**
With just over a week remaining before the 2007 NFL Draft, the 49ers scouts are in town for final draft meetings. Here's a look at their work week from area scout Todd Brunner.**
The scouts trickled in over the weekend, most on Sunday I think. I actually had to come in Saturday night to beat the weather back home in New Jersey. In two days we had nine inches of ran and major flooding!
We started our final draft meetings on Monday and by Wednesday we had made it through every single position. Basically we talk about each player and based on their pro days and all final measurables, we decide whether they should stay where they are or move up and down on the board.
There are always some guys who fall of the board and then some are resurrected after we get all the numbers in from the workouts that we all attended. In fact, when all is said and done we pretty much have numbers from just about every school because there's a group of teams that will pool together and each team is assigned a certain number of schools to attend so that schools don't get overlooked. We all then send in the numbers and share them.
Since we finished the board, we've all been sitting in the war room pretty much dialing up all the guys from our areas and verifying once more that we have the updated phone numbers for them on draft day. One of the players who I spoke with actually told me thanks because I've mentioned him here in my blog. So, I guess that means more people read this than I think.
We also go over different scenarios, if this person is not there, do we trade back, or who do we take next. We've spent a large amount of time going through every single "what if" we can think of, even those that aren't always realistic.
On Wednesday night, I took Jermon Bushrod out to dinner with one of our other scouts as he was here for a visit. We went to a spot just right up the street and had an excellent meal, and nice to visit with a player in a setting like that because they are more relaxed and open. Around the office, they tend to be more nervous sometimes. I really feel confident about him as a player and the grade that was placed on him.
On Thursday we had an office retirement gathering for Oscar Lofton, one of our area scouts who has been with the club for 15 years. As a scouting staff, we'll take him out one night this weekend as well. He's been the longest tenure scout here for the last few years and has meant a lot to the organization. I've learned a lot from him and have especially enjoyed his many, many stories.
We also finalized today what we'll do tomorrow for our local "Combine." Basically, per NFL rules, players who either grew up or went to school in the Bay Area are allowed to attend a workout at our facility. Each scout will have different positions they are in charge of and we switch roles basically with the coaches as we'll run the drills at each position and the coaches will just observe. Usually 40-50 guys show up for the workout and that's what we're expecting for tomorrow.
We'll review the workout as a staff afterwards and probably watch the video over the weekend by position to see who stands out.
Next week we'll meet with the coaching staff, so I'll check in with another blog then!
