How do *you* learn about all the players each year?
 

I mentioned in another thread that I don't watch a ton of college football outside of my team and the big national headline games, because the NFL takes up enough of my time as it is (Thurs, Sun, Mon).

That said, I'm obviously obsessed with the draft and the planning/prep that goes with it, hence my participation in this sub-forum.

I was thinking about how to best learn about players in the months leading up to the draft, and realized that I don't really have a set strategy:

- I watch the mocks you guys do, and then I hop on over to youtube and/or TDN to learn more about the person one of you name dropped.

- I also watch the Shrine/Senior games, and monitor for guys I like.

- Lastly, when I feel better about knowing some of the players, I'll begin doing TDN mock drafts. When it gets to the Chiefs pick, I'll look at the 2-3 guys who went right before we picked, and then the 5 or so top recommendations that are available, and then go down a youtube/tdn rabbit hole.


How do you guys learn about the players in a scalable way, and determine who you like/hate?

I'm the same way, LOVE mock offseasons but watch 0 college ball.

First I start doing near daily mocks per the Chief's needs on various sites PFF, The Draft Network, and Fanspeak, paying close attention to others' mocks along the way.

Next, I study the Draft Profiles of the players on The Draft Network, NFLDraftBuzz, PFF, and ESPN.

It's not until close to the draft that I start watching the film on youtube to finalize my mock and get totally enamored with 1 or 2 guys the Chiefs will inevitably pass on anyways lol.

IE: Jaelon Darden in 2021. Why? Because my process is flawed lol, but, it's my own, so how else would it be...cheers!

Yeah, basically, I look at posted mocks at the various sites. Then I do my own on various machines (I like the layout of PFN's the best, so I do that a lot). As names that are at positions I feel that KC needs, I go and read a couple of scouting reports on those players. Then as we get closer if I'm interested in certain players because of availability at spots in the draft, I go look at some film. You have to be careful with highlight reels; consider the opposition's talent level, etc.

Be skeptical of WR highlight reels where the kid is running all by himself; that's not actually telling you much. Same thing of long TD runs by RB's where they're untouched. There's a lot of poor play at the collegiate level.

stuff like that.

And after our Houston, Clark, Reed situations, some key words in scouting reports flash for me- things like 'RELENTLESS MOTOR'. I'm bigger on production and consistent effort than 'upside' early in the draft.

I do mocks, or read the mocks posted here and then I go read scouting reports and watch highlight films on YouTube. The closer I get and the more interested I get in a prospect, I’ll go watch a couple of game films if I have the time.

The Draft Network will have a list of best game films and worst game films on some of their scouting reports….so that helps me choose.

My work on a class usually starts immediately after the draft.

I’ll usually watch the top 100 or so. Then after the season, I rewatch a lot of those guys and all the new names. I typically use the TDN and PFN rankings in their mock draft simulators as my list of players to watch.

I'm telling you guys-

watch some tape on Rachaad White.

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD.

TDN and PFN in general are great. I used to use Draft Countdown as my go to back in the day and those 2 eventually filled that void.

Those are the sites I use now (and I'm a former DC person too) as well.

I use those mostly to get a feel for where they think guys will be taken off the board.

Otherwise, I just watch a lot of college football which I would do anyway. I love college FB.

I follow high school recruiting pretty hard core, watch alot of college football especially B1G, read about key guys from the other team Nebraska is about to play that week, read mock drafts and try to follow some of those players.

Much the same as staylor. I'm not as active with it as I used to be. I watch boards as early as they come out for the next year, watch a lot of college ball and try to follow the boards, formulate opinions and favorites then see who drops off that don't declare. If I can't catch games, I try to catch up on game videos well over and above highlight videos. Highlights are really only nice for showing "hey, I like this guy."

My learning process is a bit of an agglomeration.

While not a huge high school football fan, as a native Texan, I follow the Texas high school playoffs fairly closely which provides a level of exposure to multiple future draft prospects.

Building on that, I am a huge college football fan and quite closely follow recruiting for “my teams” which further brings early awareness of so,e prospects who will eventually go on to the NFL (whether they commit to my teams or someone else).

I don’t watch as much college football as I used to, but I still try to take in 2-3 games a weekend and deliberately try to watch different teams to get wide exposure. I also take in as many bowl games as I can.

So all of that lays a solid foundation of familiarity with a decent chunk of a draft class. My next step is to run a few mock drafts per day starting in November/December and then reading as many guides/reports as I can leading up to the draft. I wouldn’t classify myself as an expert, but like everyone else on this board, I love the draft and really enjoy the extended process.