June 8-14

How do you determine which team is best built for success? Which one is the model for all others? 

Is it Super Bowls won? That’s probably a good start, so obviously, the Chiefs merit some consideration. Is it drafting acumen? The Lions, Broncos, Bucs, Niners, Colts and Saints have won the six Best Draft Awards, and those are pretty solid organizations. Is it coaching success? The Browns’ Kevin Stefanski won the award for 2023, but the Texans, Lions and Niners each had nominees, and deserve plaudits for that. Free agent signings? Per this article, the Bucs, Falcons, Lions, Colts and Bills had top-five signees in the 2023 season, and they are certainly doing things right. Still, everyone can’t be No. 1. If you had to choose the top five, who would they be?

We asked NFL scouts this question: Which are the five best front offices? Who makes the best decisions, consistently, in the draft, in free agency, and in major hires? Here are the teams most often cited in their responses. The Top Five (in order of votes, with comments):

BALTIMORE 

• “They have a great staff and do a great job finding players that fit their system.   They have had a lot of continuity for years.”
• “Have been the standard of consistency for quite some time now.”
• “Steady. Drafts well. . . they have also taken advantage of the compensatory program. Mixes in key FAs well (DE Jadeveon Clowney/LB Kyle Van Noy last year are good examples).”
• “I have an immense amount of respect for the Ravens and their staff. Have never met a Ravens scout/staffer who wasn’t absolutely professional and had pride in representing their organization.”
• “Consistently good on both sides of the ball. Never lost their identity of what a Raven is. They know ‘their type.’ Really good personnel staff that works, grinds and remains humble. Replaced respected defensive coordinator with a future head coach in Mike McDonald. They get the ‘big decisions’ right consistently -- QB, HC, coordinators.”
• “Number 1. Years of consistency, they let the draft come to them, and consistently pick best player available.”

SAN FRANCISCO

• “There is a reason why organizations are poaching their system for GM jobs.”
• “Have had some misses at the top of the draft, but have been consistently excellent throughout the entirety of the draft as a whole, in free agency, and hiring/promoting to replace lost.”
• “Head coach-driven program that knows how to find the right groceries. They have consistently knocked it out of the park in rounds 3-7 with some really big hits. Deep personnel staff that (has) been able to keep the group in lockstep. Head coach gets a lot of credit, but a lot of tools on his tool belt -- big trade for (OH Christian McCaffrey), as an example.”
• “Great scouting staff. Great evaluators.”

SEATTLE

• “Lots of talent among their scouts and upper management.  They are excellent evaluators and do a very good job of filling their roster with talented players.”
• “I threw (the Seahawks) in there since I love (GM John Schneider) from my time together and they have mostly been a playoff team during his tenure.”
• “Seattle just has such a long track record and consistently built through the draft. Back to hitting on early picks after a slump. Nailed getting off of (QB Russell) Wilson at the right time. Great personnel staff.”

PHILADELPHIA

• “Veteran staff that does a good job knowing their system and finding players.”
• “Philly gets a bit too much media credit, but they do great navigating the trade/FA market, choosing when to be aggressive . . .  Have generally handled the draft well, but the personnel staff moves (are) an area I don’t agree with all the time.” 

GREEN BAY

• “Have a different org chart/structure/setup in terms of coaching, personnel, and business and communication/collaboration within, but it works for them.”
• “Green Bay is another, particularly considering how infrequently they dip into the top-tier FA market. Nailed another QB that was not a consensus player. Home-grown front office.”
• “Model of consistency. Drafts well, acclimates, and retains their own. Develops personnel staff from the ground up. Strong group from top to bottom. Multiple future GMs on staff. Hired young first-time HC in 2019 who has .675 win percentage. This organization is the gold standard.”
• “Consistently find guys in mid rounds who contribute.”

The Next Five (in order): Bills, Steelers, Chiefs, Lions and Vikings. Also receiving mention: Bengals, Texans, Cowboys, Colts and Browns. 

A few notes on teams that didn’t quite make the cut:

• “You can easily put the Rams, Lions, and Packers up there, but it’s hard to go against teams that win consistently.”
• “I had Chiefs on there then took them off. But they’ve made a lot of great decisions over recent years, obviously.”
• “(Vikings have a) very good staff that has been together a long time. They work hard and are good evaluators.”
• “I’m biased to (Green Bay) from my time there and love that staff.” 
• “Pittsburgh has been steady Eddie.” 
• “Philly takes swings and they have made Super Bowls, so that has to play a role.” 
• “Still early for the new (Lions) regime and they haven’t had to make any major hires, but it’s has been an impressive start.”
• “Rams, I don’t like how they did it. But they got a Super Bowl out of it, so that’s why I tossed them in.”
• “Has anybody been hotter than (Lions GM) Brad Holmes and Co.? Nailed the head coach, been aggressive in the draft and found their types of guys. The (QB Matthew) Stafford trade was an impressive pivot for the organization. A lot of talent and toughness on this team built around the head coach’s identity. They beat to their own drum and WIN.”
• “(The Browns) have built out a deep and talented roster in multiple ways -- trades, free agency and the draft. Found two talented distressed assets in (WO) Elijah Moore and (WO) Amari Cooper at receiver for pennies on the dollar. Young HC who was able to win with revolving door at QB in ‘23. A lot of voices/information involved in their process, but GM Andrew Berry sorts through it all and makes it go. They would be higher, but the QB trade for (Deshaun) Watson has not brought stability to the position as of yet.”
• “Pittsburgh another long track record situation, and the fact they’ve done well despite mishandling QB is astonishing.” 
• “I would say Bills are definitely in the top five.”
• “Lions too soon, but they’ve done good things.”
• “Saints great staff and consistent leadership. Philly as well.”

Obviously, this is not a comprehensive list, and we limited our solicitation of responses some because the NFL’s vacation season kicked off this week. Still, we thought it would be a provocative question, and we were right; as you can see, we got dozens of detailed, thoughtful responses.

For what it’s worth, we asked the same question – which NFL organization is best? – on Twitter. The winner was Baltimore, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Kansas City, which edged Baltimore, San Francisco, Seattle, Detroit and Green Bay by a few percentage points. 

Now for this week’s scouting moves after a mostly quiet seven days.

• The Steelers formalized their offseason scouting moves and in-house promotions. We also learned the official titles for a few new hires across the league.
• The Jaguars made several in-house moves and also made official a couple other hires.
• We also found out about a Jets hire and the Seahawks’ plan to fill an open slot; we handled it in our Rep Rumblings.

With OTAs and camps over until the end of July, it’s going to be a slow-moving summer on the scouting front. We’ll continue to track everything, but for the most part, what we have in the Scouting Changes Grid is not going to change measurably over the next six weeks. 

As for this week’s edition of the Scouting the League podcast, co-hosts Rodrik David and Neil Stratton welcomed The Athletic’s Kalyn Kahler to the program. If you’re a fan of the game behind the game, you already know Kahler for her insightful stories that go inside the front offices, meeting rooms, field houses and anywhere else that decisions are made and trends are set. Over the course of an hour, Kahler discussed her “origin story” and how she got her start with Sports Illustrated’s Peter King; how she built relationships with NFL scouts (including one key tip that encourages familiarity); the NFL’s dilemma with S2 Cognition testing; how top players may be trying to determine their draft destinations; and all about Prospect X, her innovative draft series that identifies and tells the stories of the deepest of the deep sleepers in every class. If you’re a regular reader of this newsletter, make sure you’re following everything Kahler does, starting with this week’s edition of the Scouting the League podcast.

Now let’s take a look at what else happened in the business of college and pro football this week. 

Six weekends: If you’re taking the NFLPA Exam this summer, time is growing shorter. Never mind that you haven’t been officially notified that you can schedule your exam slot – literally, no one has yet, with 45 days till the test – it’s time to start bearing down. If you really want to procrastinate, we can’t stop you, though hopefully you understand it’s a challenging test with a low passing rate, especially on the first try. On the other hand, if you are ready to start studying, or you already have, we got your back. 

Just this week, we had our June Zoom session with longtime NFL agent Ian Greengross. He covered: 

• Proven Performance Escalator 
• Fifth-year option 
• RFA tenders 
• Reporting dates/Calculating Opening Day of Camp
• Offseason workout rules 
• Five-day acclimation period

Dozens of members of the 2024 agent exam class joined Ian to hear him break down some of the trickier concepts of the CBA. If you missed it, but wish you didn’t, you can order it here. If you’re more of a visual learner, and want to check out all our videos from previous months, here’s what we have to offer:

• February: Given a signing bonus and Year 4 cap number, calculate rookie salary • Calculation of problems re: June 1 rule, a key concept that's always part of the exam • Calculation of agent fees, including split between two agents after one has been terminated. • Accrued seasons, accrued seasons for benefits, and accrued seasons for salary. $50 plus tax
• March: Eligibility (accrued, credited for benefits, credited for salary) and free agency (Tenders, ROFR, exclusive rights free agency, restricted rights free agency, unrestricted free agency; transition tag, franchise/non-exclusive with terms, franchise/exclusive with terms); determining if a player has accrued a season, earned credit for benefits, earned credit for salary; deadline for payment (if cut on Tuesday, does he get paid?). • Split contracts • Termination pay • Veteran salary benefit. $50 plus tax
• April: Preseason split and in-season split, types of splits, definition, etc. • workman’s comp offsets, etc. • draft signals • PPE (partial coverage) • and practice squad salaries. $50 plus tax.
• May: VSB/Four-Year Player Benefit • Termination Pay • Injury Grievance • PPE/5th year option • IR/Designated for Return • Practice Squad • Severance pay/calculation of retirement benefits. $50 plus tax. 

Our sessions include a different mix of the toughest testable concepts with a varied focus; for example, Ian spent almost half of Thursday’s session on the PPE. If you’re really struggling with splits, or tenders, or accrued for benefits vs. accrued for salary, or any other topic, there’s a video (and maybe two) that concentrates on the areas you need. Make sure you’re considering our Zoom sessions as the exam gets closer. 

On the other hand, maybe you just got started studying, or you’re planning on getting started this weekend. If that’s the case, we recommend you start with our study guide. “Study guide has been great!,” texted one test-taker, unsolicited, this week. We agree. We feel our 70-page PDF is the best resource on the market, bar none. When you order it, we’ll contact our vendor with the goal of having it in your inbox within an hour. 

However, maybe you’re farther along, and need to test yourself. Start with our first practice exam, which is $200 for non-ITL clients and $150 for ITL clients (plus tax). Register, then pay, here, and we’ll get you activated ASAP so you can dig right in. Obviously, you can take the exam as many times as you’d like. If you decide you need even more sharpening, our second practiced exam is half the price of the first exam (though it’s only available for purchase after you buy the first one). You can register and purchase it here.

The final tier of our exam prep offerings launched this year, and consists of two contract advisors, Generation Sports Group’s Shane Costa and Christian Kranz, who walk with you through the months of June and July, the two most important months of exam prep. Cost is $250/month, and the program offers: 

• One Zoom/Google meetup per week with Christian and/or Shane (Wednesdays or Thursdays).
• A Slack channel where Christian and Shane moderate and answer exam questions and explain materials (must have purchased ITL exam guide).
• End of July ITL Exam Review Session.
• Daily Subtext with one exam topic explainer per day (M-F).

Ready to sign up? Click here.

Need even more? Contact us. We can set you up with one-on-one sessions with talented instructors on a case-by-case basis at a $200 hourly rate. Let’s get started. We’ll do whatever it takes to help you pass the exam.  

Catching Up: Rod Perry, 45, interned with the Browns scouting department, then spent almost two years evaluating for the Chiefs before moving into coaching at Wisconsin and Oregon State. We caught up with him last week.

• Where are you living and what are you doing now?: “I live in Vancouver, WA, just north of Portland, across the river on the Washington side. I’m the Production Director for a full-service digital marketing agency, Thesis, and we partner with Nike. We’ve been Nike’s digital agency for the last decade-plus.” 

• Do you miss the job? What do you miss most?:  “I tell you what, it’s just football in general, as far as what you miss the most. I grew up in the sport. My dad played for 10 years in the league, coached another 25, so I was one of those camp kids. I was a ball boy, always around, then went into playing and scouting and coaching. The biggest thing now, from a scouting standpoint, is the strategy involved, recognizing talent, being able to find a diamond in the rough that others can’t see. Everyone sees what’s obvious. I like to uncover traits about someone that aren’t as obvious, being passionate and playing your part in building a team, the strategy of the that.”

• Do you keep in touch with any of your former colleagues?: “A little bit. I keep in contact. I just had a conversation with (Rams Senior Personnel Executive) Ray Farmer a couple days ago. And Marcus Edwards, Herman Edwards’ son, those are two guys I’ve stayed close with. But more so, here and now, when I see people, it’s a family, a fraternity. When you see people, you get immersed back in the moment. Stepping away from football, you’re either all in or you have to take yourself out.” 

• Do you go to any live games (HS/college/pro)?: “Yeah, I’ve gone to a number of high school games and college games after scouting. After my time with the Chiefs, I was quality control analyst at Oregon State, so obviously, I went to a number of games and followed a number of players since then. Some guys I coached with have dropped me some tickets, so I’ll go pop in there. I have seen a number of high school games. They’re always fun to watch. It’s just a pure level. They’re playing the game because they enjoy it. I’m just a fan of football.”

• Do you find yourself following teams that you’ve always rooted for or teams where you have friends coaching, scouting, playing, etc.?: “I’m gonna say both, because it really is both. Guys I’ve taken an interest in, with a personal interest, I follow (former NFL cornerback) Steven Nelson, Bills FS Jordan Poyer, Cowboys WO Brandin Cooks. Those are all guys we had at Oregon State. Then I also tend to pull for teams where there’s some connection with me or, growing up, the teams my dad played for. I’m always following the Chiefs, rooting for them, and always following the Rams. And then geographically, I do follow the Seahawks up here.” 

Review the latest from other former NFL scouts and executives by accessing our Catching Up archive here. Want to hear from a former scout, or know someone who may be interested in being interviewed? Let us know.

Agent Changes: We’ve been threatening to get caught up on our popular players-in-transition series for the past several weeks, and at long last, we got caught up with two reports. On Monday, we had the March-to-April term, followed by, on Wednesday, the April-to-May term. Both reports listed 10-plus players with new homes, representation-wise, dominated by offensive linemen (seven total between both reports), defensive backs (six total between safeties and corners) and wide receivers (six total). Make sure to check both reports – and every one of the reports we’ve filed since November of 2005 – on our master agent changes page here.

Did you know?: Former Titans scouting executive Blake Beddingfield has been writing scouting reports for ITL clients (and others) since 2018, penning thousands of detailed renderings of the pro prospects for players from schools big and small. In all that time, the price has not changed: $100 plus tax with a two- to three-day turnaround. On the other hand, maybe you want something more that shows your investment in a player: 

In that case, former Falcons scout Rodrik David can produce a 10-minute video scouting report that focuses on the player’s tendencies and provides Rodrik’s commentary on the player’s strengths and weaknesses. Here’s a workup Rodrik did last year on Ohio State OG Donovan Jackson. Cost is $250 plus tax. 

Don’t need a specific report, but would instead like to see a list of several players who could be Day 3/UDFA propositions for 2025? Look no farther than Blake’s Summer Sleepers video, which provides Blake’s commentary on 50 players (and comes with an XL file with names and player breakdowns), all for $40 plus tax. 

Bottom line, if you need to know about the players in the 2025 class, we can help. Contact us today and let’s get started. 

Congratulations!: Before we go this week, we wanted to extend congratulations to the two participants in Sunday’s UFL Championship Game in St. Louis between Birmingham (9-1) and San Antonio (7-3). With just four wins between the two teams, their respective appearances in the title game are not flukes. Kickoff is at 5 p.m. ET and the game will air on Fox. Skip Holtz’s Stallions will be going for their third straight championship victory. Best of luck both San Antonio’s Wade Phillips, Holtz, and both of their teams. We also tip our hats to GMs Marc Lillibridge (San Antonio) and Zach Potter (Birmingham) in their efforts in building impressive rosters. Along with countless other spring football fans, we’ll be watching.

Next week: So it’s vacation time for a good portion of the football world, starting this week. Not to worry. We’re still on the clock. Here’s what’s ahead this week.

• We have no Zooms scheduled this week, but we’re finalizing our next Pre-Agent Exam Zoom Session, which will be either the first or second week of July. We’ll also have our Final Exam Review on Saturday, July 27, so mark your calendars. 
• There may be some announcements of scouting moves this week, so make sure you’re following us on Twitterand keeping up with all the changes on our Scouting Changes Grid. 
• Our Profile Reports return next week after we were one report shy this week (we had Georgia State, Georgia Southern, Georgia Tech and Hawaii, but didn’t get to include Houston). Next week, we’ll check in on the Cougars as well as the Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Iowa State. 
• Our Rep Rumblings will include the remaining moves in NFL front offices, recruiting buzz on the 2025 draft class, ruminations on where college football is headed, and whatever else is newsworthy. 
• The same can be said of our Succeed in Football blog. A good guess is that the topic might be NFLPA exam-centered with the test less a month-and-a-half away. 
• The Scouting the League podcast rolls on, as well. We’re still working through our guest list for next week, but rest assured we’ll have another stimulating guest. Make sure to check it out. 

We know you’ll keep going. We will, too. Just watch us.