Author Archives: itlneil

Inside the College Advisory Committee (Pt. 1)

08 Tuesday Dec 2015

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The NFL’s College Advisory Committee is the group that annually accepts applications from college juniors and redshirt sophomores seeking guidance on whether or not they should enter the draft early. Though they’re often criticized in football circles for not always being accurate about their predictions, the results tell a very different story.

As players this time of year are weighing their fortunes pretty heavily, we talked to Cara Luterek about the nuts and bolts of the process. Cara spent more than a decade working in the NFL’s personnel office, with a special focus on the committee. That means she knows what she’s doing when it comes to the process, so we asked her about it. Our questions and her answers follow.

What’s the process for submitting a request? Who does it go to? Is there one specific point of contact? Must it be submitted via a specific protocol (In writing? Fill out a certain form? Faxed to a certain number)?

Eligible underclassmen may request a CAC evaluation after the conclusion of their respective college football regular seasons. A player must submit an evaluation request through his head coach, pro liaison, or (director of football operations). The college official submits the request electronically through a league office website. Players must also sign a printed form and that page is uploaded to the website as well.

Who (specifically) can apply for a player’s draft advisory board review? Does it have to be a certain person (i.e., relative, coach, school administrator)? Can an agent do it on a player’s behalf (I get a lot of questions about this)?

All requests must be submitted by the player’s head coach or a representative on his behalf — typically the college’s pro liaison or (director of football operations). If a player contacts the NFL office directly, he will be instructed to go through his college. An agent should direct the player to speak with his head coach or liaison.

Does the number of requests typically increase as the deadline nears? Lots of procrastination?

The requests typically come in on a rolling basis. In past years, additional requests do come in toward the end. Sometimes media attention or teammates receiving evaluations back sparks additional requests.

How long does a grade typically take? Does it take longer the later the request is submitted?

Grades are returned by the committee on a rolling basis. It may take 10 days or longer. Requests that are submitted early are typically returned quickly. NFL personnel evaluators may have more flexibility in early December with the college season ending than they do in later December with bowl games.

More about the process tomorrow.

More Insights from ex-NFL Scout Dan Hatman

07 Monday Dec 2015

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Last Wednesday, we featured Dan Hatman, who founded The Scouting Academy to help teach the fundamentals of evaluation to people whose one desire is to become NFL scouts. Though our interview focused on the exciting program the Academy will host at this year’s Senior Bowl, there are always things that don’t make it into a post. Often, those are some of the most interesting things an interviewee has to say.

With that in mind, I thought I’d focus on some of the insights Dan had on the scouting profession and the direction of the business for those folks who are looking for an edge. I’ll also add comments on Dan’s thoughts.

Dan: “I left the Eagles in Spring of 2013, a couple months into (head coach) Chip (Kelly)’s tenure, when I had an idea for Dynamic Sports Solutions. We were building software to value players, to take what the scouts do and run it through algorithms behind the scenes to evaluate the player.”

Analysis: Even though Dan had a job in the NFL, he was thinking of ways to address weaknesses in the business and identifying  markets. The tendency of a lot of people, once they reach the NFL, is to say, ‘well, I made it.’ That’s foolish, for a couple reasons. One, you’ll never advance if you are satisfied with where you are. Two, when you’re in the NFL, you better always be preparing for when you’re not in the NFL. It’s a volatile business.

Dan: “While guys were writing code (for Dynamic Sports Solutions) . . . I put up a post on Work in Sports, and said I’d be willing to help people that want to learn scouting, and I got 100 applications. That’s when the light bulb went off that people might pay for this.”

Analysis: I know I hammer on this point here at Succeed in Football, but if you ever want to get paid to work in sports, you’re going to have to start out working for free for a time. There are simply too many talented people with a strong desire to work in football to comb through, so you have to pay your dues (maybe several times) by providing your work for free. That may be in college, may be early in your post-college career, or may be much later in life. It’s the price of getting a chance.

Dan: “Scouting used to be former coaches who weren’t good at the X’s and O’s, or were of a certain age, and they’d be turned into scouts. But in the last 10 years, they’re hiring nothing but people under 25 who don’t have families, and they’re willing to work for $17,000 and no benefits. I made $17,000 with no benefits for a year. That’s intern pay. I made $18,000 for the Eagles. Once you’re full-time, you break the $40,000-$50,000 barrier, which is first-year scout pay. Once you have more than five years, you’re around $75,000, and directors are making six figures.”

Analysis: This is truth, and good info about the salary expectations if you’re looking to get into scouting. You have to work a long while to get into real money.

 

WSW: Finding and Filling a Need

02 Wednesday Dec 2015

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Dan Hatman was in his 20s, working as a pro scout for the Eagles, a few short years after making $17,000 a year (with no benefits) as an intern, when he realized there was a need for The Scouting Academy.

“It was 2012, and we were in camp with the Eagles. We had seven interns in camp. One had worked for a football team, one was a college player, and one had a crazy story who’s now the Director of Player Personnel at a major university.

“The back end of the (90-man camp roster) was hammered with injuries, and we were having trouble keeping our defensive line healthy and working that third unit. We had exhausted the (undrafted free agent) pool, and we needed to scout the (Arena Football League) for guys, so we got AFL film and had to grind that. These seven had made it through the door, and they didn’t know what to look for in a defensive lineman. While they’re watching the film, they liked sacks and size, but (we) needed a guy who could look for the mechanics. We (the Eagles) wanted a guy that wouldn’t get other players injured. The mechanisms we were looking for . . . what kind of athletic ability did they need? What kind of size?

“(Most of the interns) didn’t have a baseline for comparison, and they brought me a list of 25 guys that they thought could make it.”

The fact that seven people working for an NFL team — people that were barely removed from the scouting department — identified 25 players from the AFL that they thought could play pro football was an epiphany for Hatman.

“We ended up finding one guy, and we brought him in,” Hatman said. “Anyway, it was illuminating to me. I had seven human beings at my disposal, and we needed one guy for a week or two, and we still almost couldn’t find any.

“So I started asking myself, how do you do this online? The more people I talked to, the more people jumped at the cause, and wanted people coming in to be better developed.”

It was just a few months later that Hatman founded The Scouting Academy. Today, the Academy boasts of several big NFL names (former Bears GM Jerry Angelo, Broncos defensive coordinator Wade Phillips and former Browns head coach Chris Palmer among them) that help the Academy’s students learn X’s and O’s from people who do it for a living.

In January, at the 2016 Senior Bowl, Hatman will take 30 Scouting Academy students to Mobile, Ala., to spend a week watching film, grading the players and networking. Fifteen of those in attendance will be from the Academy’s rolls, and 15 more will be former NFL players learning the ropes so they, too, can one day become part of an NFL team’s war room.

“Our hope is that we can take those guys that have that passion (for scouting), so that if they get that chance, they have the tools to do it well,” Hatman said.

 

Relating the Draft and League Success

01 Tuesday Dec 2015

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If you read this blog regularly, you know we’ve spent some time studying the correlation between a team’s total draftees active in the league (on their own roster or otherwise) and its year-to-year success. With the season about two-thirds done, let’s review the totals and try to match draft success with won-loss records.

We’ll analyze the teams in the top third, the middle third, and the bottom third.

Top third: 49ers (59); Packers (57); Steelers (52); Ravens, Bengals and Eagles (50); Vikings and Seahawks (49); and Chiefs (48).

Analysis: The Seahawks and Packers (who share a draft methodology, by the way) are known throughout the league for finding solid players throughout the draft and gems in the latter rounds, and that has been reflected in both teams’ consistent play over the last decade. The big surprise is that the Niners lead the league in this category, suggesting that though the team may move on from head coach Jim Tomsula after the season, GM Trent Baalke and his staff should remain safe. For what that’s worth. Meanwhile, the Vikings have obviously been taking care of business on draft day, and the emergence of Paul Zimmer as head coach, plus the return of A.P., have allowed the team to put it all together.

Middle third: Cardinals, Cowboys, Broncos, Texans and Titans (47); Bills and Patriots (46); Dolphins (45); and Panthers, Browns, Jets, Raiders and Rams (44).

Analysis: I’ve spoken to teams that have decried the Patriots’ drafts, though the team remains a constant Super Bowl contender; this probably shows the huge impact a top-flight QB can make on a team (and why teams are constantly chasing prospects at the position). Similarly, Cam Newton (and Luke Kuechly) have taken the Panthers upon their backs despite the team’s lack of talent on offense.

Bottom third: Lions (43); Saints and Chargers (40); Falcons (39); Bears and Jaguars (38); Bucs (37); Colts (35); Redskins (33); and Giants (30).

Analysis: The Lions made a change at GM (and made the surprising admission that the team hadn’t worked hard enough in evaluation) already this season. The Bears and Redskins made a change at GM before this season, and the Bucs before the ’14 season. Meanwhile, the Falcons stripped personnel responsibilities from GM Thomas Dimitroff before this season. The Jags’ David Caldwell and Colts’ Tom Telesco are in Year 3, and Colts’ Ryan Grigson is in Year 4.  Saints GM Mickey Loomis and Giants GM Jerry Reese have both been at their posts for a comparable eternity. It will be interesting to see if any of these teams make changes at the end of the month.

Innovation in the All-Star Space

30 Monday Nov 2015

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Today, I wanted to take a moment to tip my hat to a couple of guys who are trying something new. Craig Redd and Jose Jefferson are a lot like Michael Quartey, someone else I’ve written about in this space. But this year, they’re trying a new spin on an old trick, and I think it’s gonna work for them.

For years, people have been trying without success to run an all-star game without losing their shirts. The economics of these games are beyond the scope of today’s post, but the bottom line is that most are set up with a week of practices leading to a game. The game is really not of interest to scouts, but it’s a way for a game’s organizers to recoup their investment. The bad news is that usually, a game draws very few fans, and the cost of stadium rental, promotion and, most of all, broadcasting the game run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Since Craig and Jose know this, they’ve scrapped the idea of an all-star game altogether, and they’ll focus solely on the practices.

I should mention that this idea didn’t come without a lot of soul-searching. First of all, Craig and Jose ran the College Gridiron Showcase last year just outside Dallas, and it held to a traditional format with an end-of-week game. Though it was very well-received by teams and had 10 players drafted (a great total for a first-year game), it was a money loser, so they’ve seen first-hand that there’s a need to try something new. Second, before they launched down this path, they ran the idea by everyone they knew in football, and it became clear that scouts had no quibble with workouts but no game.

Still, there are risks involved. Because there’s no game and no chance to earn money with gate receipts, they’re asking players to get to the game on their own. This eliminates another great cost of running a game: transportation. Flying a hundred players into Dallas might cost $50,000 or more, so that’s one less debt the game will accumulate. Craig and Jose are also taking advantage of their field rental (the showcase will be held at Pennington Field in Bedford, Texas, just outside Dallas) to run workouts with two other groups — draft-eligible players who will pay a small fee to be part of the festivities, and street free agents who still feel they have NFL ability. Scouts from the NFL as well as the CFL, AFL, IFL and start-up MLFB will be on hand.

Craig and Jose know there are no guarantees, but if they can pull this off, they’ve figured out a way to give young men new opportunities without falling deeply into the red. That’s both rewarding and smart. If you’re looking to get into the football business, I encourage you to do the same outside-the-box thinking.

 

Did Ezekiel Elliott Hurt Himself With His Comments?

23 Monday Nov 2015

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By now, you’re more than likely aware that Ohio State was toppled from the ranks of the unbeaten Saturday at the hands of Michigan State. You’re probably also aware that there was a good bit of frustration in the Buckeyes’ locker room afterwards, including some interesting comments and Tweets from the players.

One of those comments came from Bucks OH Ezekiel Elliott, who expressed frustration with the coaches’ play-calling and declared his OSU career over shortly after the game.

Elliott’s comments and self-control came into question in some quarters on the Web, so I reached out to some scouting friends for their reaction. They were in three camps. First, those who don’t believe it will have any effect.

  • “Why would it, do you think? Just typical ‘me generation’ behavior. Nothing to be read into other than the obvious.”
  • “No, especially when the head coach said the same thing.”
  • “Probably not (going to affect his draft status).”

Then there was one who thought it would be an issue.

  • “Yes, for sure. That kind of selfish behavior will have to be investigated further. . .  Also poor timing on announcing he will go pro. Sounds like an immature kid wanting attention.”

And one who said it may not, but it will probably complicate things.

  • “Most likely not. It will just cause him a lot more tough questions during interviews. Folks will push him with an aggressive line of questions to see if he maintains his composure or if he perhaps is what those thoughts reflect: self-centered. Someone once told me the best RB’s are guys that know how to appreciate and build up the OL, and in turn the OL want to block for a guy that makes everyone feel good, gives others credit. He might be best matched with an older Vet RB to show him that path.”

Ultimately, Elliott’s game will determine where he’s drafted, and a team that falls in love with the Buckeye may scrutinize his comments, but it’s unlikely it could have a major impact. Of course, different teams vet players differently, but it only takes one team to draft a player in the first round, or in some other early round. It will be interesting to see where he lands.

Do Injuries Count in Evaluation?

19 Thursday Nov 2015

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A couple years ago, I worked with a few scouts in an attempt to develop an independent ‘pro’ scouting service that would contract with NFL teams to evaluate free agents before the signing period begins. It never got off the ground, but during my research, I found out that there’s a theory in the pro game that injuries are not a strictly ‘bad luck’ proposition. I found there’s a school of thought that bad players are injured more often.

This idea gained traction last spring when I was interviewing ex-scouts ahead of the ’15 draft. One of them said you have to be careful when signing offensive linemen in the undrafted free agent period because if you’re not careful, you bring in players (especially offensive linemen) that aren’t strong enough to play. They get pushed around, might fall into the feet of your veterans, and incur knee and ankle injuries unnecessarily.

It came up again Wednesday when my podcast-mate, agent Justin VanFulpen, talked about the regular injuries that Eagles QB Sam Bradford, a former No. 1 pick, has suffered consistently in his NFL career.

To find out if this is a growing sentiment, I reached out to several friends in scouting. I asked, “Is it fair to say that bad players get hurt more often? When a player consistently misses large parts of the season, is that an indication his skill level is lacking?”

Here’s the response I got:

  • “Not necessarily. Usually, it’s injury-prone or lack of mental and physical toughness to play through pain.”
  • “No. (Texans No. 1 pick Jadeveon) Clowney (was a) great college player, hurt in the pros. (Stuff) happens. Lot of bad players are real healthy. They don’t hit. Or take a lot of hits and are healthy.”
  • “I would not say skill level. Sometimes (it’s) bad luck, but sometimes if it’s always always a knee or shoulder, they are just built differently and it is physics. But sometimes it shows prep work and heart, like (Bills WO) Percy Harvin.”
  • “Each player is independent.”
  • “Never made that connection. Beats me. Are bad soldiers the ones who get wounded? . . . I’m not good at thinking beyond the obvious.”

Looks like the ‘bad players are injured more than most’ school of thought is pretty poorly attended. That’s good news. It didn’t make much sense to me, either.

 

 

 

WSW: The Fight

18 Wednesday Nov 2015

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Today, someone in my Facebook feed posted this article. Before you read it, warning: it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. It’s from a sports writer who’s probably in his 50s and struggling to find work. It got me thinking about working in football, and working, in general. Especially in today’s work culture. I’ve never really told the story of how I got to be a football consultant, and I guess today’s as good as any.

We’ll start today’s story mid-stream. It was March 24, 2009. I had come back to the Houston Chronicle, working a menial administrative job after the Hula Bowl collapsed beneath my feet in mid-January of ’08. For weeks, we’d been hearing that layoffs were coming, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t know I’d be part of that wave. I reported for work at the regular time, did my routine morning duties, and the phone rang, requesting that I go up and talk to Human Resources.

About 15 minutes later, I was riding down the elevator back to the newsroom with about four of my former colleagues who’d gotten the same news.

I’ll never forget that elevator ride. Grown men were crying. Red-rimmed eyes stared blankly into space. Houston is a one-newspaper town, and the people on that elevator knew they’d have to start over, some of them post-50. But because I’m a little weird, I was angry, not sad, and maybe even a little defiant.

(I should mention that I always preferred playing on the road to playing at home, and that boos and catcalls always strengthened me. During my playing days, there’s nothing I enjoyed more than beating a good team in front of its fans. It’s energizing. Yes, I’m a bit of a contrarian. But I digress.)

The point is that I had launched my own consulting service in ’02, and I knew I was getting better at it, finding my niche and identifying a market. Today, five-and-a-half years later, I can hardly believe it took getting laid off for me to permanently cast my lot with Inside the League.

The writer of the piece I linked to earlier is facing some things I didn’t have to face. His kids were a lot older when he got laid off, and so was he. He also had to start a blog from scratch, whereas I had already been figuring things out for seven years when I got the axe. He’s also blogging for free and hoping he can eventually develop ad sales, whereas my audience pays a monthly fee, along with a la carte prices for other features, for my assistance and information.

I should also mention that the love of a 40-hour week in sports and a nice salary for same is not specific to sportswriters. Virtually every NFL scout who gets laid off spends years coming to grips with the fact he was paid for his opinion, no matter how well-founded, and frankly, it’s not expensive to obtain opinions. We’ll see a revolution in NFL scouting in the next decade, maybe sooner. The era of the scout who gets upwards of $80K to travel the roads in the fall and come back with detailed takes on players is already nearing its end.

Anyway, my point is this, and it’s one I’ve made in this space several times. If you want to work in sports in general, or football in particular, it’s up to you to find a niche, a market, a place where no one else is. And there will be no guarantees. If you only want to be a scout, or only want to be a writer, or only want to be an agent, it’s not going to be easy, because those are all well-traveled roads. If you really want to be part of the football world, you’re going to have to realize that the work never ends; that you have to get good at some things you may not like; and that there are no guarantees. And you might have to have a footprint in several worlds, as I do. I touch on all three of the above professions in the work I do.

I applaud the writer of the above article for starting a blog, and I hope it continues. If he can truly develop an audience that is unlike the others, and he can figure out how to leverage that properly, he will find success. But he’s like anyone else out there, including me. It won’t be easy. It will be incredibly rewarding if he can find traction, but it definitely won’t be easy.

Don’t fool yourself into thinking that cracking the football business will be easy, either. You can do it, but it will take everything you have. It has for me, but it’s been a fair trade.

Draftable?

17 Tuesday Nov 2015

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One of the questions I always get from my newer agent clients is, “I’ve been talking to Player X” — sometimes they actually say Player X, because they want to keep the identity confidential — “but he wants training, and I don’t know if he’s worth it or not. Should I sign him? What do the scouts tell you?”

Before I go any further, let me mention that I addressed this question in a somewhat different way in August. The difference is that last time, it was aimed more at players trying to determine if they had NFL promise.

First of all, let’s address the scouts part. Scouts are notoriously cryptic about players that are outside the top 100 projected picks. Actually, in my experience, most scouts give you one of two responses when you ask them about a player (especially before January). If the player is expected to go anywhere in the first three rounds, the response is usually, “He’s a good player. He could be an early pick.” Note that the agent doesn’t make any real predictions, because so much could happen at the combine/pro day. On the other hand, if the player is expected to go anywhere after the 100th pick, it’s usually, “He’s a late-rounder, probably, or a camp guy.” They don’t get a lot more specific than that, and I understand, because there’s so much that could happen between January and May.

For this reason, I’ve devised three very quick, very cursory guidelines on guessing if a player has a legitimate chance to go to camp (and maybe even get drafted in the latter rounds):

  1. Was the player highly productive, accomplished and decorated in college?: Even players from small schools will pique the interest of scouts if they’ve been on numerous all-conference teams and started for several seasons. Often, an agent will ask me about a kid that only started infrequently or was hurt almost his whole career. Those players get drafted late sometimes, but it’s not worth the risk.
  2. Is the player at least 6-feet tall?: Used to, receivers, running backs, linebackers and defensive backs could get away with being 5-8 or 5-9. Really, the only players still in play on draft day that can get away with that today are running backs. What’s more, a player who’s tall and skinny can’t be ruled out automatically, either. Many training facilities can put 10-15 pounds of muscle on a slender player in 6-8 weeks. One note: obviously, offensive linemen and defensive linemen usually need to be well over 6-0.
  3. Does the player have obvious speed?: This one is a lot harder to judge, and very often, even NFL scouts don’t have a reliable 40 time on a player. Great example: Arkansas QB Matt Jones entered his senior season in 2004 seen as a very raw passer with some athleticism, but probably a 4.8-4.9 speed guy. For whatever reason, he didn’t time on ‘junior day’ for the Hogs, and his speed was estimated. Then he goes to the combine and runs a sub-4.4 40 (4.37) at 242 pounds, and suddenly, he’s the toast of the 2005 draft class. He never transitioned smoothly to receiver in the NFL, but the point is, speed excites scouts. If a prospect runs well at his pro day, at the very least, he generates excitement among NFL teams.

Obviously, this is a rather superficial look at determining a prospect’s value on draft day, but it’s a start. More on shaking out the draft process tomorrow.

The Box

16 Monday Nov 2015

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As we wind down the college football season, I’m getting more and more calls from agents and parents on issues regarding the 2016 draft. Some are related to agent selection, and many are related to leaving early. Maybe you have similar questions. This week, I’m going to discuss these topics and the different factors associated with the topic.

Today, I got a call from a recently certified agent who’s been in talks with a redshirt junior at a major BCS school. The young man is a receiver, and my friend asked what he should tell the young man, who’s strongly weighing departing for the draft.

The first thing I asked was, does he have the ‘three legs of the stool,’ i.e., size, speed and production? The agent responded that he has two of them: he’s put up wild numbers this year, and he believes the young man has sub-4.5 speed. The only problem is that he’s well below 6-feet tall. Though that’s not a deal-breaker, it’s become an important box to check. Of the 263 receivers who opened the season on NFL rosters, 193 were 6-0 or taller. What’s more, there are only 44 receivers under 5-11 in the league, and over the last three draft classes, only 32 are under 6-feet; 19 were undrafted free agents.

It all added up to a young man who probably fits as a late-round selection and maybe a camp guy.

On the other hand, he’s got enough credits to graduate. He’s fully healthy; there’s no guarantee the same will be true this time next year (and scouts are not especially forgiving). There’s a great chance one or more of the coaches on staff will be elsewhere next season, as well as his quarterback. In other words, he’s in a box.

My friend really wants to do what’s best for the young man, but he’s in a box, too. He’s already talked to scouting sources who’ve drawn the same conclusion. He can recommend that the young man put his name in with the draft advisory board, but given the new way the board is handling reviews, it’s unlikely there will be any useful information.

If he recommends that the kid go back for his senior year, he comes across as education-oriented and well-meaning, but if there’s an injury, it may dash the young man’s chance to do something special. If he encourages the receiver to leave early, he may look like the stereotypical greedy agent if he goes undrafted.

Unfortunately, many young men are facing a similar dilemma. There’s no clear, cut-and-dried answer. That’s what makes this time of year so difficult.

This week, we’ll discuss the factors one must use to make this decision. We’ll discuss the factors one must consider when seeking feedback from scouts, coaches and family members, and we’ll handle other questions we get via Twitter or in the comments section of this post. If you know someone facing this dilemma, I hope you’ll encourage him to check us out this week.