When it came to evaluating players, Bill Parcells had tried and true system that relied on finding prospects that fit the exact prototype it was looking for.
But it also had room to make exceptions.
That’s the way the Hall of Fame coach explained it in a recent column for The 33rd Team, writing that his teams strived to have players “to have all them be prototype or have qualities that allowed us to make an exception.”
One such player was New England Patriots legend Tedy Bruschi, who Parcells took in the third round in 1996, the coach’s final year with the team.
Parcells explained that his teams had a grading system that featured letters (A-K) and numbers (2.0-9.9). The numbers were essentially a grade of the player’s ability while the letters marked potential issues.
An “F” was for players who lacked speed. A “C” or “G” meant a player lacked height. A “J” meant they lacked bulk.
There was also “H,” which meant a player “has prototype qualities but requires a position change.” That’s the grade the 1996 Patriots gave to an undersized defensive end out of Arizona — Bruschi.
“He was a sack machine at the University of Arizona, but was short for a defensive end,” Parcells said of the team scouting Bruschi out of college. “He wasn’t 6-foot-4; he was 6-1. We liked him, he was a productive player. He played on that ‘Desert Swarm Defense,’ as they called it down there in those days. We felt Tedy could play in the NFL, but it would be at linebacker, which was what he played after he became a third-round draft choice for us in New England.”