For NFL Scouts: Seeing Is Believing

It always amuses me when people talk about someone looking better than they really are because of having a great "supporting cast."

For NFL scouts, there is nothing amusing about it.

While most think of offense, let's look at defense. Let's also modify the term "supporting cast" for something more trivial.

How about the guy standing next to you.

In 2001, Ryan Sims and Julius Peppers stood side by side for North Carolina

At the University of Tennessee, it was Albert Haynesworth and John Henderson

Years later, North Carolina State really took the cake. They had four and three went on to be First-Round Picks—Mario Williams, Manny Lawson, and John McCargo. The fourth became a Third Rounder named Tank Tyler

This brings to mind some obvious questions.

Did Peppers make Ryan Sims look better than he really was?

Peppers was always doubled and sometimes even triple teamed in college. Sims wasn't.

At Tennessee, it was even more confusing. For Haynesworth and Henderson it wasn't a matter of whether one made the other one look better.

They both faced alternating double teams but which one is better?

North Carolina State had one of the most dominating defenses in years in 2006. That was also a nightmare for scouts.

How can you evaluate all four guys when they all arrive at the ball at the same time? So much for studying film. 

It was only in his senior year that Tyler stood out.

A team's dream can be a scout's nightmare.