Author Archives: itlneil

New Agent Zoom X: A Few Tips on Pro Days

23 Friday Feb 2024

Posted by in Agents, Getting started, NFL draft

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Thursday night, I hosted our 10th Zoom session for new agents. I try to be topical with each one, and in November and December, we dealt with a number of subjects, from all-star games to choosing a trainer to setting a budget to signing your first client. With March looming, our topic Thursday was pro days. 

Actually, we touched on NFL local pro days; the new Big 12 Pro Day; what to do if you’re attending the NFL Combine; and ITL’s two big events slated for next week in Indianapolis. 

Though I can’t run through everything we covered in our hour-long session, here’s what we covered related to pro days.

  • Just because a school CAN host a player for its workout doesn’t mean it MUST: This is the part that most often confounds young agents. They sign a player, often from a small school, presuming that the school will hold a pro day. That’s not always the case, however. This forces the agent to begin searching for a bigger school in the state that will allow the player to work out. However, though NFL scouts are permitted to evaluate a player in such a situation, the school is not required to let the young man work out.
  • It’s harder than ever to get someone into a pro day: About 15 years ago, long before pro days were the kind of thing that the average draft fan even knew existed, it was commonplace for bigger schools to allow the better small-school prospects to work out with their players. However, as more and more players seek a place in the NFL, they’ve become reluctant. About 10 years ago, most schools started asking for a scout to vouch for the player. Five years ago, it became two scouts. These days, it’s often three scout, if the school will even entertain the thought of an outsider gaining entry.
  • One workaround: I’ve been told that if a player’s head coach calls the head coach of the team holding the workout, it really enhances the player’s chance of getting an invite. It’s probably harder for a head coach to turn down another head coach. Of course, not every head coach is going to do that, but it’s worth a shot.
  • Don’t send a player to a pay workout to enhance his NFL chances: These days, agents get an email nearly every day pitching a pay workout somewhere. I never recommend players go to such workouts. If your client doesn’t have a pro day, I get it — your options are limited, and if the kid doesn’t have a pro day, he really doesn’t exist. What’s more, very often, the better organizations holding these workouts have plenty of “alumni” who have gone on to the NFL. The thing is, most of the time, they got there on the strength of a pro day performance before NFL scouts. 

This session was the rare one that we recorded, and all members of the 2023 agent class got a copy of the video. If you’re new to player representation and wondering how to help promote your client in the last weeks before the draft, consider joining us. Do that here. Limited on funds? At least sign up for our newsletter, which comes out every Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET. You can register for it here.

Meet the Sponsors of Our 2024 Combine Events

16 Friday Feb 2024

Posted by in Agents, NIL, Scouts

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We’re less than two weeks away from the two biggest days of the year for Inside the League. They are Wednesday and Thursday, Feb. 28-29, when we’ll hold our annual seminar and symposium, respectively, in Indianapolis. For all the details, click here. 

However, those dates would not even be possible if not for our partners in these events. We’re excited to work with three companies — USI Insurance Services, The Tatnuck Group, and Vestible — as we celebrate and educate the industry in less than two weeks. 

All three companies are doing exciting things in the football community that have distinct appeal to different facets of the business. I wanted to introduce them today.

USI Insurance Services

USI, which serves as our title sponsor Wednesday, is a national insurance brokerage and consulting firm. The company has approximately 200 local offices connected across the U.S., as well as a leading market position in all core businesses. The USI White Plains office has been serving the local community since 1928.

The company features more than 500 professionals with an average tenure of 25 years and specialists across a broad range of industries, as well as dedicated personal risk management and solutions from the collaborative effort of 200-plus personal risk specialists nationwide. Regional offices are located in Mount Laurel, NJ; New York, NY; Toms River, NJ; Uniondale, NY; Florham Park, NJ; and White Plains, NY. The White Plains office, alone, includes more than 50 insurance professionals specializing in healthcare, personal risk management, construction, real estate, surety and distribution and manufacturing.
 
The USI One Network offers dedicated technical experts connected nationally and embedded in local offices, with over 6,000 professionals nationwide to build integrated client-centered account teams.
 

USI recommends a holistic approach to personal risk management, including an annual review for changes and adjustment to coverages. USI’s representatives provide a summary of coverage while continuously monitoring risk exposure changes in a client’s profile and lifestyle. They also conduct annual pre-renewal reviews to identify areas for coverage changes and recommend specific terms or condition changes to client policies based on review results. 

Check out USI in more detail here.

The Tatnuck Group

Through pre-draft interviewing and consulting, The Tatnuck Group, the presenting sponsor for Wednesday’s ITL Seminar, helps dozens of NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, NASCAR and La Liga Soccer teams select better performers and better people. Since 2019, NFL clubs have partnered with Tatnuck to interview prospects at the Senior Bowl, Combine, and post-combine via zoom. Tatnuck focuses on assessing character, cultural fit, leadership capacity, and the ability to handle the stressors and rigors of being a pro. 

In the 2023 draft, The Tatnuck Group interviewed over 200 prospects for NFL clients, including every player selected in the first round and 60 of the first 63 picks. The team at Tatnuck consists of AJ Scola, the former personnel director of the Atlanta Braves, and Ryan Maid, the former operational psychologist for Naval Special Warfare. For more information, visit The Tatnuck Group’s website.

Versible

Vestible, the title sponsor for Thursday’s ITL Symposium, is an investment platform allowing professional and college athletes to sell equity in their careers directly to their fans in a federally regulated marketplace. In exchange for an upfront sum from their investors, athletes on the platform pay investors a 1% distribution of their on-field income during their professional career.  
 
As the athletes increase their income on the field, the amount distributed to shareholders increases alongside them. This has created a completely new market for select athletes to unlock revenue streams that have never been available to them before. 
 
Founded by former professional and D1 college athletes Parker Graham and Yves Batoba, Vestible empowers athletes to take control of their brands and allows fans to unlock the next level of fandom. For more information, visit vestible.co. 
 
 

Responding to a Dumb Tweet About Draft Decisions

09 Friday Feb 2024

Posted by in NFL draft, Scouts

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This week, I tweeted positively about a Patriots executive, Eliot Wolf, who seems on track to become the GM in New England after years of paying dues in Green Bay and Cleveland. Though there were literally dozens of positive responses from scouts, agents and others, there was also one knucklehead who blamed him for QB Mac Jones’ struggles over the last two seasons.

I know you can’t take people seriously based on one off-the-cuff remark on social media, but this kind of comment really bugs me. I guess it springs from a fundamental misunderstanding of how the draft works by people whose main claim to fame is making the playoffs in their fantasy league.

Anyway, here’s why that’s a dumb tweet.

  • Jones had a great rookie season. It’s not like Jones has never performed. In his first year, he threw for almost 4,000 yards with a 22-13 TD-to-INT ratio and a. 92.5 quarterback rating. He did that without a 1,000-yard receiver (Jakobi Meyers came closest with 866 yards). That’s pretty good for a first-year QB following a legend.
  • How a player is developed after the draft is critical to his success. Josh McDaniels has had his ups and downs professionally, but there’s no arguing that his 2021 season as offensive coordinator in New England wasn’t a good one. Prior to McDaniels’ departure to be head coach of the Raiders, Jones was seen as a rising talent and worthy heir to the Brady throne. Since then, Jones’ offensive coordinators have been a weird combination of two defensive coordinators (Bill Belichick and Matt Patricia) in 2022 and Bill O’Brien this past season. I’d argue that Jones’ confidence was pretty much crushed entering the ’23 season, and from what I’ve read of O’Brien, “nurturing” is not a quality that’s in his makeup. The point is, the player Jones was on draft day is very different from who he is today, and that has everything to do with how the team around him has encouraged his progress and helped him evolve. That’s not just true of Jones, but of every player ever drafted. 
  • There are no picks “made” by one scout or executive. This is the part that really drives me crazy. Yes, there has to be accountability on who picks whom, but how is Wolf responsible for the team’s picks that haven’t worked out? Wolf was no more than a consultant — a murky title, for sure — in the 2021 draft, but even if he was Jones’ champion, it doesn’t happen until all of the team’s braintrust has seen him play multiple games; has interviewed him multiple times; and has put him through various tests and evaluated his pro day. This doesn’t happen, and can’t happen, with just one guy making the pick. The Patriots’ decision to draft Jones (and every decision by every team) was collaborative. That’s an essential part of every draft for every team. 

I don’t know Eliot exceptionally well, but here’s what I can tell you: he is universally respected because he’s thorough and almost without an ego, but more importantly, he’s won everywhere he’s been. Now that he’s brought in one of the best pure talent evaluators in the league in Alonzo Highsmith, I’d be buying stock in New England’s future. 

For more on the draft, free agency, scouting, player representation and everything else that makes this a fun time of year, register for today’s Friday Wrap here.

Three Things I Noticed or Learned in Mobile

02 Friday Feb 2024

Posted by in Agents, NIL, Scouts

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It wasn’t that long ago that if you were a GM and you skipped the Senior Bowl, you had some serious FOMO and you might be accused of malpractice. That is no longer the case.

I personally saw only one in Mobile (SF’s John Lynch). After a quick survey of 7-8 people across the business that were there, the others on hand were (in no order) NYG’s Joe Schoen, Pittsburgh’s Omar Khan, Dallas’ Jerry Jones, Baltimore’s Eric DeCosta, Carolina’s Dan Morgan, New Orleans’ Mickey Loomis, Buffalo’s Brandon Beane, Jacksonville’s Trent Baalke, Indianapolis’ Chris Ballard, Houston’s Nick Caserio, Miami’s Chris Grier, Cleveland’s Andrew Berry, NYJ’s Joe Douglas, Arizona’s Monti Ossenfort, Chicago’s Ryan Poles, Green Bay’s Brian Gutekunst and Washington’s Adam Peters. These are not all confirmed — some were seen by only one person.

There could have been more that briefly popped in, and it’s harder to find them now that NFL personnel are segregated from everyone else at the stadium. Also, early-week weigh-ins used to give everyone a chance to see all the big names in one room, and weigh-ins aren’t held anymore. Still, GMs were a lot less visible, even if Senior Bowl Executive Director Jim Nagy said most were there, and I’m not calling Jim a liar.

There are reasons not to come, for sure, and as more people have found out about the Senior Bowl, I’m sure a lot of GMs just want to avoid the hassle and the job solicitations, especially when so much can be done from home. Still, it’s a big change to not see them anywhere and everywhere at the Senior Bowl, and kinda sad.

Here are a couple more things I learned about the ‘game behind the game’ in Mobile this week.

  • Jim invited 138 players this year, which is eight more than last year. It’s a concession to the injuries that always happen, no doubt, but also probably has to do with the number of players that beg out of the game after practicing all week. In the old days, it was commonplace to see scouts/executives roll in for padded practices, then head home Thursday night, skipping the game. I heard of two teams who were planning to keep their scouts in town through the game this year, however, and there may have been others. This might also be a concession to the number of QBs that are getting Day 1/Day 2 consideration (teams always want to get an in-person look to see how passers relate to their teammates during game conditions), or could be because the Shrine Bowl encroaches into Senior Bowl week so much these days. However, I hope it curbs the number of players who “opt out” of the actual game. By the way, I asked two former scouts, Rodrik David and James Kirkland, how opt-outs affected their evaluations of players, and their answers are in this week’s Scouting the League podcast.
  • You also used to see dozens of wealth managers around at the Senior Bowl, and to some degree, you still do, especially with Morgan Stanley a game sponsor and so many others trying to get an audience with a player. However, fewer players are using the week to vet financial advisors, and one such wealth manager said he thinks it’s because now that players are seeing six-figure incomes well before leaving college, they’re hiring people much earlier. They no longer wait until they’re on the verge of becoming pros. It makes a lot of sense, but it’s also a big change in the way players do business.

We’ll have more from the Senior Bowl, including Rodrik’s top performers this week, in the Friday Wrap. Register for it here.

What Mantooth77 Can Teach New Agents

26 Friday Jan 2024

Posted by in Agents, Getting started, NFL draft

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This time of year, I start hearing from the people who are taking the NFLPA exam that summer. They want to know what we offer in the way of exam prep, but we usually discuss the road ahead for new agents, as well. 

One of these pending agents mentioned that he’d heard about ITL on Reddit, which is a platform that I rarely use, so I checked it out. What I found was some sage advice from a person known only as Mantooth 77. His entire post is here. What I’ve done is to copy some of his responses to a question about his brief career as an NFL player representatives, and offer my comments. 

“I was an agent a few years ago. I went all out for a year, signed about 6 prospects and 1 FA veteran who was trying to get back in the league. Three of those prospects got mini-camp invites and 1 was signed to a practice squad. After a year, I found that my main business was suffering as a result of all the time and money I had to spend on being an agent, so I didn’t renew. I think those in the industry would tell you, for a first year guy, I did well.”

This is exactly what success looks like for a first-year, independent agent. If you’re aiming a whole lot higher than this, you may be in for a severely rude awakening unless you have some excellent relationships with players prior to taking the exam.

“When I had asked around ‘should I do it’ before I pulled the trigger, I didn’t get a lot of resistance. But then when I got out there, different story.”

This is so commonplace. Friends want to be encouraging, which is understandable, but it’s almost impossible to know what’s ahead unless you’ve done a really good internship under an agent. 

“Many agents sign guys the first year that don’t even have a chance. Trust me, I did. I’d see a guy made all conference or 2nd team in a smaller conference and think, this guy has a chance. But for whatever reason, the scouts don’t like him. Maybe he’s too small or too slow. Regardless, they all think that if you send them to the Disney World of training, they are going to light up Pro Day and make Scouts fall in love with them on the spot. So, if you sign a guy anywhere near worthy, you’re going to have to spend money to help him train for pro day.”

So many agents enter the business when they are not ready financially, then think they’ve thought of things others haven’t. They find out their ideas aren’t so original after all. You have to spend some money. There’s no getting around it. 

Agents: The league is run by the bigger agents. The newer guys, if they play their cards right and get lucky, they get a guy in the league. Let’s say the guy signs an UDFA contract after the draft. This is great for guys like you. Only problem is, guys like Drew you know who pray on guys like this. You bust your ass and take all the risk of getting the guy in the league. You’re praying that he gets 4 accrued seasons to be eligible for a veteran FA deal. That entire 4 seasons you better believe the bigger agents are pouncing on your guy Bob Sugar style. It is very very common that you lose that battle and you’re fired. The bigger agencies simply have more to offer in every way. In that case, you get paid out on the rookie deal, but the veteran deal is goners. You’re done.

This may be the most important paragraph Mantooth77 wrote. It’s pretty self-explanatory.

Players will sweet talk you but are 100% out there for themselves. And they will turn on you in a split second for someone better. And if something goes wrong (i.e. they don’t get a camp invite, etc…), it’s all your fault. That being said, I don’t really blame them. They’ve played their whole lives to get into the league, so everything is at stake. Beware of these guys, most of them are hustlers and you are just a means to an end. Very shallow relationship.

This is sad but very true. 

“Oh, and don’t allow yourself to get biased for any reason. Look first and foremost at HEIGHT/WEIGHT/SPEED. Say it to yourself over and over again. HEIGHT/WEIGHT/SPEED. If a guys HWS isn’t NFL quality, you’re wasting your time. They all think they’re amazing. All of them. “Just give me a chance.” They’ll sweet talk you into thinking they’ll blow out pro day with proper training. They rarely do.”

Training is important, but a player is who he is. No amount of training is going to cut a full second off their 40 time or add a foot to their vertical jump. 

I encourage you to read the whole post. I couldn’t have written it better myself.

For more on player representation and the ups and downs of being an agent, read our newsletter, the Friday Wrap. You can register for it here.

What Team Will Surprise by Drafting a QB?

19 Friday Jan 2024

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Everyone always thinks they know which teams have to get a passer in the draft. That’s especially true since, these days, the shelf life on a struggling passer is shorter than ever. But every year, a team falls in love with a player and upsets the balance of the draft with its pick.

Today in the Friday Wrap (register for it here), we talk to people around the game and get their guess on how many QBs will be Day 1 picks this year. It’s probably no surprise that there isn’t a consensus; some say four, others five, and a few six. Make sure to check out the Wrap later today for all the takes.

Still, there’s one other question — which team will surprise by taking a passer? For example, the Titans took Kentucky’s Will Levis early in the second round despite being the first team to take a QB in the 2022 draft (Liberty’s Malik Willis in the third round). The Packers shook up the football community by taking Utah State’s Jordan Love in the first round in 2020; it looks like a genius move now, but it ruffled plenty of feathers with Aaron Rodgers still at the top of his game. The Vikings threw off the draft community in 2011 when they took Florida State’s Christian Ponder with the 12th pick. Ponder had early success, but only played three NFL seasons. 

Who could be the Titans, Packers or Vikings of the 2024 draft? Here are a few possibilities.

Saints: Yes, New Orleans signed Derek Carr to a big contract before the 2023 season. Yes, Carr played well down the stretch. Still, Carr’s contract only, effectively, has one year left, and at some point, the Saints need to turn the page. With a new offensive coordinator coming in, this might make sense.

Dolphins: The Fins hit on all cylinders offensively, but Tua Tagovailoa hasn’t been the most durable of passers and head coach Mike McDaniel is a pass-first kind of guy. Tagovailoa’s contract ends after the 2024 season. The team may feel the need to be proactive.

Cowboys: Owner/GM Jerry Jones didn’t fire Mike McCarthy, but there’s another way to change the team’s performance long-term. Like Tagovailoa, Dak Prescott also has a contract that’s short-term. The Cowboys might want to start fresh. 

Steelers: Pittsburgh just took Kenny Pickett two seasons ago, but the team is already saying he’ll face competition for the starting job next year. Might that competition come from a hotshot rookie? 

Lions: Jared Goff was never seen as the long-term answer at QB for the Lions, but that’s been forgotten due to his renaissance since arriving in Detroit. Maybe now, with a pretty strong team across the board, drafting the next QB could be a luxury the Lions can afford. Granted, the team might want to find out what it has in Hendon Hooker first, but still. 

Giants: This would be truly crazy with Daniel Jones entering the second year of his big new deal, but there’s pressure to win in NY, and if not win, there’s pressure to create hope. There’s nothing more that a new QB brings than hope. 

2024 Hula Bowl: A Few Notes

11 Thursday Jan 2024

Posted by in Agents, NFL draft, Scouts, Uncategorized

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It’s been a great few days in Orlando for the 2024 Hula Bowl. Here are a few notes from the preparations for this year’s contest.

Foolproof scout lure: All-star games love to maximize the attendance of scouts because it gives them credibility, and the Hula Bowl has come up with a foolproof way to raise their numbers. Since I ran the game in 2008, the Hula Bowl has always run practices concurrently between the two teams rather than at separate times. This forces teams to send 6-8 representatives instead of 2-3 (or even one or two) just to make sure everything is covered. 

Today’s NIL craziness items: One of the best parts of going to all-star games is hearing the stories from the recruiting wars as well as the crazy NIL pitches. For example, this week, I was told of a player at a lower-tier SEC school who lost his starting spot midseason. He decided to enter the portal, but before he could, he found out the school’s collective would offer him $50,000 to stick around. They were offering him more than the median annual income for the average American just to make sure they had a quality second-stringer at his position.

On the other hand, I heard about an FCS wide receiver who was offered $250,000 to go to a Big Ten school, but who chose to pursue the NFL instead. I respect his passion, but I’m not sure I would have made the same choice.

One takeaway from hearing the NIL stories this week is that a loose, position-by-position “wage scale” is developing among schools and agents, especially the schools from the P5 conferences that have big budgets. I also heard that Memphis has been one of the most aggressive teams when it comes to adding players from the portal; apparently, the athletic director’s efforts to raise funds have been successful. 

Humbling: Another great facet of the all-star season is that I begin notifying the scouts who were voted as winners of the various awards we’ll present at our annual seminar in Indianapolis in about a month-and-a-half. The scout who will receive one of our bigger awards next month was obviously touched when he got the news. It was really cool to see.

What if?: The 2024 East-West Shrine Bowl is scheduled to begin workouts Saturday, Jan. 27, at the Star in Frisco, Texas. If the Cowboys win a home playoff game against Green Bay in the Super Wildcard round of the playoffs, then win the following weekend and advance to the NFC Championship, they’ll need their field and locker rooms. The scuttlebutt around the team hotel this week was that the nearby University of North Texas is the “rainy weather” site for the Shrine Bowl.

Clearing skies: When you have all-star games in Florida, the threat of rain is always there. A lengthy thunderstorm Tuesday night meant practices moved indoors today, which created serious consternation among agents who wanted to watch their clients (indoor practices usually mean scouts only). But there’s good news: practices will be outdoors again Thursday. Hopefully, Tuesday night’s rain won’t make for muddy conditions tomorrow.

Impressing: I’m always asked which players are rising and falling, and I rarely get enough feedback to have an intelligent answer. However, one player who seems to have won a few fans is Western Carolina WO David White. 

If you haven’t already, make sure you’re signed up for our newsletter to get more scoop on this busy (and exciting) time of year. 

 

 

Here’s How to be an NFL Agent

05 Friday Jan 2024

Posted by in Uncategorized

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This time of year, with the NFL Draft in the news and the NFL Combine just around the corner, there’s a lot of interest in being an agent. I get a lot of questions from people interested in pursuing player representation, and I hate to dismiss them or diminish them by telling them I don’t have time for them. Still, this time of year, every second counts, so I thought I’d write a post aimed at people who are considering this profession. That way, I have a link I can share that encompasses my thoughts.

Here’s a rundown of what you need, literally and figuratively, if being an NFL agent is your goal.

Have $10,000 liquid. Take it from me. You will need this for training and travel expenses. This is actually a very conservative estimate, though, for the purposes of this post, I’m not going into the nuts and bolts of what you need. Just know that $10,000 is the bare minimum you need AFTER you’re certified if you want to try this.

Get a secondary degree. Some people have negotiated all their lives, and they try to prove they are fit for certification with solely an undergrad degree. Very rarely are these negotiation waivers granted. Even if it’s an online Master’s, go the extra mile and get that done before you really dive in.

Don’t expect big results in Year 1. This is probably true of the first year of any venture, but it’s definitely true in player representation. You must sign at least one player, and you need to really wade in and do whatever you can to get him (or them, if you sign several clients) to the league. There is no substituted for making Year 1 really count. You want to get those rookie mistakes out of the way early.

Take the exam seriously. It’s really challenging, yet every year, half of all test-takers fail the exam. Often it’s because they thought it would be an easy pass. It’s not.

Accept that you don’t know everything (and accept that that’s OK). I can’t tell you how often people enter this business with an attitude and an ego the size of the Superdome.  Sometimes they succeed, but more often than not they become the victims of their own arrogance. You can’t do this job alone. 

Read every post in this blog. I’ve been writing this series since 2014, and there’s a lot of good stuff in it. If you sift through the hundreds of posts, you’re going to learn a lot about being an agent. You especially need to read this post, but there are many others, as well. 

One other thing — consider joining us at Inside the League. Helping people succeed in this business is what we do. If you’re not quite ready to join ITL, no problem, but at least sign up for our free weekly newsletter that comes out on Fridays. You can do that here.

Need An NFL Agent? Here Are A Few Tips

28 Thursday Dec 2023

Posted by in Getting started, NFL draft

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If you’re a member of the 2024 NFL Draft class and you think you deserve a shot, but can’t seem to earn attention from agents, there are “dos” and don’ts” that will make it a lot easier to get signed. Here are some of them.

  • Google “Find an Agent NFLPA:” This will take you to this page, which lists all certified NFLPA contract advisors. 
  • Think local: You may want an agent with a national name, but the truth is, if you can find one who is located close to you, it’s going to be to your benefit. 
  • Take what you can get: If you find an agent who shows interest, don’t hold out for someone with a bigger client list or more experience. Remember, you’re doing the recruiting, not the other way around, so if someone is willing to work with you, don’t take that for granted.
  • Think of paid training as a bonus, not an entitlement: The best way to make sure no agent will touch you is to lead with your training expectations. The words any potential agent dreads most is, “what do I get?” If you’re the one seeking an agent, you don’t really get to ask that question. 
  • Be willing to share costs: You may have to pick up your own flight, cover part of your training, or help with the registration cost of an all-star game. That’s only fair. 
  • Be honest with yourself: If you weren’t a star, or didn’t play at a big school, or suffered a major injury (or all of the above), realize that an agent is not going to be able to get you into the first round. 
  • A deal is a deal: If your new agent is wiling to cover all or some of your costs, don’t come back later and try to “re-cut” your arrangement. Stand by your agreement.
  • Be careful comparing your deal with others: There are lots of reasons your former teammate, or someone you’re training with, or whoever, might be getting more covered by their agent. Remember, you didn’t even have an agent before all this started! Embrace what you got. Ultimately, scouts don’t care about fancy training or amenities. They only want to know how well you perform at your all-star game or pro day. 

I really hope you can find someone to walk with you through this process. There’s a perception out there that agents are unnecessary, or greedy, or incompetent. None of that is true, or, at least, it’s rare. After 20-plus years working with people in the industry, I wholeheartedly believe having representation is a must for aspiring NFL players. Best of luck.

 

 

Notes on NFL Scouting from This Week’s Zoom

22 Friday Dec 2023

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

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Every year, as a special feature for the aspiring NFL scouts who are part of the ITL family, we invite three NFL evaluators to join us on Zoom. It’s always humbling when these men — this year, we had an area scout, a national scout and a college director — are willing to give of their time during the week of Christmas. One of our guests even joined us from his office at the team facility, meaning he didn’t even leave for home until after 10 p.m. ET.

At any rate, it’s as much a blessing for me as it is the ITL subscribers listening in. It’s fascinating to not only hear their origin stories and their advice, but also the tips you pick up along the way. Here are a few of the nuggets from this year’s guest speakers (we don’t provide their names because some of them do it without asking permission of their superiors).

  • Our area scout described the art of gathering character information, especially when it comes to bigger schools that demand multiple visits. Let’s say we’re talking about a football factory like an Alabama, Michigan or Oklahoma. He likes to visit first in the summer, when optimism is high and everyone is excited. During this visit, he’s going to be handed 20-25 names (maybe more) from the pro liaison. He’s going to start digging on all of them, trying to get a good initial feel for them so he’s not starting fresh when he arrives the second time. He’s also gong to try to see their body types when they are at their strongest and healthiest. For his next visit, he’s going to try to show up around midseason. At this point, there’s plenty of film and the team has entered conference play, so the most talented players should have plenty of tape. He’s going to focus more on grading performance on the field. For his third visit, he’ll be arriving in late October or November. At this point, the die is cast for the season, and the draft-eligible players are on their way out, so coaches aren’t as likely to protect them. Everyone is wiped out; coaches are going to be at their most honest. This is where he gets his answers, especially on the players who he knows are character risks. 
  • I always like to ask scouts if they every considered coaching. Most say they have, or at least have since they saw how much coaches make compared to scouts. Our national scout guest showed admirable honesty in admitting that he thinks being a coach requires being “up” to help the players stay focused and aggressive, and he didn’t think he could do that consistently. Rather than betray the players, he opted for a career in scouting.
  • When he decided he wanted to pursue football professionally, our college director quit a promising job in the financial sector cold, with no backup plan. Instead, he moved in with his parents. His daily regimen became serving as a permanent substitute at his old high school; serving as a grad assistant at the local college; going home for an extended nap; working at a Fed Ex warehouse until 4 a.m.; going to the gym to work out; then back to school to sub. Eventually he got his big break, and now he’s got a great shot to be a GM someday.

It was an incredibly fun Zoom, and if you hope to be a scout in the future, I hope you will join us in the future. For more details on our Next Wave program, check out this week’s Friday Wrap. Register for it here.