How the Giants Plan to Scout College Football Talent This Fall Amid COVID-19 Limitations

With some college football conferences postponing play this fall, traditional scouting, as the NFL knows is, it out the window. So here's a look at what the Giants are planning to approach scouting their next crop of rookies despite the on-going COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2020 NFL Draft was unconventional, to say the least, but 2021 is shaping up to be a completely different ball game.

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the postponement of a lot of college football action this fall. Three of the Power 5 college football conferences (SEC, BIG 12, ACC) have decided to press on with the 2020 season, while the Big Ten and Pac-12 have postponed their seasons and have yet to finalize a date to begin play.

For NFL teams, particularly their scouting departments, evaluating the incoming 2021 draft class will be a nuanced challenge. Some of the most highly-touted prospects of next year's draft will be coming out of the Big Ten and Pac-12, and there's no guarantee there will be any 2020 film for those prospects.

Then there are the many lower-tiered prospects coming out of the FBS and FCS programs that are undergoing their own discrepancies of when to carry out a 2020 season.

For Giants general manager Dave Gettleman and his team of personnel people, navigating the nuances of scouting for this upcoming draft will be particularly critical to his team's success. Gettleman is currently leading an on-going roster rebuild in New York and will have to find the right players without going through many of the conveniences of conventional scouting.

So how will Gettleman and his scouts be tackling this year's draft preparation?

"Number one, we've got all the college Power 5 2018 and 2019 season tape so right now we've got our area scouts and all of our scouts watching this year's upcoming draft class on that tape," Gettleman said during the Giants 2020 Season Kickoff Event.

"Right now with the PAC-12 and Big Ten we'll just have to see what happens. There is conversation about them getting started in the second week in October and playing an eight-game season starting November 1 so we'll see."

Even with the conferences playing this season, quarantine protocols will prevent Gettleman's team from making campus visits to meet with the prospects and scout them up close.

"With the rules, we can't go on campus; however, we can attend college games," Gettleman said. "So all of our scouts have an extensive schedule and they will be attending games on Saturday."

Gettleman is also planning to venture outside his own beat and consult his colleagues in Major League Baseball for advice.

MLB scouting departments had to endure even worse complications in evaluating this year's crop of prospects in their sport. Nearly all college and high school baseball seasons were canceled when the quarantine initially went into effect in March, leaving MLB scouts without any visits or film to work with this year.

"I'm certainly going to get on the phone with the baseball people and find out how they did it," Gettleman said. "Baseball, they had about a day and a half of spring ball and everything was canceled so I'm going to get in touch with those folks and find out some of the things that they did to make sure they were as well prepared as possible."

Scouting for the upcoming draft is sure to be a contentious topic in the coming months, and one that will crossover between college football and the NFL. Without any guarantee that top prospects will see a football field this fall, the NFL could be in for one of the most unconventional drafts in its history come next spring.

The Giants will be right in the middle of it as they look to continue adding promising young talent to their roster from across the college football landscape.