For many years, the Chicago Bears have operated with a fairly traditional scouting department. It is made up of a specific number of area scouts that are responsible for covering certain regions of the country. Those regions were the northeast, southeast, midwest, southwest, and west coast—five scouts for five regions. Then there were combine scouts and national scouts. This setup has persisted since knowledge of NFL scouting departments became more available in the past two decades.
Well, things got interesting when news surfaced that the Bears were adding a new area scout to the mix. They wished to promote combine scout Drew Raucina. Traditionally, they would either release or promote one of their current area scouts to make room. That didn’t happen. This meant the Bears would have six area scouts instead of the traditional five. If so, Raucina would be taking over a completely new region with its own distinction. Now the Bears website has provided an answer.
Raucina is the official “Midlands” scout.
While it isn’t entirely clear what constitutes the midlands, most view it as a vertical strip of land going from North Dakota in the north all the way to Texas and Louisiana in the south. South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas are also included in the package. If this is the case for Raucina, then he has inherited a significant bit of real estate for the Bears. Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana are considered three of the densest regions for top football talent in the country.
They feature schools like Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas Tech, Houston, Texas A&M, Baylor, LSU, and Tulane. All have produced top talent for the NFL going back many years. This doesn’t include other staples like Arkansas, Kansas State, Nebraska, and North Dakota State. Suffice it to say, the Chicago Bears have handed Raucina an important job. Those regions have produced some outstanding players for this organization in the past and are hoping will do so again. That will be up to him.
