When someone tells me they want to pursue NFL agent certification, I usually try to talk them out of it. If they persist, I leave them with this: people normally only hang up their certification voluntarily for four reasons. They are:

  • Divorce
  • Bankruptcy
  • Litigation
  • All three.

They usually laugh (nervously) and go on about their plans. 

I’ll sometimes also remind them of one veteran agent’s “gallows humorish” quote shared with me a few years ago. Once again, they treat me like I’m joking. My point is, the feel of being an NFL agent is something that’s more than intoxicating. It’s addictive. This week, we saw another reminder of this with the return of Ron Del Duca and Jeff Guerriero.

Both Del Duca and Guerriero enjoyed success in their first respective runs at player representation. Del Duca was an agent for almost two decades before turning over his agent creds sometime in the last 5-10 years. Guerriero actually represented the No. 6 pick in the draft, LSU DE Barkevious Mingo, in 2013, before getting out in a similar time frame. As recently as 11 years ago, both Del Duca and Guerriero had clients on NFL rosters. However, with Del Duca originally certified in 1992 and Guerriero in 1997, both came of age as agents in a time prior to the signing of the 2011 CBA, when NFL owners basically took away negotiating skills as an agent’s most important trait. When draft picks’ contracts all became cookie cutter in 2011, the lavishing of benefits (in the form of splashy combine training, per diems, signing bonuses, and fee cuts) really went into overdrive. It makes sense. Everyone had to find a way to distinguish themselves from the others, and money’s always a popular way. That’s not to say that “skins on the wall” don’t matter anymore, but experience has begun to hold less and less sway. The “what do I get?” conversation is the one that every agent dreads, and it’s not going away. In fact, it’s only moving up in the time frame for most players in the NIL era. 

Will Del Duca and Guerriero reach their previous heights? Who knows? But this is the landscape they face.

  • The fight now — for every agency, big and small — is for Day 3 types. Generally speaking, all the Day 1 and Day 2 types are already signed to NIL agreements, which gives the NIL agent a generous head start on repping the player on his NFL contracts. That means agents now have to closely monitor and sign the sleepers in each draft class. This is why former Titans scouting executive Blake Beddingfield is now providing 5-7 under-the-radar-and-rising prospects weekly for ITL subscribers.
  • No one, and I mean NO ONE, doesn’t expect $10,000-$15,000 worth of combine training. There are no shortcuts there. At least not for players with any kind of real hope. 
  • There’s total uncertainty about how the federal government and/or the NCAA will rule in the next 10 years with regard to college athlete payments. If college players are made professionals (which everyone expects), it may be a net positive for player representation. However, it threatens to add layers of regulation, and usually that means costs increase even more. 

I wish the best of luck to Del Duca, Guerriero, and everyone else who recently got the good news that they are certified as contract advisors by the NFLPA. But there’s no denying they have a hard road ahead.