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What is National and Blesto Scouting Services?

What is National and Blesto?
What is National and Blesto?

Have you ever wondered how the NFL scouts are able to go to every NCAA school and watch film?  Well they cannot do it all alone, so many NFL teams hire scouting services to assist them with their process.  There are two major scouting services that NFL teams use including National and Blesto.

According to a recent report from DraftDaddy.com, there are only five teams that are not affiliated with any team. 

There are twelve teams in BLESTO (ATL, BUF, CHI, CLE, DAL, DET, HOU, JAC, MIA, MIN, NYG, PIT).

There are fifteen subscribers to the National (AZ, CAR, CIN, DEN, GB, KC, NO, NYJ, PHI, STL, SD, SF, SEA, TB, TEN). National Scouting also is the logistical organizer of record for the event in Indianapolis.

Five teams out of the thirty-two NFL teams are unaffiliated with either scouting combine organization: Baltimore Ravens, Indianapolis Colts, New England Patriots, Oakland Raiders and Washington Redskins.

Membership responsibilities includes over $100,000 in annual dues and the assignment of at least one scout to the group. So basically there is a scout from each team listed above that is on the board to help assist with scouting.  They make a list of players and rank them.  National and Blesto have a different style of grading.  As scouts evaluate the current class of seniors visiting schools’ pro days, they often work out underclassmen for future draft years.

This data and other information is presented at meetings (usually in Florida) about two weeks after the current draft.

The National and Blesto reports are published from these meetings. These reports serve as a both starting point for the lengthy evaluation process and also a rough guide as to where players are regarded by the group.

Then NFL scouts will re-evaluate the players and talent and make their own assessment. If you are not on a National or Blesto list it does not mean anything.  Remember Carson Palmer was the first overall pick, and he was not even in the top 25 on either list when they came out years ago.  Just a heads up….

Damond Talbot

NFL Draft Diamonds was created to assist the underdogs playing the sport. We call them diamonds in the rough. My name is Damond Talbot, I have worked extremely hard to help hundreds of small school players over the past several years, and will continue my mission. We have several contributors on this site, and if they contribute their name and contact will be in the piece above. You can email me at nfldraftdiamonds@gmail.com

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