At Inside the League, we’re dedicated to helping budding NFL professionals — aspiring scouts, agents, cap specialists, trainers and others — get better and find opportunities. That’s why when the co-founders of the College Gridiron Showcase, Craig Redd and Jose Jefferson, asked me to help put together a scouting event for last year’s game, I was more than happy to oblige.

We came up with the 2018 CGS Scouting Workshop Presented by Inside the League, which we talked about last week in this space, and it went exceptionally well. We had a lineup of speakers that were, at the time, out of the league, but I knew that wouldn’t last; three of the four are already back in football in some capacity, and the fourth, Rodd Newhouse, has been a successful wealth manager in the Dallas area for about a decade now (in other words, he and isn’t trying to get back in). Here’s a clip from last year’s workshop; if you haven’t watched it yet, stop right now and do so.

Right now, we don’t have the complete lineup for this week’s seminar yet, but we don’t have one key member. Cowboys College Scouting Coordinator Chris Hall will join us Saturday, Jan. 5, at the Fort Worth Convention Center. It’s too early to know when Chris will speak, but we’ll go from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. and the day will be jam-packed with good stuff, especially if you aspire to be an NFL evaluator someday.

Chris won’t be spilling any secrets on the players the team is placing atop its draft board, though he could; in a business that has become about as volatile as they come, Chris has had a phenomenal run in Dallas and has become an integral part of the team’s braintrust. For almost three decades, he’s been with the team, mostly in his current role. And while he’s no stranger to Cowboys football, he’s also no stranger to the Metroplex as he’s an SMU grad.

My hope is that Chris will talk about his job with the club; one thing I’ve learned by working in football for almost two decades is that no two teams do the draft the same way. Often, the ‘college scouting coordinator’ post is given to younger scouts on staff, but the Cowboys obviously hold the title in much higher regard. I’m also eager to hear more about Chris’ journey from SMU to America’s team, and how that transpired.

I also look forward to getting Chris’ opinion on where scouting is going; the value of analytics and how (or if) the Cowboys use metrics; how the team identifies and hires new scouts; how the team conducts its draft-day war room; what other teams Chris admires for their drafting acumen; and/or any other topic Chris would like to address.

Make sure to stay tuned to the Scouting Workshop web page, where we’ll have registration information soon. Also, make sure to keep up to date on the progress of speaker invitations, subject matter and registration by signing up for our weekly Friday Wrap, which comes out this evening. You can register for it here.