Welcome back to The McShay Report! Over the past few weeks, I’ve been diving deep into the tape on the 2026 quarterback class and taking readers behind the scenes of my scouting process. The positive audience response thus far has been greatly appreciated—thank you to everyone who has continued to tune in to the show and read this newsletter since the draft wrapped in April.
Throughout the Summer Scouting Series, we’ve received several audience questions about my process and why this stage of the offseason is critical for NFL decision makers. Today, I’m going to answer some of those bigger-picture questions and give readers a bit of a Summer Scouting 101.
If you’re a new subscriber, make sure to check out my in-depth quarterback scouting reports, which are linked at the bottom of this newsletter along with the baseline scouting grades and player comps I’ll be working with heading into the 2025 college football season.
Getty Images/Ringer illustration
What’s the main purpose of starting these QB evaluations in the summer? How often do you reference them throughout the year?
Information is king in scouting. It’s the core of the process. The more quality information you gather—from a multitude of different resources—the stronger the final decision (AKA the final grade). With player evaluations specifically, the tape is the foundation. If the tape doesn’t meet the standard, none of the other information really matters. So in principle, the more tape you watch, the better your results will be.
NFL teams might have a dozen or so scouting reports on a given player from multiple sources (area scouts, cross-check scouts, position coaches, coordinators, head coaches, scouting directors, and general managers). Since I don’t have a staff of 30-plus scouts, coaches, and executives, Steve Muench and I have always started our scouting process the summer before the draft. It gets us going on the information-gathering process (at least on 125-150 prospects each summer) and gives us a foundation to build upon and reference throughout the college football season.
If a player returns for another year of school (and that’s happening now more than ever with the transfer portal and NIL), we can wind up with double the information on a player based on twice as much tape study—and that’s a great thing. For example, I had six scouting reports spanning over three years on Colts second-rounder JT Tuimoloau and Steve had a handful, as well.
For all positions—and quarterbacks especially—building the foundation now allows us to examine progress. We have a clear understanding of where a player is in terms of his development based off of game experience to date. In all of my reports, I very clearly outline the strength areas but also the areas needing most improvement.
Since I’m never the smartest guy in the room, I operate under the assumption that college coaches are working with players to improve upon those areas during the offseason. So for the 2026 class specifically, I will be referencing the summer scouting reports throughout the 2025 season to see if a given player (a) has identified those areas needing improvement, (b) has put in the work to improve upon those areas, and (c) is physically/mentally capable of making necessary improvements that will be required of him to play at a certain level in the NFL.
Recent quarterbacks such as Jayden Daniels, Bo Nix, and Cam Ward are shining examples as to why more game experience is so valuable for a player’s development as it pertains to being “NFL ready.” All three finished their respective careers with 55-plus starts, and each went from being a Day 3 prospect heading into their final year of college development to becoming a top-12 pick in the NFL draft. And much more importantly, Daniels and Nix’s experience led to NFL readiness as rookies.
As evaluators, studying each of their early bodies of work gave us a baseline on their skill sets and potential, while also allowing us to see their development over time. While the extra game experience is invaluable for NFL prospects, it’s equally valuable for NFL evaluators in their never-ending pursuit of limiting risk.
Which quarterback skill/trait is the easiest to improve over the course of a season? Which is the most static from summer to spring?
Easiest: Decision-making. There’s nothing “easy” about it, but I tend to see the most consistent growth from QBs in this area year over year. Quarterbacks are seeing defenses a second, third, or fourth time around. They learn when to press the gas and when to slam on the brakes. They have an offseason to self-scout and make adjustments and answer questions like: Where should my eyes take me? What did they fool me on? Where can I speed up my process by a quarter count? What do I trust most? What tendencies provide more reliable, faster answers? And the list goes on…
The most static: Ball velocity or “arm strength.” You can make strides over time (Tom Brady is a great example), but it’s rare to see considerable growth from one season to the next in college.
How much do you expect your grades to change from now until next April?
I’m pulling for every player to improve. That’s the human element of the job. And quite frankly, it’s a hell of a lot more fun to see a player develop and build upon last year’s tape than to watch him regress over the course of a season. Because of that, my favorite tape to study is when a player elevates his game in a specific area that needed attention.
But I have to be honest in my evaluation process, and there can be no preconceived notions. The final grade is the culmination of a long information-gathering process that includes tape study, measurables, athletic testing, reporting on football character, medical intel, and other miscellaneous factors. Like a detective in a crime show (I watch too much Dateline, 48 Hours, 20/20, etc.), I gather as much data as I can before forming any strong conclusions.
Draft grades and boards are set just prior to draft weekend, but the deadline on information gathering is the moment a player is selected. So as it pertains to changing grades and my expectations, I learned a long time ago to have none. Some players will improve across the board this season and others won’t. It’s a case-by-case, inexact science.
How do you create your preseason list of players to scout?
There are several factors/resources to tap into, including but not limited to:
Player evals from a previous year (guys that came back that we preset did tape on).
Conversations in the summer with NFL scouts.
Scouting services like Blesto and National that NFL teams subscribe to for help providing preseason lists. We don’t breach any of those relationships and have no interest in their grades or reports, but those services help create a prospect pool for NFL teams, so when we’re talking to folks in the league these services absolutely come up in conversation.
Steve and I will also lean on relationships with folks at the Senior Bowl and the East-West Shrine Bowl to make sure we’re not missing any players.
How do you decide which plays to watch and which to skip?
I mostly watch “key plays” in the preseason. This is where PFF has streamlined the scouting process greatly. With our PFF Ultimate subscription in conjunction with our game tape access via Catapult, we’re able to watch all plays in which a player does something of significance—positive or negative.
So for a QB, it’s the vast majority of dropbacks, designed runs, and handoffs gone wrong. Key plays in a given year typically average between 230 and 330 per season. I will still watch a few full games throughout a QB’s career to study (among other things) pre-snap decisions and get a sense of a coach’s confidence in their QB in different situations. It’s also helpful watching TV copy during the fall to study body language and gather stories from PxP announcers and analysts, who spend a lot of time talking to coaches and players in preparation of games (as I did for more than a decade as a sideline analyst at ESPN). It all helps to paint a clearer picture of the player, person, and competitor.
By the end of the process next April, what percent of total snaps do you think you will watch of these QBs?
Snaps, probably 70 percent or so. Throws and carries, 100 percent!
Garrett Nussmeier Scouting Report
Mental Makeup: 2
Accuracy: 1
Release/Arm Strength: 2
Pocket Mobility: 2.5
Comp: Baker Mayfield
Mental Makeup: 3.5
Accuracy: 3
Release/Arm Strength: 1.5
Pocket Mobility: 1
Comp: Jalen Hurts
Mental Makeup: 1
Accuracy: 2
Release/Arm Strength: 2
Pocket Mobility: 1.5
Comp: Bo Nix
Mental Makeup: 1.5
Accuracy: 3
Release/Arm Strength: 1
Pocket Mobility: 4
Comp: Joe Flacco
Mental Makeup: 2
Accuracy: 1.5
Release/Arm Strength: 2
Pocket Mobility: 2
Comp: Jared Goff
Mental Makeup: 3
Accuracy: 3
Release/Arm Strength: 1.5
Pocket Mobility: 1.5
Comp: Shades of Kyler Murray, Baker Mayfield, and Johnny Manziel
Mental Makeup: 2
Accuracy: 2.5
Release/Arm Strength: 2
Pocket Mobility: 2
Comp: J.J. McCarthy
