ScoutScore Explained

I’ve tracked credentialed Bills scout visits for 4 years, and in 2023 I began assigning weights to the visits as follows:

1 Game visited by 1 Scout=1 pt.
Beane at game=3 pts
Coordinator at game=2 pts.
Position Coach at game=2 pts
Bills at Combine=2 pts
Bills meet at Combine with player=2 pts.
Pro Day=2 pts.
Private Visit/Workout=2 pts.
30-Visit=5 pts.

In addition, members of the Bills staff and their scouts have connections with certain colleges. I’m only counting important connections since 2019. Manny Diaz, part of Sean McDermott’s “Inner Circle”, is a good example. Diaz is Duke Head Coach (2023-Present) and was Defensive Coordinator and LB Coach at Penn State (2022-2023), and Miami Head Coach before that (2019-2021). LSU has three connections: Dave Aranda from McDermott’s “Inner Circle”, OC Joe Brady, and DJ Mangas (2023, 2024 offensive assistant). Miami has Bills connections through Jahmile Addae (DB coach at Miami, now DB coach with Bills).

Duke=McDermott /Manny Diaz “Inner Circle”=2 pts. (Duke HC 2023-Present)
Penn State Defense=McDermott /Manny Diaz “Inner Circle”=2 pts. (DC and LB Coach at Penn State 2022-2023)
Miami==McDermott /Manny Diaz “Inner Circle” plus Jahmile Addae (DB coach at Miami, now DB coach with Bills), plus Pete Harris NE scout=2 pts.

Other college connections get one point:
Baylor=Dave Aranda=1 pt. (Head coach Baylor, since 2020, McDermott’s Friendship w Dave Aranda)
Clemson=Keith Jennings South area scout=1 pt. (alma mater, undergrad TE Coach under Dabo Swinney)
Georgia DBs=Jahmile Addae=1 pt. (2021 defensive backs coach for Georgia)
Indiana=WR Coach Adam Henry Offense=1 pt. (Co-offensive coordinator & WR Coach Indiana 2022)
LSU Defense=Dave Aranda=1pt. (Defensive Coordinator at LSU 2016-2019)
LSU DBs=Jahmile Addae=1 pt.
LSU Offense=DJ Mangas & Joe Brady=1 pt. (Brady brought Mangas on at LSU when he was hired as OC)
Nebraska=John Butler=DC=1 pt. (coached Bills defensive backs 2018-2023).
Oklahoma=Alonzo Dotson=1 pt. (Oklahoma DL became Bills SE area Scout)
Tulsa=Bob and Bobby Babich=1 pt. (LB Coach at Tulsa, Hometown, Dad’s Alma Mater)

What colleges have received the most attention by the Bills over the last 2 years?

Penn State
Alabama
Ohio State
Michigan
Baylor
Pittsburgh
Clemson
Miami
Tennessee
Florida

Note that none of these schools are western schools. In fact, Most hail from ACC and SEC schools, and all of them have successful programs. It’s not only front office connections that bring scouts to a school; it’s also efficiency (the Bills watched four on-the-radar WRs in one game in 2024) and they love to scout head-to-head matchups (several EDGE vs OT matchups, DT vs IOL matchups, and CB vs WR matchups were scouted in 2024).

What use is ScoutScore in assessing the Bills’ positional archetypes and team needs?

I can sort, say, 2024 scout visits by team, conference, position, height, weight, speed, scheme run by that team, etc. For example, I see that Beane’s accepted weights for his defensive tackles are between 296 lbs to 320 (DT3t) and 326 (DT1t).

I can discover that Beane has a tendency to draft primarily Defense from the ACC and Big 12, while Offensive players are typically from the SEC or BIG10.

I also get to see which schools received an marked uptick in scouting attention from 2023 to 2024 (Clemson, Tennessee), and which school’s scouted players must have graduated to the NFL, causing a reduction in 2024 scout visits (Oklahoma‘s Danny Stutsman / Billy Bowman, and Notre Dame‘s Benjamin Morrison / Xavier Watts)

I also see schools getting consistently-high scout scores each year: Alabama (9-4 overall, with 7 returning Top-100 players) and Penn State (11-2 overall, with 7 returning Top-100 players).

Editor’s babble: Dean’s scoring systems are very detailed. We are so grateful for all his contributions to our blog. You can also find Dean on Xwitter @TCBILLS_Astro.