In The SIS Football Rookie Handbook, Matt Manocherian sets out to answer the question, “Based on their play on the field, who do our full-time college scouts will think will make the best pro players?”
That caught my eye because with the college season ending in January and the draft not taking place until late April, scouts tend to get so caught in the scouting combine and Pro Day and private workouts that they often don’t put enough emphasis on how the players performed on the field last fall.
Manocherian notes that in February the draft board is “pure.”
“It knows nothing of the ‘Underwear Olympics’ that we call the combine and Pro Days, has heard no input from biased coaches competing against our draft resources and hasn’t yet ruled out players with whom the medical staff is uncomfortable.”
Sports Info Solutions has the largest collection of football scouts under one roof – bigger than any NFL team — with 50 video scouts.
Manocherian is a former NFL scout with the New Orleans Saints and the Cleveland Browns. The video scouts at SIS have spent 40 hours per game charting and analyzing data on every football game played last season.
The book is a combination of scouting and analytics.
He notes that when he was with the Saints, the scouts would take a picture of the draft board in February and tell the same joke.
“Remember what it looks like now because we are about to spend the next two months ruining it,’’ the joke goes.
His books attempts to give fans a look at the board before it’s ruined and is a serious work that will appeal to fans who like to dive into the draft.
The book covers 599 pages and has two pages of information on more than 250 players.
Let’s take a look at what they say about Kyler Murray, because there is so much debate about his pro potential.
They rank him as the second quarterback behind Dwayne Haskins, They say Murray is a rare playmaker who may have to work his release to mitigate size concerns.
They list his strengths as mobility, arm strength and clutch playmaking ability. They list his weaknesses as size, experience and inconsistent release.
Their last word is that he has the inherent quarterback skills and intangibles necessary to succeed.
The book also delves into discussions like “The Secret Behind the Rams’ Rushing Success.” Hint: The key is motion, not ground and pound.
In a discussion of goal-to-go strategy, it notes the fade is the second-most targeted route type in goal-to-go but is one of the most inefficient throws a quarterback can make in those situations.
It says that drag routes and throws to the flat work best.
That is just one of the hundreds of nuggets of information tucked into the book.
It is the first edition of the book, but is likely to become the gold standard for draft preview books in the future.
If anything, it has almost too much information.
You may have to take time out from your day job to study into all the information in this book.