Forward Thinking New School Approach By Dominik

[yuccaneers]

Tampa Bay Buccaneers front office personnel have begun directly emailing agents regarding their draft prospects, using the information for cross-checking purposes as the club assesses where it believes certain players will go in the draft process. It's an unusual practice, in stark contrast to how things were done in the past, based on distrust between teams and agents.

Misinformation and smoke screens are a part of life in the NFL in the days leading up to the draft, and the Bucs have taken an innovative approach in soliciting from agents the range they believe certain players will be selected. According to the email sent to agents, the information is being used in putting together a "mock draft board." If an agent is feeling noncommittal, the email asks him to present a range of possibilities for his clients.

A team spokesman said the Bucs are using direct agent projections as just one aspect of cross-checking prospects and ascertaining where players will be selected, and did not want to discuss other components of the process for strategic reasons.

"Essentially, this exercise is one of a few valuable cross-checking methods that enables us to track draftees as thoroughly and accurately as possible," Buccaneers director of communications Jonathan Grella said by email. "One of its benefits is to identify disparities between our evaluations and others' assessments. So if a gap exists between our range and others', we're able to explore further."

Several prominent agents said they had not previously been asked to take part in a process such as this to this degree. The Bucs said this is not the first year they have utilized this practice. The team lauded general manager Mark Dominik for being "forward thinking" and "innovative" in his approach to draft preparation. Communication between agents and executives is nothing new, but the formal way in which the Bucs are conducting the process is somewhat unique, agents said.

"It's a new-school approach and it's smart," one prominent agent said. "In the old days, things could be pretty adversarial between teams and agents, but you can tell which of the young general managers gets it and understand there are different ways to do things.

"Teams will have 300 kids to evaluate for the draft and we might have eight to 10 kids. We know more about our players than they ever could and through this process they'll learn more about which agents they can trust and which guys don't know what they're talking about. So the following year they'll know who (was disingenuous to) them about their kids, and for the credible agents, its more empowering."

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[blind melon]

Excellent.

Yet another reason why Mark should continue to be in the running for Exec of the Year.

[4bucs]

yuck another informative post....you should be a detective.

[PassThePigSkin]

Best Team in the NFC south! happy to have Mark.

[youngone]

Another smart move by Dom

[Ladyfan]

Thanks Yuc.  Didn't know about that strategy.  Man, I am very happy with both Dom and Rah, as well as our offensive guy whose name escapes me at the moment.
I have a feelling we're going to continue to see more innovation on the offense this year given that we have a load of play makers just itching to score.  Love the extra effort the TEs and WRs were showing last year.  It'll be intersting to see if the team is still hungry this year.

[NotDeadYet]

    Good idea by Dominik; not only for additional input about prospective Bucs, but good to figure how much he can trust agents to be up front dealing with him. Seeing how they react to his questions could be very enligtening indeed!

[BucBalla85]

Good stuff. Dominiks the man!