College football has gone through some major changes in recent years with the transfer portal and name, image and likeness rules. One unintended consequence of the new rules is that scouting has become easier for NFL teams in certain circumstances.
Cincinnati Bengals director of college scouting Mike Potts said as much when he talked to Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com. Now that college players are able to make money, they might not feel as rushed to get to the pro level.
“The NIL packages that these colleges can put together take some of that financial burden off of a player and they can go back to college for another year and develop their game,” Potts said. “We may be getting them a year later, but in some ways it could make our jobs a little bit easier. Less of an element of projection, projecting their traits to what this guy could be two, three, four years down the road, and maybe they’re a year closer to a finished product when we get them in some of those cases.”
With the Senior Bowl and other collegiate all-star games right around the corner, the Bengals scouts will be paying close attention to who seems to be fit for the next level when the draft comes around in April.
But now they might not have to project as much for some of the prospects. With an extra year (or more because of the COVID-19 year), many of the players with their names in the draft might already be polished enough to make it since they were able to develop more.
