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| Monday, February 10 Teams never off in offseason By Len Pasquarelli ESPN.com |
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There will come a time just a few months from now when Tim Ruskell will be able to glance down at the fourth finger of his right hand, note the hunk of gleaming jewelry there, and know that the sacrifices were worth the price he and his staff paid to capture that most coveted reward. For now, however, the Tampa Bay player personnel director doesn't even need to raise his ring finger, the one that will soon sport a pricey Super Bowl XXXVII souvenir, to signify the numbers of days he and the rest of the Bucs front office have spent celebrating an historic victory. So, a Super Bowl ring -- priceless. Time to rest on one's laurels -- zero.
"We really didn't even take the first weekend off following the game," said Ruskell, whose scouting acumen helped assemble a Super Bowl roster, even if his significant contributions have been sometimes lost in the wild shuffle of Super Bowl parades. "Because of being in the Super Bowl, we feel like we lost a couple of weeks in (draft and free agency) preparation. So we're kind of in a catch-up mode right now." Not that Ruskell is complaining, of course, about the ramped-up pace. Any team that advances deep into the playoffs, especially one that is still in pads nearly into February, usually has a scouting department at least slightly in arrears. It is the tradeoff for playing in a Super Bowl game, gleaning less information from various college all-star contests and maybe viewing fewer tapes of pending free agents. And the scouts must compress the process. Have no doubt, given their diligence and direction and, yeah, long hours, the Buccaneers' staff will catch up. Then again, as the Tampa Bay personnel staff pushes the meter toward the frenetic level, this is a hectic time for college and pro scouts leaguewide, as the NFL calendar moves inexorably toward its two biggest offseason events. Even in the era of free agency, the college draft remains the lifeblood of the NFL, at least for most teams. And while the temptation of free agency has turned into a siren's song to be avoided the past few springs, scouts still must evaluate the talent pool, including their own veterans eligible for the restricted and unrestricted market. The free agency signing period this year begins March 1, and the draft is scheduled for the weekend of April 26-27. The annual predraft combine in Indianapolis is Feb. 18-24. Even with the combine expanded by two days, to ameliorate some of the time crunch there, the schedule this offseason is slightly better than in '02, when free agency and the combine began the same day. Still, there never seem to be enough hours in the day for NFL scouting departments. When free agency debuted in 1993, most franchises bolstered the number of scouts on their payroll. Personnel departments now average, in general, nearly two more staffers than they did a decade ago. This remains, though, a particularly busy time for personnel directors, all of whom seem to adhere to the Boy Scout motto. "It's all about preparation," said Carolina Panthers personnel director Jack Bushofsky, a notoriously early-riser who typically has a half-day of work completed by the time most of us get to the office. "Whether we're talking about the draft or free agency, you never want to be surprised, you know? Or at least you do everything possible to limit the number of surprises. That means putting in the hours and rolling over every stone to see what might be underneath them. Sometimes you just feel like you're on a merry-go-round ride that won't stop." One AFC head coach, his offseason already a blur of meetings and evaluation sessions, agreed the past several weeks have been carousel crazy. The coach laughed when a reporter mentioned to him the comments of San Francisco consultant Bill Walsh, who, when asked if he'd considered succeeding Steve Mariucci for the 49ers, noted that he couldn't handle the eight-month crunch that accompanied the job. "(Walsh) better take another look when he talks about eight months," said the AFC coach. "The period we're in right now, every week seems like it's about eight months long, to tell the truth." The coach outlined the offseason evaluation schedule that his franchise has followed for the past several years:
"This is the time of year," said Tennessee Titans coach Jeff Fisher, "when it seems like you're either leaving a meeting or going into one. But it really is essential that you get the work done now, kind of lay the foundation for the things you need to accomplish moving forward." The bricks in the foundation are the seemingly endless assessment meetings convened by a team's college and pro scouting directors. As in any pursuit, knowledge is power, and the NFL is no different. Whether meeting about veteran free agents or college draft prospects, the personnel staff must be disciplined and, to use a legal term, practice a high degree of due diligence. One element teams attempt to avoid is diminishing returns. So, over the past few years, personnel directors have kept daily meetings shorter but also increased the number of sessions. Not too long ago, some college evaluation sessions would run from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Scouts would drag themselves back to their hotel rooms, reach for the industrial-sized vat of Visene and the night light, and repeat the process day after day. Relatively speaking, this is an age of enlightenment, with better and fresher methodologies and improved technology. In many ways, though, the process hasn't changed at all. "There's still the human factor," said Washington Redskins personnel chief Vinny Cerrato, whose staff has already logged two weeks of meetings with another week remaining. "This is still all about people having opinions on players, about discussing those opinions, and that takes time. There is no such thing as too much information on a player. So, yeah, we spend most of the offseason trying to squeeze as much (information) as we can. That's what the offseason has become." Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com. |
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