Need to Know: Beware of scouting reports

Here is what you need to know on this Thursday, February 28, 12 days before the start of the league year and free agency.

Beware of scouts’ opinions

If you are paying attention to the NFL draft process, you are hearing a lot of things about many players, both good and bad. That’s all well and good but it is important to remember that what is being said are just opinions.

If you need any proof, check out what a scout told Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal about a particular quarterback last year (via Pro Football Talk).

“‘Everybody is just assuming because of the Heisman and the socks and all that bs. . . . they are ignoring a lot of bad tape that he’s had,’” the scout said.  “‘I don’t think he has vision or pocket feel, which to me are the two most important components of quarterbacking.  He’s just running around winging it.  He’s [Michael] Vick, but not as good a thrower.’”

Another scout said, “He’s got a little bit of a selfish streak, too.  Everybody was laying on Cam [Newton], but for some reason this guy has become gloves off.  He doesn’t treat anybody good.”

I’m sure that you figure out quickly that the QB in question is one Robert Griffin III. And that we now know that these two scouts couldn’t be more wrong. He wasn’t perfect but he was good enough to post the best passer rating that any rookie quarterback has posted in NFL history. And there are no reports, none, that Griffin treated anyone, from coaches to players on his team to players on opposing teams to fans and the media, with anything but the upmost class and respect.

The lesson is that scouts can be wrong, very wrong. This doesn’t mean that they are bad at their jobs in general but, like anyone else, them make mistakes. So if you hear a player evaluated by a scout or, in the case of the draft, your favorite of the dozens of draft analysts out there and it doesn’t jibe with what you see, you may well be right.

Fortunately for the Redskins, it’s pretty certain that these scouts don’t work for them and that they didn’t have the ear of Mike Shanahan.

The draft is so inexact that it’s crazy to call it a science.

Morgan gets out in the community

Josh Morgan was in mid-season form yesterday.

Well, not physically. He’s coming off of surgery last month to remove a plate in his ankle, a device that was put there after he suffered a broken ankle in San Francisco in 2011, and on both of his hands.

But spent some time yesterday getting out into the community, helping out at an event at a school in Maryland. You could find him in a similar setting on most Tuesdays during the regular season as he volunteered for almost every event the Redskins put on during the year.

Check out the video:

In case you missed it

• Morgan played in pain in 2012
• Which 2011 draft picks are ready to step up?
• Alexander, Redskins start contract talks

Days until: Start of new league year and free agency 12; OTA’s start 78; NFL Kickoff Sunday 192

Comments

[Walter Bushell]

Hey, we know scouting reports are unreliable. Proof case Alfred Morris, among many. Passed over until the 6th round, and those were chosen by people whose profession is evaluating talent, rather than the media folks whose job is entertainment. Does anybody remember a pundit whose evaluations go spectacularly wrong. Do we still remember the bad picks of the Zorn and earlier years?