Resilience—Not Strength Or Speed—Will Be The Most Important Trait For New NFL Draftees 

From the moment Super Bowl LX ended, team leaders worked to determine who to select in last weekend’s NFL Draft. Scouts measured speed, strength, leaping ability and more to find the right pick.  

But the one quality they can’t measure might just be the most essential of all—resilience. To me, resilience is the greatest determinant of an athlete’s long-term success.  

For as much as sports is about winning—it is really about failure. Managing failure. That means it’s about working through failure. Basketball players miss shots, baseball players strike out and football players miss tackles, drop balls and overthrow passes.  

Failure is going to happen. It’s unavoidable.

But the way to mitigate those mistakes is not necessarily by jumping higher, running faster, or hitting harder. Those can help. But the most important factor in dealing with failure is often between our ears. It’s how we respond to pitfalls.  

Having the ability to get up after you’ve fallen, to get back in the batter’s box after you swung and missed, to shoot the last shot after going 0-10—that’s almost always more important than any play you can make on the field.  

Take, for example, the NFL draft’s No. 1 pick, QB Fernando Mendoza. The signal caller for the recently undefeated and national champion Indiana Hoosiers was tapped by NFL GOAT Tom Brady to lead the woeful Las Vegas Raiders into the future. But Brady, part of the Raiders ownership team, didn’t advocate picking Mendoza solely based on arm strength or 40-yard dash time.  

He picked Mendoza because of what he believes the Indiana product is capable of doing when things don’t go as planned.  

Brady knows he doesn’t have to coddle the former Hoosier QB. In fact, he has said he wants to “push” Mendoza and that he won’t be “lovey-dovey” with him. When it comes to the No. 1 pick’s career, it’s not about making him cozy. It’s about getting the most out of him when nothing is cozy.  

To do that, Mendoza will have to go through many hard tests. Brady knows that—that’s how he was mentored by six-time champion Bill Belichick. If Brady thought Mendoza would wilt under the pressure, he might have gone with another guy, like the consensus most talented player, RB Jeremiyah Love, from Notre Dame.  

Still, it’s not an exact science. Even with his expertise and talent for mentorship, Brady knows that selecting Mendoza is not fool-proof. According to research, around 40% of first-round QBs taken in the NFL draft go on to become mainstays for their franchises. That’s low. And why is that?  

Well, some evidence just has to be determined on the field.  

That’s when coaches can see how a player performs under the pressures and rigors of the NFL. When things aren’t going well, does someone like Mendoza dig deep or does he check out? When he makes a mistake, does point fingers or admit fault and get better?  

These are lessons we can take with us in our own lives, too.  

We don’t have to be prized QBs to exhibit resilience in our careers. When bad news comes or when a given sales quarter doesn’t go well, how do we react? Do we point fingers or accept our share of the blame?  

Similarly, for those of us in leadership positions, how do we evaluate the new talent that walks in the door? Or what is our plan for measuring resilience when making a new hire? Do we go with the person with the prettiest resume, or do we find those who have overcome hurdles, knowing that they will likely outperform their peers in tough times?  

It’s not an easy call.  

In the end, there are any number of accolades, numbers, or trophies someone can bring to the table to prove their skills. They’ve shown they can be successful. But when the chips are down, when things don’t go well with plan-A or even plan-B, who do you want in your corner? 

Someone you can push to even greater heights? 

Or someone you have to be “all lovey-dovey” with?   

To me, the choice is clear.