Earlier today, Inside the League’s Neil Stratton – who seems to be on a real roll this offseason – announced that Adam Peters nabbed another scouting talent for his front office. Dustin Regan, who had been the Executive Director of the BLESTO scouting operation for seven years will now serve as Washington’s Southeast Region scout.
That’s a particularly critical role, given how talent-rich that zone of the country’s colleges and universities are.
Dustin Regan, who spent the last 7 yrs heading BLESTO, one of two subscriber scouting services for #NFL teams, has stepped down as Exec Director. He’ll take a job as area scout w/the #Commanders, covering the Southeast. Regan previously interned w/the #Eagles for the ’11 season.
— Neil Stratton (@InsideTheLeague) May 24, 2024
BLESTO is one of the top two subscription scouting services in the country (the other is “National”). The firm was originally started by Jack Butler (pictured above) in 1963 and gets its name from the team’s that it was created to serve, the Bears, Lions, Eagles, and Steelers. (“BLESTO” is an acronym of Bears, Lions, Eagles, and Steelers Talent Organization).
Over time, BLESTO grew to serve roughly half of the NFL teams (with “National” serving most of the rest).
Unlike the team scouts, most which spend the fall looking at the upcoming draft class, the BLESTO scouts have traditionally spent most of their effort looking at the following year’s classes (so, generally, juniors and sophomores) in order to get a jump start.
It’s almost a decade old at this point, but Cat Scratch Reader, the Panthers’ SBNation site had a good write up on BLESTO on their site here.
Membership responsibilities includes over $100,000 in annual dues and the assignment of at least one scout to the group. As scouts evaluate the current class of seniors visiting schools’ pro days, they often work out underclassmen for future draft years.
This data and other information is presented at meetings (usually in Florida) about two weeks after the current draft. The BLESTO and National reports are published from these meetings. These reports serve as a both starting point for the lengthy evaluation process and also a rough guide as to where players are regarded by the group.
Some teams assign their most junior scout to the job of BLESTO/National regional rep, and the best ones are usually promoted or headhunted away from the role in short stint. This instability with the reps (and the lack of evaluating the senior season) can and will affect the accuracy of the reports.
Regarding Regan, it’s hard to know exactly what his scouting prowess is, but I think we can be confident he’s been exposed to a number of talented scouts who’ve made their way through the BLESTO pipeline, and that he could end up being a great source of intelligence on the scouting community for Peters and company.