Six Points: A Few Tips for New NFL Agents

02 Friday Oct 2026

Posted by in Agent Exam, Agents, Getting started

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So if you passed the NFL Agent Exam this summer, today is your big debut. Your name got published on the NFLPA website and you may now call yourself an NFL contract advisor.

Whether you’ve got years of NIL experience or you’re starting from zero as a player rep, you may be feeling a little uncertain about the next steps. May we make a few suggestions? Here are a few tips.

Don’t take this year off: It is so tempting to do this, and it makes sense. You can do things now that you weren’t capable of before you were certified. Still, it’s critical to sign one or two players this year, even if they aren’t potential first-rounders.

Be humble (especially on socials): It amazes me some of the self-worship I see out of new agents on Instagram (especially). I honestly don’t know what that accomplishes, and honestly, if you don’t succeed in the business, you’re going to feel pretty dumb and might be deleting those posts one of these days.

Don’t go cheap: I know, this is easy for me to say, especially given that you’ve been doing nothing but writing checks, seemingly, over the past month. Spend money wisely, but spend it. For example, don’t buy any of these contact lists floating around. Having a number is useless if you don’t have a relationship with the coach, scout, GM or player you’re calling.

Be patient: You’re probably hoping you can “microwave” a network of NFL scouts, and believe me, I understand. The thing is, if you try to force friendships with scouts, you’re liable to do more harm than good. Sign a good player and scouts will want to get to know you. It’s the only way.

Find a veteran agency you can partner with — and have reasonable expectations: This is something we’ve gotten aggressive about in the past year, through our Bridge Program but also just spontaneously when the opportunity presents itself. In the last 48 hours, we’ve connected two new agents to established firms. The key is, neither one of these agents was looking for a big salary (or any salary). To their credit, they just want to learn, and I feel they’ll get far more than that out of the deals.

Avoid signing any players that call you: As tempting as it is to sign a player who finds your number on the Players Association website, fight the temptation. With expanded practice squads and the UFL giving players new film all the time, if a player is on the street, there’s a reason for it.

If you’re a new agent, congratulations! You’ve done something special, but there’s still a long way to go. We can help. Start by signing up for our free newsletter, the Friday Wrap, here.

Taking a Look at the Modern NFL Director of College Scouting

25 Friday Sep 2026

Posted by in Scouts

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Earning the title of Director of College Scouting for an NFL team is undeniable proof that you’ve “arrived” as a member of pro football’s intelligence community. But what else does it mean? Does it have the resonance that it once had?

We looked at all 27 today at Inside the League (the Bears, Bengals, Cardinals, Chargers, Rams and Saints don’t have one, while the Chiefs have two) and it was interesting to see the sweep of backgrounds, ages and terms of service. Here are a few observations.

  • In previous eras when becoming a GM was a more ordered process, it was probably more commonplace that being a college director was a prerequisite to running the front office, but that’s not true anymore. Would you believe that 22 of the 32 NFL GMs were never Directors of College Scouting? That really surprised me, but it’s a reminder that a growing number of GMs have pro scouting backgrounds (like Minnesota’s Nolan Teasley), come from more of a business side (Buffalo’s Brandon Beane and Pittsburgh’s Omar Khan), or just hopped the line altogether (San Francisco’s John Lynch, for example).
  • It’s become an amazingly volatile job, or maybe “transient” would be the right word. Would you believe that the longest-tenured college director is Minnesota’s Mike Sholiton, who’s been on the job since 2021? Eight of the 27 are in their first year in the role. For a job that includes coordinating and sorting out the information coming in from all over the country, that’s a pretty steep learning curve when you’re not gonna be in the job more than 3-4 years.
  • No “big school” experience is necessary in your background. Matter of fact, it might be a disadvantage to have come from a football power, looking at the current lineup. The only current college directors who got their respective undergrad degrees at P4 schools are Dallas’ Mitch LaPoint (Kansas), Carolina’s Jared Kirksey (UCF), Houston’s Mozique McCurtis (USC), San Francisco’s Dom DeCicco (Pitt), Denver’s Bryan Chesin (Arizona), Tampa Bay’s Tony Hardie (Notre Dame), New England’s Tony Kinkela (Washington State), Washington’s Ryan Kessenich (Wisconsin), Atlanta’s Shawn Heinlen (Florida) and the Giants’ Jon Ritcher (NC State).
  • In fact, if you aspire to being a college director, you might want to transfer to a MAC school. Buffalo (Kansas City’s David Hinson, UMass (KC’s Pat Sperduto), Miami (Ohio) Pittsburgh’s Dan Colbert), Ball State (Seattle’s Jason Barnes) and Ohio (Tennessee’s Mike Boni) are all represented.
  • As with most jobs in scouting today, more college directors have been “imported” than have those who rose through the ranks. Only nine of 27 have only worked for the team that employs them now.
  • There’s a pretty vast age range, from 30 to 59. More (12) are in their 40s than any other age. Also, there are more in their 30s (eight) than in their 50s (seven).
  • Though you don’t have to be any certain age to do the job, you do have to be seasoned. Of the 27 college directors, 17 have been working in the league at least since the 2009 season. You’re looking at almost two decades of service before you’re considered for the job. That makes sense.

For someone like me, it’s a little sobering that so many dues-paying executives — like the people who make up the college director community — aren’t seeing a direct path to the GM seat, but I suppose that’s just part of the times we live in. The profile now, mostly, is a scout in his 40s who’s got 15-17 years working in the league and, more often than not, arrived with the current GM.

I hoped — I wished — the results were more of an affirmation of the value of experience in NFL front offices, especially as it relates to who gets the GM jobs. Unfortunately, I just don’t see that in the numbers.

Ben Standig’s Survey on NFL Front Offices: A Few Thoughts

18 Friday Sep 2026

Posted by in Agents, Media, NFL draft, Scouts

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This week, the Scouting the League Podcast guest is Ben Standig, who has his own Substack covering the Commanders (Last Man Standig, which is an awesome title). We spent most of our time on his recently posted 2026 Agent Survey, and as often happens, when we were done, there was a lot more I wanted to cover. Here are a few thoughts on his recent post.

  • One of the questions Ben asks is, who is the league’s best talent evaluator? Because he only polls a select number of NFL agents, no one gets a groundswell of support. Seahawks GM John Schneider (four votes) and Rams GM Les Snead (two votes) lead the way, but 18 others get votes. Both have the respect of their peers (as well as a Best Draft Award for each), so no arguments there. However, I found the remaining 18 interesting. Of the 18, nine are GMs or de facto GMs (Dallas’ Will McClay and New England’s Eliot Wolf), plus one other former GM. However, there are also a few up-and-comers that caught my eye.
  • His question, ‘who is a future GM to watch?,’ yielded six executives who got two votes each. Again, there were a whole lot more (11) who got at least one mention. For what it’s worth, two of those who got two votes are former BART List winners (James Liipfert of the Texans and Terrance Gray of the Bills). It’s no surprise that of the 11, nine are from perennial playoff teams, and two (Jeff King of the Bears and Lance Newmark of the Commanders) are with teams who made the postseason at least once in the last two years. You can be the best in the biz, but if your team doesn’t win, don’t expect other teams to come looking to hire you.
  • Schneider and Philadelphia’s Howie Roseman tied for top GM (seven votes each). Once again, no surprises on either one, though I get the sense from the comments that Schneider would be a lot more popular at happy hour than Roseman. If there’s a surprise, among the ones with multiple votes (there were only four), Denver’s George Paton finished fourth. There was a lot of speculation that he might get moved out when Sean Payton got to town, but I am glad he is getting his due among people who know. He’s another one whose team has won a Best Draft Award, and like Schneider, he gets high marks for likability, as well. Obviously, you don’t have to be likable to win, but it’s also not prohibitive if you are.

If you love the “inside” of the game and track what’s going on in NFL front offices, I highly recommend Ben’s recent piece. It really gives you a sense of what’s going on in the buildings. and I’m always up for hearing informed opinions.

Here’s Why You Can’t Always Trust What ‘Scouts Say’

11 Friday Sep 2026

Posted by in Agents, NFL draft, Scouts

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We’re getting geared up for our Agent Basics Zoom series later this month, so it’s got me thinking about what brand new contract advisors need to know. The feedback I keep getting from them is that they’re worried about not having scouting contacts, and I get that. Still, it’s important to keep scouting feedback in perspective.

In fact, when you hear the media or someone else tell you what “scouts say,” there are a few things to remember:

Is it even a scout?: The title of “scout” is thrown around a lot these days. In my estimation, unless you have real skin in the game (in the form of a place on an NFL staff), you’re not a “scout.” Lots of times, when you read a media report that refers to what “scouts are saying,” there’s a good chance that they’re really referring to what they see online, often from some draftnik or other self-appointed expert. Those aren’t scouts.

Time of year matters: If you had asked scouts in September 2021 if Oklahoma QB Spencer Rattler would be the No. 1 pick in the spring of 2022 if he chose to leave early, most would say yes. By the end of that season, Rattler was no longer even the Sooners starter. This is just one example. The fact is, a player’s draft status depends on a lot of things, not the least of which is his performance on the field. The guy that looks good in Week 3 may look very different by bowl time.

Level of scout matters (as well as area): If you’re a newly minted Area Scout, roaming the Northeast for an NFL team, your opinion matters and the team is counting on you. At the same time, you’re still figuring things out in an area that’s far less dense in NFL prospects than the Southeast or Midwest are. The point is, just because a scout says something doesn’t mean he’s right.

Scouts are not perfect: Let me give you an illustration. I ran the 2008 Hula Bowl. Among the running backs I invited were Lance Ball (Maryland), Marcus Thomas (UTEP), Jalen Parmele (Toledo) and Danny Woodhead (Chadron State). I took the first three because they were direct recommendations of my scouting contacts, and indeed, Thomas and Parmele were among our draft picks. However, the only reason I took Woodhead — the only reason — is because New Balance was trying to work its way into college football, and it sponsored Chadron State. The game’s owner invited Woodhead (going over my head to do it) because it would lock in New Balance as a merchandise/apparel sponsor. Everyone got new shoes because we brought in Woodhead, but I seethed. Well, guess which running back had the most successful career? By the way, he’s not the only one I dismissed as a pro prospect that year. For the story on another couple of my running back mistakes — I promise you I ran everyone by scouts first — check out this post from September 2014.

Look, you won’t find anyone who has more respect for NFL scouts than I do. My whole business model is practically based on it. Still, it’s important to keep things in perspective.

2026 NFLPA Exam: What to Do After You Get Your Results

01 Tuesday Sep 2026

Posted by in Agent Exam, Getting started

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I expect the results of the 2026 NFLPA exam to be released this week. It could happen any day now, but I’d guess test-takers will get the news on Friday.

If you took the exam, and you pass, congratulations! You’ve done something special. If you don’t? It’s obviously a bitter disappointment, but it’s also not the end of the world.

Here’s our advice on what to do once you get your results this week.

For those who pass:

  • If you’re already an NIL agent (and a growing number of new NFLPA agents are), my next move would be to do one of two things: either decide which of your clients you’re going to really put effort into promoting at the NFL level, or, if you’re going to try to get several players into the league, begin coming up with a training plan.
  • If you’re not an NIL agent and don’t have a ready-to-go client list, I’d begin mapping out your recruiting strategy: where (what states), what players, etc.
  • If you fit into either category, I’d also give some thought into how you are going to build your network. There are so many new agents who have prior relationships — NFL, college or both — who go from casual friends to business contacts, and that change is not always easy to pull off. It’s one thing for a kid to encourage you to get certified so he can “roll with you.” Once your certification becomes a reality, however, the player’s interest in representation may waiver.
  • A good place to start building your scouting network — which is crucial to success as a new agent — is with your Agent Basics class, which starts later this month. The overwhelming amount of feedback we’ve gotten from previous classes is that interfacing with scouts was what they liked most. We’re ramping that up even more, and we’ll have an NFL Director of Pro Scouting, a Director of College Scouting, a National Scout and an Area Scout. Two of them have even won BART List Awards as voted on by their peers. Our class won’t be free, but it will be affordable. We’ll have details in this week’s Friday Wrap.

For those who don’t pass:

  • Start with this post that I wrote last year.
  • If this was your first try, don’t get too discouraged. It’s an extremely hard test. The overwhelming majority fail it the first time. If you worked with us this spring, we have an almost foolproof record of making sure our test-takers pass the second time. If you didn’t, I hope you’ll give us a chance as you get ready for 2027.
  • If this was your second try, don’t get discouraged. Pour yourself into NIL representation and make money that way. You might find out you’re more cut out for the college game than the NFL game, anyway.

New on a College Personnel Staff? Heed This Advice

28 Friday Aug 2026

Posted by in Getting started, Transfer portal, College personnel

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If you were in Nashville earlier this month, good on ya. At Inside the League, we are pretty devout about the power of networking, and with 1,600 people there, there were plenty of people to meet.

Many of them were what I call “0-3s.” In other words, people who are still in the volunteer stage of their careers and have not even been part of a college personnel department for more than three years. Again, no criticism here. If you’re career-minded, you want to make the right decisions, and going to events like the Personnel and Recruiting Symposium, like our own symposium, is a good one. Still, there are other good decisions to make. One of them is to make sure you are conducting yourself in the right way.

To make sure the next generation of evaluators is on the right track, I reached out to several college GMs about what advice they’d give their volunteers with the new season at hand. One response, in particular, stood out to me, so I want to publish it — anonymously — in its entirety.

“We’re all on the same team. No job is too small. You’re going to be asked to help in a lot of areas outside of scouting. The quickest way to get fired is for me to hear you say ‘that’s not my job’ to a superior of a different department. If you’re working on something for me and somebody else needs your help, come to me and I will handle it.

“Be dependable. Attention to detail is vital. A lot of the work you’re going to be given is boring, tedious, not sexy. Inputting data, updating spreadsheets, typing up notes, etc. and I don’t have time to double check everything you do. But if I can’t trust you to do the little things, then how can I give you more responsibilities? Take pride in your work.

“The No. 1 most important thing I look for when filling those roles is attitude/mindset. 95% of being good in that role is willingness to do whatever is asked of you. I want somebody who is going to do whatever is asked of them, to the best of their ability, with urgency and a smile on their face.

“Be eager to work and help. And that’s with everything, not just the stuff you want to be doing. You should never be sitting around doing nothing. Ask what you can assist with or if you seeing something that doesn’t look right or needs to be done, be proactive. I would rather tell you to slow down than to pick it up. While also understanding your role and not overstepping, i.e. don’t make decisions that aren’t yours to make.

“You should act and carry yourself for the job you want, not the job you have. The way you dress, how you conduct yourself in the building, what time you arrive/leave. You never know when somebody is watching. Don’t give anybody a reason to think you don’t belong here. You’re not going to have a ton of interactions with everybody in the building, so giving somebody the wrong impression is going to be hard to make up for, because you may not get another chance.”

While that response was excellent, there was more. Here are a few highlights from other college GMs at both the P4 and G5 level.

  • “My first thought is to be where your feet are and excel in the tasks you’re given! I think people are so quick to look forward to the places they want to be, working on the tasks they want to work on but you only get those opportunities if you do a great job with the work you’re given right at the start.”
  • “Master the balancing act of curious and confident — (dig) to understand the why, not just what. Don’t be Capt. Obvious, thinking what you’ve discovered is profound. Find comfort in being the “designated disagreer. All are looking for confident truth-tellers that provide “stuff,” not fluff/word salads (or) ’empty calories.'”

Good luck this season! The college personnel community is growing at lightning speed and there are plenty of opportunities out there. Just make sure you’re smart about how you seek it.

Tips for Agents Seeking Sleepers in the 2027 Draft Class

20 Thursday Aug 2026

Posted by in Agents, Getting started, NFL draft, Scouts

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We’re still 10 days away from the deadline for roster cuts, so NFL teams are still swollen with players they won’t carry into the regular season. Still, I think it’s interesting to dive into the players who make up 90-man rosters to see where they came from and what NFL teams look for these days.

Here are a few fun facts about players making up the 32 90-man rosters as of now.

  • Which states have the best high school football? I think it’s pretty generally accepted that the three top states are Texas, Florida and California. What’s interesting to me is, for the 2026 draft class, Texas (75 players on NFL rosters) is head and shoulders above the other two (Florida 50, California 48). Incidentally, the next three are Georgia (46), Illinois (30) and Maryland (25).
  • With respect to all players (veterans and rookies), Texas still reigns supreme with 335 players. After that it’s Florida (276) and California (247), followed by Georgia (214), North Carolina (110) and Illinois (108). Two things are interesting — the dramatic drop-off from Georgia to North Carolina, and the fact that neither Alabama (86) or Mississippi (59) are higher on the list.
  • The growth at cornerback and wide receiver intrigues me. More and more, NFL teams expect corners to be at least six-feet tall. At present, 198 of the 327 cornerbacks on NFL rosters are 6-0 or taller (yes, I’m aware that listed heights aren’t always precise, but it’s all we have). That’s 60.5 percent. Of those that are shorter than six feet, almost half (62 of 129) are 5-11. However, among corners in the 2026 draft, the number of corners at least 6-0 is only 63.2 percent (43 of 68). I’m sure teams would love to get even taller at that position, but there are just so many players that size who can sprint, twist and move with today’s slot receivers and outside burners. That’s why big corners are doubly valuable.
  • It’s interesting that the cornerback height average (60.5 percent are 6-0 or higher) is pretty much right in line with wide receivers in the league. Of the 387 receivers now on rosters, 262 (67.7 percent) are 6-0 or taller. That holds up for the 2026 draft class, as well, as 66 percent (70 of 106) of receivers in camps are 6-0-plus.
  • It’s probably not a surprise that 90.6 percent of the league is made up of players from FBS schools. However, not all sub-FBS schools are the same. When it comes to FCS schools, there’s only one that registers on the NFL radar, and that’s North Dakota State, which has 16 alumni in NFL camps this summer. What’s interesting is that when it comes to schools a rung below FBS, pretty much all the top teams are in the Pacific Northwest. After NDSU, South Dakota St. is second with 9; South Dakota, Montana and Weber St. (not necessarily Pacific Northwest, but close) among teams tied for third with 5; and Eastern Washington and Montana State among eight teams tied for fourth with 4. Granted, many of these players won’t make NFL rosters, and even more, many of them got to the league before the era of the transfer portal. It’s worth noting that those schools still seem to be attracting NFL eyes.

So, if you’re agent — especially a younger one — trying to find a client who can beat the odds:

  • Recruit players who prepped in Texas, California or Florida (no matter where they went to college)
  • Don’t recruit wide receivers and corners unless they are at least 6-0
  • Look to the Pacific Northwest for hidden gems at small schools.

What Does the 2025 Freaks List Say About Draft Trends?

14 Friday Aug 2026

Posted by in NFL draft, Scouts

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I had lunch with a friend who’s a National Scout swinging through Houston this week and the topic of traits came up. Are teams drafting on tools more than film these days, I asked? He agreed that it definitely seems that way, and also contended that “traits-only” players that might have been seventh-round fliers now seem to go in the fourth and fifth round.

There are others who agree (like this person, whose opinion is relevant — check out the 22:50 mark), but proving that is hard. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder when it comes to the NFL Draft.

Still, with the 2026 Freaks List published this week, it gave me an idea. How many of the 101 players considered most gifted athletically last year in college football do in the 2026 draft? Again, this is far from a perfect gauge of draft trends, but it’s still worth looking at. So I dove in, and here’s what I found.

  • First off, 46 of the 101 were not draft-eligible and are still playing, so the pool is only 55 players.
  • Of the 55, 10 (or 18 percent) not only went undrafted, but they even went unsigned. In other words, they didn’t get anywhere near an NFL camp, even on a tryout basis. This group includes some real college achievers like Cincinnati’s Dontay Corleone and Texas Tech’s Davion Carter. So, once again, simply being gifted athletically is no guarantee of anything.
  • Thirty of the 55 got drafted. Seven were first round, 16 were Day 1 or Day 2 (so less than a third).
  • Ten were signed as UDFAs.
  • Another six got tryouts only (none of the six converted to UDFAs).
  • Bottom line, 40 of the 55 got contracts (drafted or UDFA) and 46 made it at least as far as an NFL camp.

If I’m being honest, this doesn’t really support my theory. In fact, it may be more of an endorsement of the “film is still king” belief.

I look forward to repeating this exercise next year. This year’s list has several repeat performers, such as South Carolina’s Nyck Harbor, Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith, Oregon’s A’Mauri Washington (the top three on this year’s list) plus many more. Maybe half are back from last year. We’ll see how the players on this year’s list correlate to next year’s draft in a year.

2026 Personnel Symposium: Getting from an A to an A-plus

07 Friday Aug 2026

Posted by in Agents, All Star Games, College personnel, Getting started, Media, NIL, Transfer portal

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Obviously, it was a great week in Nashville. Anytime you have 1,500 members of a rather distinct (and maybe even secretive) community in one place over the space of three days, sharing ideas and best practices, that’s a good thing. From GMs at P4 and G5 schools to all-star directors to NFL and NIL agents to NFL scouts to vendors of every stripe, there were a LOT of hands to shake and relationships to make or renew. There was free coffee and beverages by day and agency socials at night. I can’t imagine anyone that attended didn’t see it as a major benefit.

Check out this brief anecdote from someone chasing his dream: “The best thing of the week was the advice I received from (one NFL team official). After I finished my brief intro, I told her I would try to get my foot in the door for roughly three years and she looked at me and said, ‘don’t quit five minutes before the miracle.’ Gave me the chills.”

You don’t normally get that from an email, a text, or even a Zoom session.

Of course, there’s always a way to tailor things, polish them a little, maybe even improve them. That’s the nature of any business. For our part, we found it a little hard to hear in the back of the room sometimes. Maybe that’s on us — the people sitting in front likely had no problems — but if there was anything we’d improve, that would be it.

With that in mind, we asked several attendees if there’s anything they’d improve. Here’s what they told us.

  • “I appreciate the panels and realize they are good learning opportunities for some of the younger folks but they feel a bit promotional rather than informative. Obviously nobody is revealing state secrets anymore so I don’t know how much of that can change. . . at the GM meeting . . . I don’t think they structured it right. Teamworks made a big presentation which was boring. Then they had this anonymous compensation survey that no big spender did. I think you have to make it more discussion-based.”
  • “The symposium has outgrown the space. The talks on Tuesday were wall-to-wall people, so you had to grab a seat and hold onto it or risk standing in the back and not being able to hear.”
  • “(There are) some really great speakers. I think having more space could be something good to add!”
  • “I think there could have been more granular/in-depth sessions around roster construction and cap management. I understand it was not intended to be tailored towards that, but I think given how mission-critical revenue share and player finance is, perhaps there could have been some more focus on that.”
  • “What I think could be better is to have a deadline for room block-offs at the hotel.”
  • “Think some of the meetings were repetitive a little bit.”
  • “First thought of improvement that comes to mind is a larger conference area.”
  • “Too many times it felt like breakout rooms were so small and the hallway had more foot traffic than it could handle.”

Personnel Symposium 2026: My Most Anticipated Sessions

31 Friday Jul 2026

Posted by in College personnel, Getting started, ITL, NIL, Transfer portal

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If you’re like me, you know the backbone of working in the business of football is your network. You get your job, and you get better at your job, through the people you know. It’s why I started the ITL Symposium and why I rarely miss chances to be among the people in the industry. This is why I’m not missing next week’s Personnel and Recruiting Symposium in Nashville, and I highly recommend you try to be there, too.

The list of sessions has been posted, and if you’ve been previously, you know that you can attend whatever session you want during the three days (half-day Monday, full day Tuesday, half-day Wednesday) of the event. Here are the six places you’ll be sure to find me next week.

  • How Will AI Change Scouting and Roster Building, presented by Teamworks (Monday, 4:45 p.m.): “AI” is the word on everyone’s lips these days; you may have heard that one college football blue blood team has even hired a Director of AI. As a guy who’s been accused of being old-fashioned, I look forward to hearing what direction AI is taking the game. I look forward to having my mind blown.
  • Social presented by Hudl (Monday, 6:30 p.m.): Look, if you can only make one session, it needs to be this one. Last year, I’d estimate there were 400 people in one giant room talking, renewing acquaintances and making new contacts. If you work in college or pro football, and you are serious about your career, you gotta be in this room Monday night.
  • Building a Front Office – Staff Structures (Tuesday, 11 a.m.): In my opinion, this is the most critical topic in the business that not enough people are talking about. If you listen to the podcast I co-host regularly, you know that everyone in the game is on an endless quest to find out the most efficient way of doing their respective jobs. I’m eager to hear what is discussed Tuesday morning.
  • Realities of NFL Scouting vs College Personnel (Tuesday, 4 p.m.): Though a lot of people don’t realize it, there’s a difference between player evaluation at the NFL level as opposed to college. Though this title is a little vague, I hope this addresses the vagaries of both — as well as how the jobs, pressures, demands differ.
  • Pro Liason Programming + Scout Relationships (Tuesday, 5 p.m.): There is an art to developing relationships, and the ups and downs of how NFL scouts and their college counterparts deal with each other is something we discuss and think about quite a bit. I’m eager to hear more from people in the industry about this topic.
  • Advancement Strategies for Young Professionals (Wednesday, 9:30 a.m.): Last year, the symposium kind of became a ghost town on Wednesday morning; as I recall, even some of the vendors left early. Maybe that’s why organizers have chosen to put three career development sessions on Wednesday morning. I chose to spotlight this one, but really, any of the three (the other two are “Career Development – Tips for Young Evaluators” and another one simply called “Career Development”) seem helpful. As someone who’s focused on helping others’ career development 24-7, I’m always looking for tips on how I can best help my people.

By the way, if you’re curious about who will be in Nashville next week, we’re compiling a list of college GMs who are confirmed for the Music City. It will be in the Friday Wrap later today. Register for it here. See you in Nashville.