Sports
All professional scouting is off and running in football recruiting
Many highschool athletes plan to sign national letters of intent during college football’s initial signing period this week, completing a process that relies on recruiting services that discover top players and promote them publicly.
A gaggle of NFL champions is adding a brand new twist to the recruiting industry.
Twelve members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, including legendary running backs Marshall Faulhave joined forces to create a paid assessment service: All professional scouting. Warren Moon, the one black quarterback enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, legendary Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis and wide receiver Tim Brown, a longtime star for the Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders, are among the many founders listed on the group’s website. For $199, evaluators rate highschool football players on the positions they evaluated played in the professionals.
To determine a letter grade, evaluators consider a player’s game film, measurable aspects similar to height and weight, times on speed tests and grades in agility drills, football IQ, academic ability and off-field repute. After players are assigned rankings, All Pro Scouting staff helps them and their families discover colleges that will be an excellent landing spot.
Faulk is enthusiastic about the brand new enterprise, which might be released to the general public on Tuesday, the day before the three-day early signing window (Wednesday through Friday) opens. First and foremost, Faulk said he desires to help players through the recruiting process after they’ve been properly evaluated.
And given the All Pro Scouting evaluation criteria established by NFL Hall of Famers, Faulk added, it is going to be unmatched in the recruiting industry.
“Our evaluators had to have played at least two years” in the NFL, Faulk told Andscape in a recent phone interview. “Some people call them scouts, but I prefer to call them evaluators and evaluators. Two years in the league gives our evaluators and rankings credibility to look at film.
“And every position, the criteria for (success at) every position, we took from the Hall of Famer. The Hall of Famer made him. We also take into account how NFL scouts evaluate (NFL) players. We also teach our evaluators and rankings, our former players, how to observe players.”
All Pro Scouting is expected, Faulk said, to offer highschool football players with probably the most detailed evaluation of their skills ever received.
As Faulk can attest, players are sometimes assessed incorrectly.
A standout player through the New Orleans prep, Faulk, 51, was recruited more often as a cornerback than a running back. But Faulk desired to play offensive tackle in college. Confident in his future as a breakout, he accepted a scholarship to San Diego State.
As it turned out, Faulk was prescient.
As a running back, yes an excellent profession with the Aztecs, becoming a two-time consensus All-American and ending second in the 1992 Heisman Trophy voting. In 2017, Faulk was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
“People saw me as a defensive back. They just checked out me like that, that is all,” Faulk recalled. “They didn’t take (the time) to look at me play football. They didn’t take the time to look at me run backwards and run with the ball.
“So I understand that if you’re in these arenas, a few of these firms don’t have a look at you in the best way, to illustrate, I’d analyze a man. They don’t think, let’s just say possibly you may have a look at this guy in a special way (as a runner). No, this guy can play.
Perceived reluctance from recruiting services fueled Faulk.
Selected by the Indianapolis Colts in the primary round (second overall) of the 1994 NFL Draft, Faulk earned quite a few honors during his professional profession, which culminated along with his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2011. Faulk’s many accolades include .amongst others 1994 AP Offensive Rookie of the Year, AP NFL MVP in 2000 and 2001, and three-time (1999-2001) NFL Offensive Player of the Year.
Not bad for a player who many evaluators believed wasn’t cut out to be a university running back, let alone turn out to be one of the crucial complete running backs in NFL history.
Faulk’s endorsement experience, in addition to that of other members of the All Pro Scouting Hall of Fame, could also profit prep and college players in this area. As athletes and their families navigate the dynamic world of NIL, All Pro Scouting plans to offer them with resources to assist them in the brand new recruiting ecosystem.
“If they want to know things on the NIL side, like how another child’s family handled something, we’ll try to fill that gap,” Faulk said. “We are going to reunite the families to attempt to help the kid. It might be a spot where anyone can come to get the data they need (to achieve success).
“When I talk concerning the ecosystem, this is what I’m talking about. I’m talking about getting the answers that children and their families need. They’ll get it from individuals who have played the sport at the very best level. We want everyone to win. We want everyone to thrive. But for this you would like the best information.
Under Faulk’s leadership, All Pro Scouting operates. As history has shown, the brand new recruiting service has the best man holding the ball.