Ray Agnew on scouting

Scout’s Tales: Ray Agnew

By StLouisRams.com

http://www.stlouisrams.com/news-and-events/article-1/Scouts-Tales-Ray-Agnew/013de9f5-d5d3-49e7-a91e-3be0ec493b5b

There are numerous ways NFL teams acquire players, and the Rams’ scouting staff is always hard at work trying to find the next guy who can help them win. In Scout’s Tales, we’ll visit with members of Les Snead’s personnel department and they’ll share stories of how the process brought certain current Rams to St. Louis.

Ray Agnew on advancing.

I feel very fortunate to do what I do for a living. What happened to me doesn’t happen to a lot of people. I retired as a player and the next day I started working for the organization. I never left. I have Mike Martz to thank for that because he thought enough of me to offer me a job. I’m also grateful for Les Snead and the others who have continued to allow me to have a job that I love.

I think my background as a player helps me do my job. You don’t have to be a former player to be a successful scout, but there are certain things you can pick up on. “Hey, this guy doesn’t look too healthy. He’s playing, but it seems like something’s not right.” Or you can tell if a guy doesn’t know what he’s doing. Maybe there’s something you can pick up scheme wise – things that you did when you were a player and you recognize that a guy you’re watching may not be doing it right.

One of my jobs every spring is to crosscheck all the college defensive linemen. A scout visits the schools and puts together a grade on all the guys. Then we go back and put another set of eyes on their tape. The defensive linemen are my favorite guys on the field. I’m biased, but I think they’re the most important guys on the field. I guess you could say it’s my expertise. It’s a joy to watch Aaron Donald, Michael Brockers and Robert Quinn. Those are three guys I evaluated out of college. Studying those guys, it’s not work for me; it’s fun.

Another one of the big responsibilities of our pro-scouting staff is advance scouting of our upcoming opponents. For example, the Rams were in San Francisco to play the 49ers, but our pro-scouting director, Ran Carthon, was in Dallas to watch the Cardinals – who we played the week after the 49ers. Ran, George Foster and I split the advance trips up and took turns attending games to scout our upcoming opponents.

For advance trips, we fly out on Saturday. We always get to the game pretty early. The first thing you do is look for injured players. We keep a track of the injury reports. We keep track of the guys that are on there – are they working out on the field before the game? For example, if we were playing the Cowboys in coming weeks, you’d see how early Tony Romo came out to throw. Does it look like his back is still sore? How is he moving around?

We sit in the press box for the game, and we’re usually sitting next to another pro scout for another team. As the game starts, you’re trying to pick up anything that can help your coaches the next week. The first thing you look for is their personnel signals. You watch the quarterback and all the things that he does. Like Peyton Manning, he’s a guy that will watch your sideline as opposed to a young quarterback who is only looking at his sideline to get the signals. You’re looking at the quarterback to see everything he does. Is he audible? In two-minute drills, does he give any hand signals? You’re studying him to see if there’s anything he gives up during the game.

You also make note of how the opponent substitutes players. Do they sub fast or slow? When there’s a TV timeout, do they try to trick you and run somebody in late? You make note of when the offense gets to the huddle, when they get to the line of scrimmage and how much time is on the play clock when they snap the ball. The tape that the coaches watch, they cut out everything between plays, so you’re trying to pick up everything that they can’t see on game film.

There’s not as much information to gather from the defense because they’re reacting to what the offense does. Still, you want to look for substitution patterns. Who is the nickel corner? Do they bring defensive linemen in on third down as designated pass rushers? In two-minute, do they try to substitute defensive linemen? Who is the leader of the defense and who wears the radio in his helmet on defense?

Sometimes the defensive signal caller will wear different clothes on the sideline. For example, all of the Rams coaches may be in blue polo shirts but one will wear gold so he stands out to the players. That’s how you notice who he is. You want to include that in your report.

Injuries are important as well. Any injury during the game, you note it so you can give it to the coaches. You try to judge whether you think a guy will be able to play or not the next week. You never know that, but some injuries look so bad that you know they don’t have a chance to play against your team.

The special teams stuff isn’t as detailed as the offense and defense, but there are things you’re looking for there, too. Do they huddle up before they kickoff. There aren’t any signals involved on special teams so you’re not concerned with that. I usually watch the kickers in pregame just to see how long they’re kicking. In the past, we’ve charted kickers and measured hang time from the punters during pregame. You also try to get all of the jersey numbers of the guys that are on each special teams unit.

I always listen to the press conferences after the game. Sometimes they’ll give you information. The coaches will sometimes give an injury update. You’re trying to get anything you can to bring back to give the coaches.

We have computer programs where we log all of our information. We can access that remotely, so after the game we start entering everything we’ve seen. Then when we get back, we put together an advance scouting report for the coaches. On Monday night, whoever advanced the game, they get together with the coaches. We go over everything we gathered. During the week before the game, you grade each player on the opposing team and you go over the grades with the coaches. You tell them who you think their best offensive lineman is and who you think you can pick on a little. You go through all the quarterback’s tendencies. You go over everything you think might be helpful as the team prepares for the next week’s game.