Draft Scouting Strategy

[oldman]

So the scouting for the draft is pretty in depth this year. Has anyone developed a strategy they think is good on how to scout?

The only thing I for sure do is scout what scheme they fit first. After that it's a crapshoot.

[BearClaw]

Re: Draft Scouting Strategy

Wait till the end of the season for the best results. By then you'll know where you need improvement, your pick, and ratings for story players will be less likely to change.

As for the actual scouting my order goes like this
-scheme
-position specific ratings
-physical ratings
-overall letter grade

[cj54]

Re: Draft Scouting Strategy

For the guys I'm interested in i've been scouting speed agility and acceleration mainly because these stats are most expensive to build up. What I might do is start scouting intangible rating since its supposed to be a summary of the key attributes for the position.

[oldman]

Re: Draft Scouting Strategy

Wait till the end of the season for the best results. By then you'll know where you need improvement, your pick, and ratings for story players will be less likely to change.

As for the actual scouting my order goes like this
-scheme
-position specific ratings
-physical ratings
-overall letter grade

Our strategies are similar although I'm only in week 2. Right now I'm scouting scheme of all the defensive players and making a list of who fits my scheme. Then I'll do the same for the positions I need on offense.

[mhodgson89]

Re: Draft Scouting Strategy

I love the GM aspect of football so I dove into the scouting as soon as I got the chance, after the first season I figured out a decent formula for scouting.

I only scout for the letter grade on their rating to ensure I get the largest pool of candidates to work with during the season. You'll burn through too many points trying to get true number ratings, thus limiting the amount of players you'll have knowledge about. The way I see it, I'm better off having a estimate on how well that QB's throw power is with a grade A than spending another 500 points to find out it's a 94. Those 500 points could've been spent getting a few letter attributes on the next QB in case the first one is drafted. So here's my strategy:

- The first 2 weeks I scout the awareness attribute on a lot of the players at any positions I feel I'll be looking for starters or depth at. It only costs 25 points and guys with D's and F's seem to be projects as they're more likely to make mistakes on the field.

- The next week or 2 I'll spend on getting the scheme fit for players with A's, B's and C's in awareness. This narrows my list to roughly 8-10 guys that are either good fits for my team's scheme or close enough that I'd consider drafting them.

- The rest of the season is spent getting key attributes for as many players in different rounds as possible, getting injury and stamina ratings is very useful if you can. For instance, I'll scout the key attributes for 2 WR's in round 1, then 2 in round 2, 1 in round 3, 2 more in round 4. That way I'll have an idea of whether or not I should even consider that player if he's available when I'm on the board.

- The off-season points I spend getting better rating on guys that caught my attention as guys I 'd like to know if I should target. As the Browns I was looking for an interior lineman to improve my run blocking, and 2 LG's had caught my eye with high grades in run blocking. So I spent points to get more details to look for red flags that indicated they shouldn't be on my radar. I ended up getting both and now they're both starting at the guard positions for me, I got really lucky on those 2, unfortunately I lost out on a few solid defensive prospects that were drafted a full 2 rounds before their projections.

- As for draft day, my strategy fell apart quick when those defensive prospects went long before I expected. My first draft was rough thanks to that, my suggestion here is to prioritize your board. If you need the guy, draft him as soon as you can. Build your board around the premise that the other teams know at least as much as you do about the value of mid round talent. A CB that was projected to go in the late 4th round went in the mid 2nd and is a 81 OVR at the start of the season, his stats point to him being a shut down corner.

That's what I gathered after season 1, I'm currently applying this technique in season 2 of my franchise, hopefully I can get a better strategy for draft day that gets me more guys I want. Hopefully this helps a few people get a good start to their scouting formula.

[Maizpan]

Re: Draft Scouting Strategy

For the guys I'm interested in i've been scouting speed agility and acceleration mainly because these stats are most expensive to build up. What I might do is start scouting intangible rating since its supposed to be a summary of the key attributes for the position.

I'm about 5 seasons in and my strategy has been to scout physical and intangible ratings for as many players as possible and then follow it up with scheme and other ratings if they have physical and intangible ratings of at least B and B for 1st rounders. Both the physical and intangible rating is based on your scheme for that position so you usually will end up with a player that is rated highly for your scheme.

[DirkJesusNowitzki]

Re: Draft Scouting Strategy

I go scheme, then position specific attributes, then I recently started splurging on development instead of 2000 on letter overall because I figure the position specific attributes will give me a good idea on overall. Maybe I should reverse that though.

[oldman]

Re: Draft Scouting Strategy

@modgson

Why do you put a lot of points into injury and stamina? Wouldn't some of the position specific attributes be better?

[Juce734]

Re: Draft Scouting Strategy

Depends on the positions. I only check scheme for certain positions too like QB, and WR.

HB, WR, CB, S, LB - I check speed, accel, agility, awareness, and then the position skills (carry, catch, catch in traffic, release, tackle, man, zone, press)

OL, DL, TE - I check Strength, and then position skills.

This has proven to help the most. I go for the letter grades though and not the number grades. The only reasons players have been upsetting is because of a low overness grade due to awareness for me so far.

[Falconfreak]

Re: Draft Scouting Strategy

One thing I have noticed in the draft is if you see a potential diamond in the rough and it is estimated that players goes mid to late rounds don't rely on it. The cpu will almost always draft those guys a round to three rounds early. If you have a guy you really want then I suggest drafting him early. You'd rather have the guys you want versus watching them go off the draft board and scrambling to fill holes on guys you didn't have the points to scout before the draft.

[oldman]

Re: Draft Scouting Strategy

Depends on the positions. I only check scheme for certain positions too like QB, and WR.

HB, WR, CB, S, LB - I check speed, accel, agility, awareness, and then the position skills (carry, catch, catch in traffic, release, tackle, man, zone, press)

OL, DL, TE - I check Strength, and then position skills.

This has proven to help the most. I go for the letter grades though and not the number grades. The only reasons players have been upsetting is because of a low overness grade due to awareness for me so far.

I understand not checking the schemes on some of those positions. Defense I definitely start with scheme on defense. On offense I am thinking of starting with specific position skills.

[mhodgson89]

Re: Draft Scouting Strategy

Why do you put a lot of points into injury and stamina? Wouldn't some of the position specific attributes be better?

Guys with low injury ratings aren't able to stay healthy enough to stay on the field to gain the exp needed to increase it. Better to find guys that there isn't an injury concern.

Stamina I always scout on defensive players and offensive skill players so I'll have guys I know aren't coming off the field after 3-4 plays. Offensive linemen, kickers, punters and Pocket QB's aren't worth scouting the stamina most of the time. They tend not to be a concern.

[jmik58]

Re: Draft Scouting Strategy

Nice thread. I think it really matters on how you scout and develop your team based on whether you are simming or playing.

If you are playing the games then just focus on specific attributes. If you are siming, you need to focus on the OVR rating.

If you're simming games then check awareness as that has a lot to do with OVR.

I also wait until "stage 7" of the offseason to scout. Then I can go in with my 60,000 SP and do the work all at once. There's no reason to go week-by-week in my opinion. That way it's fresh before "stage 8" -- the NFL Draft.

[oldman]

Re: Draft Scouting Strategy

Guys with low injury ratings aren't able to stay healthy enough to stay on the field to gain the exp needed to increase it. Better to find guys that there isn't an injury concern.

Stamina I always scout on defensive players and offensive skill players so I'll have guys I know aren't coming off the field after 3-4 plays. Offensive linemen, kickers, punters and Pocket QB's aren't worth scouting the stamina most of the time. They tend not to be a concern.

How many minute quarters do you play? I play 11 minutes with a 15 second accelerated clock and injuries don't happen often enough that I would not draft someone because of a low injury rating.

I'm not saying your method is wrong, I just don't want to waste points in an area that I think will have a lower impact on my decision than others.

[StayPlation82]

Re: Draft Scouting Strategy

yeah i always scout the injury rating first. position dependent, anything under a B i don't scout anything else about them. then it's position specific grades, then physical grades(spd, str, acc, agi), then awr, sta, etc. i rarely bother with scheme on offense but on D, lineman and linebackers i'll check.