MORE FEEDBACK ON ESPN "DECISION MAKERS"
In further response to our recent critique of the ESPN/Scouts, Inc. commentary regarding the team-by-team "Decision Makers," a relatively high-level league source with, in our assessment, no reason of any kind to throw a bone to Pats V.P. of player personnel Scott Pioli has come out aggressively against the suggestion that Pioli is merely a "yes man" to coach Bill Belichick.
"Scott is an excellent evaluator and a great motivator for scouts," the source said. "He isn’t a 'pat you on the back' type of guy, but the results he gets are phenomenal. Scott's 'yes man' image is completely misconstrued. Yes, he and Bill share similar philosophies and for the most part see players the same way but this is why Bill has brought him along and leans heavily on him. Scott did not get where he is because he says 'yes' to him. Bill simply recognized an intelligent, hard-working personnel guy long ago and groomed him. . . . Scott has a very thoughtful and logical approach to win his argument. These are the types of people Bill admires."
The source also said that the Belichick-Pioli approach teaches scouts to "evaluate the entire entity of a player (character, work ethic, passion, talent)," and it "force" the scouts "to make a bold statement on a player instead of being wishy-washy."
Bottom line, according to the source? "Any team in their right mind should do whatever they can to hire former Pioli scouts."
Of course, that assessment might actually help former Pats scout and current Scouts, Inc. scribe Keith Kidd get a new job in the NFL. One of the primary concerns regarding the entire "Decision Makers" piece was that it possibly represents an effort by Kidd to take shots at the people around the league that he apparently doesn't like, such as Pioli.
Maybe the message here is that Kidd would be far better served by focusing on the positive aspects of what he learned while in New England
