Football Draft Analyst and Fantasy Football Columnist Draws Upon Corporate Experience to Create NFL Scouting Analysis Used by Media Insiders

Kansas City, MO -- (ReleaseWire) -- 04/01/2008 -- Matt Waldman was a mid-level manager for a large private marketing firm when a simple comment from former Cowboy's Vice President of Player Personnel Gil Brandt ultimately spawned an idea that changed his career. In 2002, Brandt was a special correspondent for NFL.com prior to the NFL Draft and he made a comment about a small school running back being a top ten pick "if he were only a couple of inches taller and ten pounds heavier." Waldman, an avid fan and freelance writer, thought this was a curious reason to downgrade a prospect with similar physical dimensions to superstars such as Emmitt Smith, Clinton Portis, Marshall Faulk and Priest Holmes. That runner—Brian Westbrook—is now considered one of the elite talents in football.

The comment led Waldman to gain more insight into the talents and flaws that he believes NFL personnel departments share with corporate management teams. Waldman then drew upon these insights and his experience implementing best practice evaluation methods commonly found in Baldridge Award-Winning manufacturing and service organizations to create a player scouting publication he titled The Rookie Scouting Portfolio. Now in its third year, The Rookie Scouting Portfolio lists media insiders, draftniks and fantasy football enthusiasts as loyal readers.

"The Rookie Scouting Portfolio is by far the most informative book regarding the NFL Draft I have come across in my radio career," says Miami 790 The Ticket radio host Kevin Rogers. "With the boom of the NFL Draft over the last decade, the breakdown of college players has been dissected even more and more, but this portfolio not only analyzes all the top players, but a game-by-game breakdown that makes me feel like I was in the film room during the season with the coaches. This is a must-buy product if you want to be ahead of the Draft game in April."

As FFToday.com owner Mike Krueger tells it, Waldman's process has regularly foretold of surprising performances from rookies who other analysts underrated or overlooked completely, including Ahmad Bradshaw, Selvin Young, Maurice Jones Drew, and Greg Jennings. "There are very few NFL Draft publications that rival Matt's work and analysis, period," said Krueger. "A number of industry insiders and media professionals are now beginning to use the RSP for research."

Waldman, now employed at FFToday.com and writes the popular Internet columns "The Gut Check" and "20/20 Hindsight," evaluates a player's on-field performance against numerous criteria specific to each position, which he stores on a database. "Legendary GM Joe Thomas who was credited with building the '72 Dolphins was a big proponent of film study," said Waldman, who appears as a weekly in-season guest on numerous radio stations across the country. "Plus, Jon Schuerholz's hobby of scouting baseball prospects eventually turned into a great career as a GM for the Royals and Brave. I'm not trying to follow his route. I just love the evaluation process and believe I deliver something of value."

"Matt Waldman has been a fantasy football expert guest on my sports talk show," says Anita Marks of Baltimore's ESPN 1300 AM. "His thorough preparation and knowledge of the NFL and the NFL Draft makes him one of the best in the business for accurate and educational information,"

The Rookie Scouting Portfolio is a 497-page publication that provides media analysts, draftniks and the fantasy football enthusiast coverage of 122 prospects that goes beyond the general paragraph summaries of player strengths and weaknesses. Instead of telling you a player simply has good speed, nice hands, and a strong arm, The Rookie Scouting Portfolio contains actual play-by-play analysis to describe a prospect's strengths and weaknesses where it matters most: the field of play.