1-on-1: Kelvin Fisher - February 27, 2026

Senior Scouting Assistant Kelvin Fisher discusses scouting the 2026 NFL Draft class from the Combine in Indianapolis

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right here with senior scouting assistant Kelvin Fisher. And
so before we start, Calvin, thanks for being here. What
does that mean exactly? Tell fans what you do for
a living. And as you lead up here to the combine.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
In the draft, I cover half of the country from
the west to the east. And there's like three other
area scouts that I'm over the top of and that's
kind of my role right now.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
What does a typical week look like for you during
the NFL season Steelers? You're playing a game? What are
you doing?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yeah, okay, the first thing is we're watching our game
on Sunday wherever we at, if we're on the road
or at home. If you're at home, you watch the game.
You get on the flight, and I'll just take you
through a scenario. Say you're going to Washington State, Washington, Oregon,
Oregon State. So you'll get on the flight, fly out

(00:51):
the Spokane do Washington State Monday, leave there, go up
to Seattle, do Washington on Tuesday, leave there, drive down
to Oregon the Oregon State on Wednesday, and then Oregon
on Thursday. Now, with all that being said, when you
get there, you're going to the school you're gonna you're

(01:11):
gonna meet with certain people to get background information, you're
going to evaluate film, and then you're gonna go to practice.
Once you get to your next hotel, you're writing reporters, right,
You're putting all your information in. So that's that's the
first day. So it's it's non stop and like I said,

(01:32):
go to your next hotel, get up, same routine at Washington.
The fun part about it is it's a different school
every day. It's different players every day, and you're dealing
with different people every day.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
So the season ends, right, obviously you get the college
football championships, but now you know before the combine you
have all the All Star games and different things. So
how big a part of your schedule is that.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
So we'll we'll go to the All Star Game, we
do interviews, and we watch practice at the All Star Game,
so that that part of it. And you're putting all
this information in the system at there. So you're you're
always working. You're always working. You're always trying to find
a niche. You're always trying to find something that especially
when you like a player. Right, So you'll do you know,

(02:17):
the East West, and then you'll do the Senior Bowl.
Then you go home and and then you're doing your
cross checks at the same time, because we get it,
we get a cross check assignment in December, So you're
doing your cross checks to meet the deadline for that crosscheck.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Cross check meaning you're going outside of your career.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
You're not, you're just watching film though, but it is
outside of yours players, outside of your area.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
So there are multiple sets of eyes on all these
players before you even get to Indianapolis. Now, before you
get to and then before you get to Indianapolis. Now
on top of that, you throw a coaching changes here
Michael Carthy takes over. So understanding that good players are
good players. I'm sure every coach has a little and
maybe they want an offensive lineman who's nasty, or maybe

(02:59):
they want to offensive lineman who's got a little more
athleticism because he can pull. So how much of you
had to tweak your evaluations to the to the players.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
I don't I don't believe you have to tweak your
evaluations of players. I believe you just got to have
your evaluation on point. So if a guy is not tough,
you already know he's not tough. If a guy is
not physical. You already know he's not physical. And when
you when you meet as a staff in February, you
make sure you say that football is football, and you're
looking for football players. You're looking for guys who love

(03:28):
to play. You're looking for guys who you want to
be a Pittsburgh Steller. That's the only tweaking you do.
So when a new coach comes in, you got to
understand what he likes and what he doesn't like.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
You have the unique perspective of having been through Mike
tom Win obviously taking over for Bill Cower, now Mike
McCarthy taking over for Mike tom Win. So maybe different
guys looking for different things. How does it change your
approach and what you're doing.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
I mean, like, I don't think it changes our approach
on evaluate and the players. But we do have to
keep in mind the type of players he likes, the
type of players he wont Does he want big or small?
You know, does he want fast or quick? Those are
the things that you've got to probably tweak a little right,

(04:15):
But for the most part, Coach McCarthy ass came in
and told us kind of some of the things that
he liked about certain positions which helps us.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
Okay, so you put into twenty six hour days scouting
during the season, right, you've gone to the All Star Games,
You've had to recom with the new coaching staff. You
know what they want? What are you looking to do
here in Indianapolis? Why is this important for you?

Speaker 2 (04:39):
It's the final touches on the players for you to
get to know them. So we get to interview him now,
we get to watch them. We get to see their
demeanor in the workouts. We get to see who's competitive.
We get to see the guys who's the leaders, you
know because you watch out here when they work out,
you know, and the guys that's getting every one going

(05:00):
to guy. You know. It's all these little things that
you're watching for. But the major part of it, I
think is this interview process. I think the interview process
is really good because the head coach, the GM, the
assistant GM, the owner is sitting in that room and
they get to understand and get to know who this
this person is, you know, this young man. They get
to know who that person because that young man is

(05:22):
telling his story to us.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
So Omark commis selling us. You had two weeks of
meetings and everybody was together. So you come here to
the combine. When do you start kind of putting together
this this big board. Is the process already undergoing now
or is it something that waits a little?

Speaker 2 (05:37):
The process is going on as soon as we throw
grays in the system in the fall. Hey, you may
have a guy that like a guy and give him
a good grade and other players may not, so someone
else got to look at him again, right, So the
process never stops. It's just putting the pieces together.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
Of that puzzle is having twelve draft picks like waking
up on Christmas morning and seeing a couple extra expected
under the tree, no question.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
I mean, I don't think I ever had this many
picks before in all the years IVE been doing this,
So I'm excited. The thing about it is we're gonna
get someone late that's gonna end up being good that
everyone gonna be like, oh, because because it's twelve picks, right,
it gives you an opportunity to like change your franchise.

Speaker 1 (06:22):
Right. Oh, this has been fascinating, and said Calvin really
appreciate it. Thank you very much for the thank you. Yep,