30 Prospect Visits Include Many Motives, Trickery
April 11th, 2022
“Jason, we don’t really like that guy. Do we?”
Joe realizes draft freaks get all jacked up when a team brings a player to town for an official team visit. “See, the Bucs love that guy!” they claim.
A former GM was on radio today saying fans shouldn’t go all-in on draft visits.
Ex-Bills general manager Doug Whatley was spilling secrets on SiriusXM NFL Radio, noting at least two prospect visits by his teams (and many others) were designed to confuse/throw off the scent of other NFL teams. That translates to, “We’re bringing in this guy but have no desire to draft him. We just want teams to think we like him.”
Whatley also said several scheduled visits are of players that the team thinks it may want when they become free agents down the road — not in the draft.
And other prospect visits represent teams getting a better look to accelerate the undrafted free agent process, likely giving clubs a better shot at signing a guy if he doesn’t get drafted in the sixth or seventh round.
Whatley also documented ways teams test players’ mental makeup during visits. One tactic the Bills used was to take a guy out to dinner, Whatley said, and have the server completely screw up the order and bring the wrong food. They wanted to see how the guy handled it with the server and others at the table.
Hearing Whatley had Joe recalling a Mark Dominik story with the Bucs in 2010. The former Bucs GM said he was blown away how running back LeGarrette Blount came in for a pre-draft visit and went into the One Buc Palace kitchen to thank the staff for preparing great food and their hard work. Per Dominik, it told him Blount was a special guy.
April 11th, 2022 at 10:15 am
I agree that we should not get all worked up about a player coming here for a visit.
Back when I lived in Seattle, the Seahawks were famous for bringing players in, just to mislead other teams about their true intentions in the draft.
The NFL is full of deception and mind games.
April 11th, 2022 at 10:22 am
Seems like we show interest in players from the Senior Bowl & other bowl games…..
I’m sure we’ve drafted players that visited but can’t recall who.
When you are drafting 27th, it’s more difficult to narrow in on on a single prospect…..
April 11th, 2022 at 11:08 am
Then Dumbernik let Blount go . What an idiot.
April 11th, 2022 at 11:23 am
Joe, is my memory correct in that we didn’t even invite Mike Evans to One Buc before the draft?
April 11th, 2022 at 11:57 am
The atmosphere at 1 Buc is very condusive to the college product of 2022. A good blend of outlooks for the player. Comfortable.
April 11th, 2022 at 2:33 pm
@ Goatfarmer: at least we got Jeff Demps out of that deal lol. That’s the trade of the lost decade.
April 11th, 2022 at 3:48 pm
The draft has a life of its own. It doesn’t care who visited who, or who like who, you get what you can.
There are quite a few receivers out there, but also quite a few impressive linemen, from both sides of the ball.
Get the best athlete that fills a need and hope it works, sometimes undrafted free agents work harder than draftees, so maybe, maybe, maybe.