Life as an NFL scout rarely slows down. One day you’re hopping on cross-country flights, the next you’re sitting with prospects and their families, trying to build trust. The job doesn’t clock out, either. Something as ordinary as a morning walk can turn into work in an instant, triggered by spotting a frame, a stride, a way someone carries themselves. It’s instinct. Scouts do it without even thinking.

Most days are spent on the gray concrete bleachers, looking at how players move and who could be the next big thing to recruit. It goes without saying that they watch a ton of film, too. So, when they’d successfully recruit a good player to the roster, they’d be showered with bonuses. At least, that’s what the Baltimore Ravens confirmed.

“Back in the day, now we don’t do this now, but back in the day, we used to; we had a prize for the scouts that could sign undrafted free agents that would make the team,” Eric DeCosta, the Ravens’ general manager, said at the pre-draft conference. “It was a cash prize.

“And we haven’t done it in a long time. Coach [Brian] Billick used to do it. And so, that would make things pretty interesting after the draft because if you actually signed a player, and he made the team, you’d get an envelope with some money. This is going back now, like 20 years or whatever it is. But that was interesting back in the day.”

But why were bonuses stopped? While DeCosta didn’t reveal the reason, it could have been due to internal complications. Individual bonuses could have possibly led to a non-collaborative environment or risky assessment from scouts. One can only speculate since DeCosta revealed nothing about it. All this brings in another question: how much do NFL scouts make?

Well, Sports Management Worldwide reported in 2025 that the league’s scouts might make anywhere from:

• $20,000 – $45,000/year at the entry level.
• That amount increases to $50,000 – $125,000/year for a pro or area scout.
• A senior or national scout could make $90,000 – $175,000/year.
• A director of scouting can make $175,000 – $300,000.

Over the years, DeCosta has shown immense belief in his team’s scouts.

“We have complete confidence in our scouts,” DeCosta said back in 2018. “We think that’s going to show out this year in the draft.”

And when their scouts have moved on, the Baltimore Ravens have typically looked inward, promoting from within rather than searching outside. Much of their personnel department has been shaped by former members of the team’s “20-20 club”, a nickname for scouts who joined the organization in their early 20s, earning roughly $20,000 at the time.

Evaluators such as Eric DeCosta and George Kokinis both began their journeys in the 20-20 club before eventually rising into more significant roles within the organization.

“We try to train our guys. We believe in the process,” DeCosta said in 2018, and keeping that up, the Ravens’ scouts have been working hard before the 2026 NFL Draft.

Eric DeCosta reveals Ravens’ draft plans

Eric DeCosta has sat through countless interviews at the NFL Combine last year, but few prospects have come across his radar like Malaki Starks. But much of the credit goes to the scouting department, which tagged Starks as a ‘red star’ prospect, a label reserved for players who represent what it means to be a Raven, both on the field and away from it.

It goes without saying that they will do something similar this time as well. The franchise has a long checklist to address. Offensively, they’re in the market for a starting center, possibly another starting guard, a No. 2 tight end, and a third wide receiver. On defense, the needs are just as pressing. They’re looking for a starting interior lineman while also needing depth across the board, including at edge rusher, inside linebacker, and cornerback. So, their scouts will be working on these areas.

But here’s the thing: teams usually aim for the best player available for a position, but the situation plays a big role, too. As the draft goes on, choices become fewer, and the team’s needs start to influence how they look at the remaining players. And DeCosta was asked exactly that.

“That’s a great question,” he said just days ago. “There’s a lot of different ways to do that, and we’ve tried different ways. Some years you just basically, we’ve thought, maybe just target, to quote, ‘premium positions’ maybe. Other years we’re just going strictly off the draft board, best [player] available, and then some years it’s probably more nuanced. It’s the positions that we haven’t addressed.”

DeCosta also talked about how the choices made earlier in the draft can influence what the Ravens do later at M&T Bank Stadium. If they’ve already picked up players in certain areas, they tend to steer clear of those positions again as the draft goes on. These days, data analysis is more important, but there’s still a lot of unpredictability in this part of the process.

Often, teams see a player they were eyeing get picked just before their turn, leaving them looking at a draft board that suddenly seems pretty empty.

So, with that in mind, being flexible is really important.

“It’s a hard part, [and] it’s a fun part of the draft. It’s a challenge, certainly, percentage-wise to hit on those guys, especially when you get into the fifth, sixth, and seventh round.”

So, let’s see how the team and the front do in the draft.