Late-Round Perspectives: Matt Waldman Returns

JJ Zachariason (0:00)

Matt Waldman has been a Footballguys Senior Staff Writer since 2009, and he's written the insanely detailed Rookie Scouting Portfolio since 2006 He's a musician, he comes up with great analogies, and he's the first ever Repeat Perspectives guest. These are his late-round perspectives. Yeah, man, I realized today, you are the first repeat Late-Round Perspectives guest.

Matt Waldman (0:35)

No way.

JJ Zachariason (0:36)

Yeah, I've done other shows on the Late-Round Podcasts, because within the feed, you get the regular solo show that I do and whatnot, and then you also get this perspectives episode. And I've had folks, Harmon comes on to talk wide receivers and stuff like that each year during the draft time, but perspectives is sort of this different entity of like, we're not specifically just talking about wide receivers or we're not specifically talking about one topic. And I think I knew, but I fully realized, I'm like, oh, Waldman is the first one, because we had our meetup, if you will, last year, where we got to do the little film versus analytics talk and discussion and obviously dig into that class. But yeah, you're the first one that's returning.

Matt Waldman (1:22)

Well, I'm honored. I'm glad I made it back. I made the cut and we can have a good time talking about this class for sure, because I know that a lot of people that follow what I do and follow what you do, had a lot of good feedback for us getting a chance to talk and talk things over, and it was just a lot of fun.

JJ Zachariason (1:45)

It's great. I also have to give you the yearly note that you are a sick human being for putting together the Rookie Scouting Portfolio the way that you do. I said it last year. I'll say it again. There aren't a ton of Prospect Guides out there in general, or Rookie Guides out there in general, but a lot of them that are out there, they generally will take the top 20 or so guys at each position and dig in. You have the brooglers of the world doing the beast and stuff like that, and so he's certainly not part of this group.

I look at every running back and wide receiver that was at the combine. This year in the Late-Round Prospect Guide, I had 80 running back and wide receiver profiles, which is not a little amount to put together. Then every year, I look at your RSP and I'm like, this guy has more of an illness, a deeper illness than I could ever even dream of. It's crazy how much stuff is in there, man. Props to you. Congratulations on finishing yet another RSP.

Matt Waldman (2:45)

I appreciate it, but I've enjoyed reading your guide as well. It's been fun. It's well-written. It's got a great sense of humor, and it's just a very good way of being able to frame stories and tell stories in the way that you do. You're a good writer, and it's fun to be able to...

It's a fun and informative read, and I think that that's great because a lot of this information can be very dry.

JJ Zachariason (3:08)

Yeah. I'll tell you what, especially when I'm doing this from an analytics perspective, regardless of the perspective that you're really coming at it from, when you get to some of the lower-tiered players, it is a monotonous thing that you're going through, because it's just like you're trying to find... You don't want to be a jerk either. We're not doing this from the perspective of like, we're better than them at football or we...

Have you ever had that dissonance of like, you're evaluating these players and you're saying negative things about them, and you know, obviously about their... Not about them as humans, but about their skill set and such. Does that ever...

Matt Waldman (3:48)

Yeah...

JJ Zachariason (3:48)

.wother you to a degree?

Matt Waldman (3:49)

It's hard, because you want to frame it, and sometimes you want to have a sense of humor about it, like somebody with... Somebody like Kyle McCord, where I would joke that his penchant for... His penchant for throwing targets, you know, throwing, you know, to targets that are really well covered and then doubling down on that, you know, and I joke around that I would nickname him Hold My Beer, is kind of a... You know, I mean, you feel bad a little bit, but you want the sense of humor, but you also try and phrase it to people and say, listen, at the beginning of this, I have all the respect... These guys are in the night, you know, they're the best of the best. So, you know, when I say some of this stuff, it's not an attack on them. And most of the time I'm trying to explain, if he can fix this, he could be really good. These are some things that are really good. Here's some things that aren't. And I'm going to pick on them a little bit, but I mean them in good nature. I mean, look, I got an email from Xavier Guillory's mother yesterday, and it was a very kind email. Now, Xavier Guillory isn't anywhere in my top 25 wide receivers, and there's some things that I really liked about him, but it was very kind. So you see that family members can do that, and I once did a, I think I once went all over CJ Precise on video with a guest saying this guy really needs work in these areas, and I got an e-mail from his brother about a week later, and he said, CJ took your tape to the Notre Dame running back coach, and said, I think some of this is valid, what do you think? And the running back coach said, everything in there is 100% right, and I would suggest if you want to follow up with him, maybe you might be able to see if he knows a running back coach, or if there's anything like that. And I happen to know a running back coach who worked with people, and he worked with CJ Precise before the draft.