As you are aware every year the NFL holds testing days for potential NFLE National players. Player invited to these test days have generally been scouted by NFL personnel or recommended to us by their coaches. In the past this system has helped us unearth some of the most talented players in the country, who have ultimately gone on to have long careers in the NFL Europe league. Unfortunately with the best will in the world the scouts cannot get to see every game and therefore players that have potential could be going unnoticed.  The introduction of the Elite Player Program will help us find these people as well as provide the clubs with more involvement in this identification process.

Once your Elite Player nomination sheets have been received and we know who your 2 national player test candidates are, we can better coordinate our scouting to try and see as many of the candidates as possible during their season.  We would also use the details on the player information sheets to see how the players compare to the current crop of national players.  It would also be a great help to us, if at a later date the club would send in game video of the 2 players (either of separate games or the same one).

The reasons for the videotapes are,

1.      This allows us to see players that we were unable to scout.

2.      It gives the coaches a second chance to look at individuals (players could have had a bad day at the time the scout was there or perhaps he was injured and did not take part).

3.      The tape can be shown to the coaches stateside giving them the opportunity to see the players as well.

 The game videos would need to be sent to us by the end of June to allow us time to watch each one and assess the player’s performances. Once the scouting reports have been read, the videos watched and the latest monthly test results reviewed, the invitations to the National Player testing day will be sent. 

 I believe that any player on your roster who has aspirations to play in the NFL will appreciate your working with them to become better prepared and conditioned to try and reach their goal.   More importantly come testing day this prior knowledge and familiarity with the drills will be a big bonus for them because they will already know what to expect. They will be comfortable with each drill and know how to execute them correctly.  You will be surprised at exactly how much better a players testing times can be once they have had several weeks/months to practise them. 

 Please feel free to contact my self, coach Newnham or coach McCusker if you have any questions about the Elite player program, NFL Europe National Players or any other issues. Contact details are on this site