Good Morning!I’m rather excited for Championship weekend
Joe Montana Jersey , mostly because the games that are coming on are rather intriguing. I would love more of Saints/Rams and Chiefs/Patriots won’t
disappoint (especially since New England is in KC this year). It should be a fun
Sunday of good football games. I don’t know what’s been going on with the wild
card and divisional this year, but those were disappointing. The wild card has a
track record of this happening with some division winners holding losing records
hosting a game, but the divisionals have everything sorted out and give us some
fun football. Maybe I’m just wrong on thinking they weren’t as good as prior
years. Sunday’s games are going to be fun to watch. Football is coming to a
close, but we should have three really good games to experience before then.
Here’s some links. 2019 NFL draft: 49ers add needed weapons in 3-round Draft
Wire mock (Madson)Revisiting the 49ers’ multi-layered decision to draft
offensive lineman McGlinchey (Biderman)2019 NFL Draft: Kyler Murray, Nick Bosa,
Stanford trio granted eligibility (Maiocco)Young 49ers enter important offseason
as competition increases (ESPN)2019 Senior Bowl: 49ers should keep an eye on
these inside linebackers (Chan)Analysis: What the changing coaching staff means
for 49ers (Biderman)49ers the favorite to land Antonio Brown (Madson)What a
horrible night to have a curse. The San Francisco 49ers coaches and scouts are
back from Mobile, Alabama following the 2019 Senior Bowl, and now it’s time to
get ready for the February NFL Combine. The coaching staff remained in Mobile
through the game, but the scouts departed after practices wrapped up on
Thursday. They took care of their player evaluations and interviews during the
preceding days, and were going to get film from the game to further break
players down.49ers.com senior reporter Joe Fann was in Mobile for the Senior
Bowl, and he had a great guest on his podcast. Fann sat down with 49ers area
scout Tariq Ahmad and they discussed a broad range of topics in what is one of
my favorite podcasts in recent memory.Ahmad is an area scout for the 49ers,
covering the northeast region. According to Aziz, that goes from Maine to North
Carolina, and west as far as West Virginia. He told Fann he is not sure how many
schools that covers because he is checking out all the way down to Division III
for prospects.The entire podcast is worth a listen, and I’ve broken down the
timestamps below. The best part is early on when Ahmad gives a rundown of the
player interview process at the Senior Bowl. We hear frequently about teams
meeting with players at the all star games, but we don’t get the details like we
do with the Combine. He provides helpful insight on that.Fann asked him about a
couple prospects the 49ers drafted last year that fell under his region: N.C.
State defensive lineman Kentavius Street and Temple defensive lineman Jullian
Taylor. Ahmad mentioned that he specialized in the defensive line, so these two
were particularly in his wheelhouse. However, injuries impacted the evaluations.
Street tore his ACL in a private workout for the New York Giants leading up to
the 2018 NFL Draft, while Taylor had limited playing experience due to various
injuries during his college career.Kentavius Street“Kentavius — kinda what I was
saying before, the background of my job is so important. Anybody could watch
Kentavius play or watch him work out and say, this guy’s a special talent —
explosive, powerful, fast. He’s as thick and dense as anyone that you’ve ever
seen.”But, the background — going to school, talking with the trainers, talking
with his strength coach — they all loved him
Ahkello Witherspoon Jersey White , every player loved him. So it was an easy decision because that guy’s going to do everything he can to get right, to
get back to where he was before. There’ll be no days off. I was talking to
another player just yesterday that I interviewed, who said, ‘Yep, Kentavius is
training with me right now. He’s at so-and-so workout facility training, doesn’t
take a day off.’”So that makes that very comfortable because our job, as
gathering information plus evaluating, we were able to get a great
player.”Jullian Taylor“Totally different story with Jullian. Actually, from my
days at Rutgers, I knew Jullian. So we had an extensive rapport between the two
of us. Right away, when he was a junior and I was doing that summer work that I
was talking about, he only played a few games because he had a knee injury that
year, his junior year. But I made sure I watched those games, the game against
Penn State is the one that stands out in my mind. And he was a really good
football player, with minimal playing experience.“So the following year, I had a
microscope on him because I saw stuff that I really, really liked early on. And
I thought he performed at a high level. I thought he had traits. I don’t know if
the instincts were always there because of the limited background, but I really,
really liked what was inside of his body, and from knowing him, from his days
down in South Jersey, I thought that he was going to be a really talented player
and a really quality person who adds value to the locker room.”Timestamps0:20 —
His job at the Senior Bowl1:32 — The player interview process at the Senior
Bowl6:08 — His path to becoming a scout7:15 — What he thinks makes him a good
scout7:55 — What a calendar year is like for an area scout11:35 — Best travel
story13:50 — How to keep internal peace (eat right, hit gym, be mentally well)
during the extensive road trips14:52 — Process with Kentavius Street16:42 —
Process with Jullian Taylor18:00 — On difficulty of finding a diamond in the
rough in an age of limitless information19:19 — Defining his region
(northeast)19:51 — On rules and protocol for contacting players and working with
schools20:47 — On relationships with other scouts in the region22:00 — Favorite
part of being an area scout22:53 — On getting on the table for prospects24:04 —
Hardest part of being an area scout and how front office encourages family
time25:50 — On dealing with scouting being an imperfect science and having to
have an opinion based on it27:22 — On following guys even if they don’t end up
being drafted by the 49ers and how he improves his process29:07 — A player who
taught him the most in his scouting process
