Doug Whaley explains Buffalo Bills' philosophy on scouting underclassmen...

[daryls61]

Tim Graham had a column about how the Bills are one of the teams that does not scout underclassmen until they declare. He did not paint a flattering picture of this philosophy. Waly explains the Bills thought process:

This week, the NFL released the official list of 95 underclassmen who have declared for the 2017 NFL Draft. These days, that number is the norm. In 2016, 96 underclassmen entered the draft with 30 of them going undrafted. A record 98 underclassmen declared for the 2014 NFL Draft. With an increasing number of underclassmen in the draft, a team's procedure for scouting them becomes critical. At the Senior Bowl on Tuesday, Buffalo Bills general manager Doug Whaley was asked what his philosophy is when it comes to scouting underclassmen."Well, it's a league rule," Whaley said. "You cannot comment, and if you do before they officially announce, then you're subject to a fine and possible draft picks. So we don't comment on junior until they declare officially, unless you want to pay my fine and tell Terry, 'Hey, guess what? We just lost a draft pick for commenting.' I just don't see the point." Forget commenting, though. What about doing the scouting work? Back when not as many underclassmen declared, it made sense for teams to focus their in-season scouting on seniors. What about now?

http://www.newyorkupstate.com/buffalo-bills/index.ssf/2017/01/doug_whaley_explains_buffalo_bills_philosophy_on_scouting_underclassmen.html

[Guest]

Re: Doug Whaley explains Buffalo Bills' philosophy on scouting underclassmen...

Whaley has to go.

Terry just needs to purchase Kim a gold plated dildo to replace Doug's member.

[OpIv37]

Re: Doug Whaley explains Buffalo Bills' philosophy on scouting underclassmen...

So, it's inefficient to evaluate underclassmen during the typical in-season evaluation process, but somehow efficient to evaluate 95+ players in 2.5 months and somehow integrate them into the draft board with the previously scouted players when none of them can actually be observed in live action?

I'm no expert on scouting but I find that hard to believe.

[ghz in pittsburgh]

Re: Doug Whaley explains Buffalo Bills' philosophy on scouting underclassmen...

They do. All teams do. Just that they can't say it.

[OpIv37]

Re: Doug Whaley explains Buffalo Bills' philosophy on scouting underclassmen...

They do. All teams do. Just that they can't say it.

The rule is that you cannot comment on individual players who aren't seniors until they declare. There is no rule about scouting whomever they want as long as they don't discuss it publicly.

Besides, what's the worst that can happen? The guy doesn't declare and go have a head start on next year's scouting.

[ghz in pittsburgh]

Re: Doug Whaley explains Buffalo Bills' philosophy on scouting underclassmen...

What do you expect Whaley to say? That they visit the underclassmen high school, talked to their former teammates relatives? NFL scouts probably worked scouting most of their lives. I bet most of them can cite some list of high school recruit rankings. I don't anyone will take Whaley's not looking at underclassmen until they declare seriously, just like his statement of not knowing why Rex was fired.

Looks to me Whaley has adopted "when in doubt, deny, deny, deny" public speaking approach.

[Mace]

Re: Doug Whaley explains Buffalo Bills' philosophy on scouting underclassmen...

What do you expect Whaley to say? That they visit the underclassmen high school, talked to their former teammates relatives? NFL scouts probably worked scouting most of their lives. I bet most of them can cite some list of high school recruit rankings. I don't anyone will take Whaley's not looking at underclassmen until they declare seriously, just like his statement of not knowing why Rex was fired.

Looks to me Whaley has adopted "when in doubt, deny, deny, deny" public speaking approach.

If he wants to make himself and the organization look competent, he simply says, "We scout everyone we can, as much as we can." not :

There's plenty enough time from January to the end of April to get these guys, these juniors done. If we can't get them done by us, that's our fault.

Well yeah it is, we know this by all the stellar draft picks.

By now, teams are tuning their boards with bowls and combine ahead to polish them. It's self defeating to suddenly stop paying attention to the seniors and cram up on underclassmen, so now you're adding to your workload and diminishing efficiency by tuning up the seniors and starting fresh on underclassmen.

Lack of prep work on underclassmen, also makes you have to start fresh every year on just seniors ?

Makes no sense.

[YardRat]

Re: Doug Whaley explains Buffalo Bills' philosophy on scouting underclassmen...

I don't think it's a big deal, and don't believe it to begin with.

Kinda hard not to keep an eye on guys like Humphrey and Robinson, even though 'officially' you're in Alabama scouting Allen, Foster and Howard.

[Mace]

Re: Doug Whaley explains Buffalo Bills' philosophy on scouting underclassmen...

I don't think it's a big deal, and don't believe it to begin with.

Kinda hard not to keep an eye on guys like Humphrey and Robinson, even though 'officially' you're in Alabama scouting Allen, Foster and Howard.

So unless he's dishonest for the sake of it, why can he not articulate in a competent professional manner ?

[YardRat]

Re: Doug Whaley explains Buffalo Bills' philosophy on scouting underclassmen...

So unless he's dishonest for the sake of it, why can he not articulate in a competent professional manner ?

We all know public speaking and answering questions from the media isn't one of his strengths.

[Mace]

Re: Doug Whaley explains Buffalo Bills' philosophy on scouting underclassmen...

We all know public speaking and answering questions from the media isn't one of his strengths.

Then what makes you think his general thought process is any better ?

I mean that covers expressing your thoughts in terms of action, diplomacy, dynamic response, flexibility and adaptation. All of which are pretty much required GM traits. If you can't express yourself to your scouts, HC, owners, staff......well....or do you mean to say he only chokes when someone puts a light on him ? Not that an owner, draft board, HC would, mind you.

[YardRat]

Re: Doug Whaley explains Buffalo Bills' philosophy on scouting underclassmen...

Then what makes you think his general thought process is any better ?

I mean that covers expressing your thoughts in terms of action, diplomacy, dynamic response, flexibility and adaptation. All of which are pretty much required GM traits. If you can't express yourself to your scouts, HC, owners, staff......well....or do you mean to say he only chokes when someone puts a light on him ? Not that an owner, draft board, HC would, mind you.

I don't think an individual's struggles with public speaking or the media is an indication of the same within the workplace, or process.

[Mace]

Re: Doug Whaley explains Buffalo Bills' philosophy on scouting underclassmen...

I don't think an individual's struggles with public speaking or the media is an indication of the same within the workplace, or process.

I do when the individual is all about presentation, and if you look at pics of Whaley, he's very carefully about presentation. It is not difficult to take a public speaking course, read a book, or even stick to your notes.

You're saying he chokes in public speaking or with the media. He prepared for this job for years, and he chokes at some part of it. You don't see him sweating or stammering though, his delivery is smooth and calculated. He's saying exactly what he means to, confidently. It's not a failure of public speaking ability.

[YardRat]

Re: Doug Whaley explains Buffalo Bills' philosophy on scouting underclassmen...

I do when the individual is all about presentation, and if you look at pics of Whaley, he's very carefully about presentation. It is not difficult to take a public speaking course, read a book, or even stick to your notes.

You're saying he chokes in public speaking or with the media. He prepared for this job for years, and he chokes at some part of it. You don't see him sweating or stammering though, his delivery is smooth and calculated. He's saying exactly what he means to, confidently. It's not a failure of public speaking ability.

Regardless of his demeanor and mannerisms, he has failed to accomplish getting his audience to believe what he is saying. To me, that is a failure in public speaking.

[Mace]

Re: Doug Whaley explains Buffalo Bills' philosophy on scouting underclassmen...

Regardless of his demeanor and mannerisms, he has failed to accomplish getting his audience to believe what he is saying. To me, that is a failure in public speaking.

Might be to you, to me it's a failure of having solid thoughts to express concretely as opposed to expressing scattershot thoughts that can be bendy as needed because you aren't really sold on them anyway.