouting Dept.

Wasn't Jauron drooling over Maybin and wanted him badly?

I read Maybin was Jauron's pick... but I'm sure he based that off of scouting reports. I doubt he would of been all about picking Maybin if the scouts said, he's raw, underweight, little college experience, and does not translate to defensive end in the NFL... "huge project".