43
Brugler turns passion into career
NFL Draft
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
Dane Brugler’s NFL draft obsession started in 1999 when he was a teenager in Warren and the Cleveland Browns were deciding between guys like Tim Couch, Akili Smith and Ricky Williams for the first pick.
“The process fascinated me,” said Brugler, a 2004 graduate of Warren JFK. “What makes a college player a good prospect? How will they translate to the NFL?
“I became enamored with it.”
After graduating from Mount Union with a sports management degree in 2008, he found a way to turn his passion into a career. He and his wife (who is from Champion) now live in Dallas, where he works as a draft analyst for NFLDraftScout.com and CBS Sports.
“I do my own draft book, which is really what got me noticed,” said Brugler, who joined NFLDraftScout.com in 2010. “That’s what allowed me to catapult my career from doing my own thing to CBS Sports and beyond.”
Brugler’s draft guide includes profiles for more than 300 top prospects — fans can buy it in PDF form for $5 on MyFootballNews.com — and he takes pride in being able to tell the average fan why a player will (or won’t) be good at the next level.
“I’m lucky enough to turn my overzealous hobby into a career, something I pour my blood, sweat and tears into,” he said.
Brugler still considers himself a Cleveland guy — “I’d love for the Browns to do well” — although, as a national analyst, he tries to stay unbiased.
He said he’s a big fan of Browns general manager Ray Farmer and believes the first-year GM is the right guy to turn the franchise around.
“He’s an outstanding person,” he said.
In his latest mock draft, Brugler has the Browns picking Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel at No. 4, then choosing Virginia Tech cornerback Kyle Fuller at No. 26.
“They like Johnny Manziel, they like him a lot, but do they like him enough to pick him at No. 4?” Brugler said. “That’s what only a handful of people know. It’s a guessing game.”
Brugler ranks Manziel 27th on his list of top 100 prospects — Louisville QB Teddy Bridgewater is No. 1 — and, like everyone else, wonders whether he can adapt his style to survive in the NFL.
“I love his competitiveness, I love his smarts, I love that when the light shines the brightest, he plays his best,” Brugler said. “The biggest question is, can he stay healthy over a 16-game schedule?
“It’s one thing to say he can learn to throw it away or slide or go out of bounds, but it’s in the kid’s DNA to hold the ball until the last possible second. I don’t think it’s that easy of a transition from that.”
As for the Steelers, Brugler has them choosing Michigan State cornerback Darqueze Dennard.
“I think the Steelers have to look defense,” he said. “Guys like LaMarr Woodley and Brett Keisel are no longer there and I think they need to continue to get younger.
“They could go a lot of different directions but when you’re playing [Bengals WR] A.J. Green and [Browns WR] Josh Gordon twice a year, it makes sense to look at the secondary.”
Brugler said he gets back to northeast Ohio a few times a year — he joked that he goes to the Hot Dog Shoppe first, then sees his family — and would like to move back at some point. And while he’s been in Dallas for six years, he still sounds like an Ohioan.
“Some people say they can hear it [a Texas accent] a little bit, but I think I’m holding onto my Ohio accent,” he said. “I’ve got to represent Ohio down here.”