A Unique Group

There are 2 scouting services that some of the NFL teams subscribe to that many fans are not aware of. They are National, which is based out of Tulsa, OK. and the other is BLESTO, which used to be based out of Pittsburgh, PA headed out by former Pittsburgh Steeler Defensive Back from years ago named Jack Butler. Mr Jack Butler retired a few years back and subsequently BLESTO moved its headquarters to Jacksonville, FL. The scouts from these 2 organizations go into many of the 699-4 year football colleges and look for prospects in the Junior Class, that is prospects that will be Seniors in the Fall who's eligibility will be completed. Like I said above, some of the NFL teams subscribe to these and some do not. The ones that do not, send their own scouts out to the colleges. This work is basically done in the early Spring of each year and sometimes coincides with the scouts finalizing information of the draft eligible seniors. Instead of BLESTO or National hiring their own individual scouts, the teams that subscribe to the services utilize their own scouts to work for BLESTO and National. Each NFL team has approximately 10 scouts. This is a very unique group of men who by the nature of this business favor the conservative evaluation. 32 NFL teams with about 10 scouts per team. This equates to a total of 320 NFL scouts in the entire world. This is a unique group. Next time I will discuss the talent level that the Pitt Panthers possess for the 2010 season and 2011 NFL Draft. By the way, it is not a perfect system. 2 players I mentioned on earlier Blogs in Late March and Early April were OLB Arthur Moats from James Madison and ILB Josh Hull from Penn State. National gave Moats a low level free agent grade and he played tremendous his Senior season at JMU and became the 179th selection by the Buffalo Bills. Keep an eye on Moats for he could be like a James Harrison type. Penn State's Josh Hull was not even listed by National which means he probably received a rejected grade. Josh Hull had a great Senior season for the Nittany Lions and got drafted in the 7th round by the St. Louis Rams. On the flip side, Ole Miss DE Greg Hardy was rated a top 5 pick based on his Junior campaign and dropped all the way to the 6th round. Players need to play every play like there is no tomorrow.