A thing about player visits and the like...

Ok, so in an effort to sort through the flood of draft realted information that comes this time of year, a few things should be noted,

1) It doesn't matter if a Jaguars scout, even if it's Gene Smith, went to see a players game or practice when they were in school. That's not to say they couldn't see something to affect that player's draft status but the visit itself is nothing more than due diligence. Scouts, especially regional scouts, will have seen almost every draftable player in their region at some point, and anyone who has a chance to go in the early rounds will be seen by someone from the personnel department for sure. That is what these guys do. They watch football practice or games during the day, and then watch tape at night. Then, the next day they do it again. Big Cat Country, bless their heart, tracks this like its some sort of clue to who the team is interested in.

2) Pre-draft visits, while more significant, are a fairly weak indicator of likelihood to be drafted. Also, to put it mildly, agents have a serious incentive to claim their player was brought in for a visit regardless of whether or not they actually were. These combine to make media reports, generally unsourced or with an anonymous source (normally the players agent), useless to fans. While it would be useful, even if every team in the NFL had their player visits leaked, fans would be shocked at the guys who teams never even brought in. Sometimes when a team is head over heals for a kid, they avoid him. They use other sources, either with the combine, or at the school if they have a connection, to gather information. If you watch closely you'll see a handful of stories after the draft about how player X had no idea team X was even interested. That's not on accident. Teams try really hard to not let their targets become hot guys, at least not due to their actions.

It does give everyone something to talk about though.

-Q