{"id":916967,"date":"2026-06-12T15:24:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T15:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/916967\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T15:24:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T15:24:16","slug":"cautionary-tale-of-nfs-and-blesto-grades-for-the-2027-nfl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/916967\/","title":{"rendered":"Cautionary tale of NFS and BLESTO grades for the 2027 NFL Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are firmly in the Summer Scouting portion of the 2027 NFL Draft class. As spring grades leak out, it is important to use them in the right way. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Ohio
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOhio State Buckeyes defensive back Caleb Downs gets measured during Pro Day for NFL scouts at the Woody Hayes Athletics Center on March 25, 2026.<\/p>\n

For all the devout film watchers and draftniks out there, the Summer is always a fun place. For months, the space is dedicated to watching as many future NFL Draft prospects as possible. We are right in the middle of the 2027 NFL Draft<\/a> early work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

You set yourself up with a baseline for the class, a new season of film comes, final evaluations and scouting reports are filed, the NFL Draft comes and goes, and the process begins all over again. It\u2019s a cyclical world that most roll their eyes at. For the real draft nerds like myself, it\u2019s a wonderful world, and it can be even more fun to look back on past hits, misses, and reevaluate your individual scouting process.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Around this time every year, NFL spring grades begin to leak to the public, and they have already been doing so over the last several weeks. Two services supply these early grades for potential 2027 NFL Draft prospects: BLESTO and NFS. Once those grades are out, the Twitter space is littered with verified measurements, draft feedback, and folks pretending like they have discovered every hidden gem.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Should the public have access to these grades? No, but don\u2019t tell the Angry NFL Scout Vet. They\u2019re incredibly easy to get as long as you know a guy, who knows a guy, who knows a guy, and sometimes it\u2019s even easier than that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

BLESTO and NFS can be valuable resources for some, while others can use them for all the wrong reasons. Context is important with spring grades, but not as much as the process that they fall into.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What is BLESTO?\u00a0<\/p>\n

BLESTO is probably the more interesting of the two services. Perhaps starting with the acronym would be a solid starting point. BLESTO stands for Bears-Lions-Steelers- Talent-Organization.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They are a private, national scouting service that multiple NFL teams subscribe to for help evaluating college football prospects for the upcoming draft. The member franchises share resources, such as verified measurements, 40-yard dash times, character reports, and tiered grades, to help lay the foundation for the process. While the teams supply the BLESTO scouts, they function as an individual entity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During the spring, these BLESTO scouts travel around the country to visit schools and create the product. While these BLESTO scouts are usually the low man on the totem pole and therefore more inexperienced, this early information can be very beneficial across the league.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The grades, however, can be imperfect. With the team being composed of those aforementioned inexperienced scouts, the information, such as the verified measurements, is generally the more useful piece of the pie. Some BLESTO scouts are good evaluators, but a large portion have supplied questionable early grades in the past.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Like anyone, they have their hits and misses every year. Here were their top graded prospects for the 2026 NFL Draft last preseason.\u00a0<\/p>\n

S Caleb Downs (Ohio State)\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

EDGE Keldric Faulk (Auburn)<\/a><\/p>\n

RB Jeremiyah Love (Notre Dame)\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

OT Xavier Chaplin (Auburn)\u00a0<\/p>\n

LB Harold Perkins (LSU)<\/p>\n

OT Francis Mauigoa (Miami)\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

EDGE TJ Parker (Clemson)\u00a0<\/p>\n

OT Kadyn Proctor (Alabama)\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

DT Peter Woods (Clemson)\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

TE Max Klare (Ohio State)\u00a0<\/p>\n

WR Jordyn Tyson (Arizona State)<\/a><\/p>\n

EDGE LT Overton (Alabama)\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are certainly some hits in that group, while Chaplin, Perkins, and Overton were big misses. BLESTO has a few weird blunders each year, like having a seventh round grade on former Dallas Cowboys first rounder Tyler Booker. It\u2019s human nature to miss, and we\u2019re far from perfect.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While that\u2019s true, the NFS track record might be even worse, at least recently.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

What is NFS?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Every year, around late February-early March, folks from all over travel to Indianapolis for the NFL Scouting Combine, which is an annual multi-day event where top draft prospects are evaluated by NFL teams through physicals and mental tests, interviews, medicals, and on-field testing. The folks who handle the logistics of that event are National Football Scouting (NFS).<\/p>\n

NFS is one of the premier centralized scouting services utilized by NFL front offices. It is primarily responsible for generating preliminary fall player evaluations, distributing grades, and running logistics for the aforementioned NFL Scouting Combine. Unlike BLESTO, NFS does not have any direct affiliation with NFL teams, but is an outside resource.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Functionally, both NFS and BLESTO do largely the same job. I must say, at least based on recent results, the NFS grades have left a lot to be desired. Here were their top-rated 2026 NFL Draft prospects from a year ago, in order.\u00a0<\/p>\n

QB Garrett Nussmeier (LSU)\u00a0<\/p>\n

OT Drew Shelton (Penn State)\u00a0<\/p>\n

RB Nick Singleton (Penn State)\u00a0<\/p>\n

EDGE Zion Young (Missouri)\u00a0<\/p>\n

WR Germie Bernard (Alabama)\u00a0<\/p>\n

OT Max Iheanachor (Arizona State)\u00a0<\/p>\n

WR De\u2019Zhaun Stribling (Ole Miss)\u00a0<\/p>\n

OT Isaiah World (Oregon)<\/p>\n

OT Trey Zuhn (Texas A&M)\u00a0<\/p>\n

CB Will Lee III (Texas A&M)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of that list of their 12 highest-rated players from last class, a total of one player went in the first round. It was composed of one first rounder, three second rounders, one third rounder, two fourth rounders, one fifth rounder, one seventh rounder, and one priority free agent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s\u2026 not great.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What matters most with BLESTO and NFS\u00a0<\/p>\n

As you can see, the grades can be all over the place between the two services. Most folks, at least the ones who have a solid process, don\u2019t even look at those grades. Having that information, unfortunately, can morph an evaluator\u2019s perspective and cause them to overvalue players that they think \u201cthe NFL is higher on\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sometimes, believe it or not, the NFL gets things wrong. That\u2019s especially true when it\u2019s their most inexperienced scout or a third-party source of information. Instead of using those grades, the verified measurements are what should matter most.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you are convicted as an evaluator, someone else\u2019s opinion on a player shouldn\u2019t cause you to change yours. The verified measurements, however, can assist with a nice cross-checking exercise as you work through your summer list of prospect watches. If an offensive tackle plays long on film, for example, it can be beneficial to verify that they are long with an arm measurement. <\/p>\n

Let these spring grades verify your opinions. Don\u2019t let them create them. Make Summer Scouting great again. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"Nov\t\t<\/p>\n

NFL Draft<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tAshton Hampton 2027 NFL Draft: scouting report for Clemson, CB\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Clemson cornerback Ashton Hampton is one of the early favorites in the 2027 NFL Draft class. Does Hampton live up to the hype?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We are firmly in the Summer Scouting portion of the 2027 NFL Draft class. As spring grades leak…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":916968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[11148,613,7,7779,7805,7602,19341,5386,6,15,7722],"class_list":["post-916967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl-draft","tag-2027-nfl-draft","tag-caleb-downs","tag-football","tag-francis-mauigoa","tag-jeremiyah-love","tag-jordyn-tyson","tag-kadyn-proctor","tag-keldric-faulk","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-draft","tag-peter-woods"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116737833000340154","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=916967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/916968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=916967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=916967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=916967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}