During my time with Patriots, Bill Belichick and Scott Pioli came up with a grading scale that assigned a number value to draft prospects based on their projected role on our team. The scale was very specific. It forced scouts to get off the fence or just ballpark guys.

I recall BB saying, “What is a first-rounder? What does that even mean?” (Or something to that affect). This scale was based on a 3-year projection...What role will the player have by his third year in our system?

For example, scouts had to be definitive if a corner prospect was a No. 2 CB (all-downs starter), No. 3 CB (sub-downs starter), No. 4 CB with ST value, No. 4 CB w/out ST value, etc. Many teams, mostly from Belichick tree, are currently using some variation of this scale.