Former Chiefs GM explains why pre-draft prospect meetings are so important to teams
Chiefs general manager Brett Veach, coach Andy Reid and many others likely are busy watching tape of college players ahead of the NFL Draft, which begins April 28.
But the Chiefs also are conducting interviews with prospects, which are sometimes known as “top-30 visits.” As the Pride of Lions blog noted, each team is only allowed 30 such visits and players don’t go through football drills. But the meetings give a team’s decision-makers an opportunity “to get to know the person better and also drill them with football questions.”
Former Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli explained this week on the NFL Network how teams decide which players to bring in for an interview.
“These visits are really important but they vary in terms of the type of player that they bring in,” Pioli said. “And to me the top three reasons that teams will bring players in on a 30 visit are either a medical, recruiting as crazy as that sounds or because they’re from a small school.”
In the first instance, Pioli noted that Alabama wide receiver Jameson Williams suffered a torn ACL in January’s national championship game. Earlier this month, Williams told reporters he was given a timetable of five to seven months to return to action, but he was ahead of schedule. Nevertheless, teams will want to check out that knee.
Pioli said when he was with the Patriots, the team brought tight end Rob Gronkowski in for a visit. He had missed the Combine while recovering from back surgery, Pioli noted.
“As I mentioned, the other reason is because a player is at a small school,” Pioli said. “A number of players out of the small schools, the decision makers didn’t get a chance to see either too much tape on them or even get to visit them. They haven’t had an interaction with them. Because a lot of small school players don’t make it to the Combine.”
And although most fans associate recruiting with college football, Pioli said it happens with NFL teams, too. That’s often important for when the draft ends.
Among the undrafted free agents who made it big in the NFL were former Chiefs stars Priest Holmes and Emmitt Thomas.
“As silly as this may sound, I know a number of teams that bring players in that are either going to be very late round draft choices, or they’re going to be rookie free agents. As we know, as soon as that draft ends it’s a flurry of activity,” Pioli noted. “You’re trying to recruit players, you’re trying to sign the best working free agents that you can.
“And as we know, a number of rookie free agents make his players in the league. So you want to spend some of that time bringing players in and showing them some attention.”
Here is Pioli talking about top-30 visits.
