I spent the better part of the last three days talking to people who took the agent exam last Friday in Washington, D.C. Here’s what I’ve gathered.

• Anyone expecting the NFLPA to take a little off its fastball had to be disappointed. There were no true/false questions, and the questions were said to be even longer than last year (more than one person described most questions as ‘wordy). “There were a few pages with only 2-3 questions on the page,” texted one agent hopeful. “Every question was a paragraph,” wrote another.
• What’s more, the hard questions started at the beginning, whereas we’d been telling people for weeks to focus on the last 20 questions, where the real meat of the test started last year.
• In addition, though we tried to focus on time management with everyone we worked with (about a third to half of the people who took the exam for the first time), several people barely finished on time (or didn’t).
• Finally, the questions weren’t arranged in ‘blocks’ this time. Unlike the last couple years, “it seemed that the questions were random, as in certain topics were not grouped together,” according to one test-taker. Oh, well. Back to the drawing board.
• Two agent hopefuls told me there was a discrepancy with one of the questions, and several people made the NFLPA aware of it. If this is true, I’d expect that question gets tossed. Maybe that makes the test one question easier for everyone.
• Apparently the NFLPA has found a new way to grade the exams, as they told everyone to expect results within about two weeks, instead of 6-8 weeks. That’s good news as long as the players association continues to curve the results. I don’t have any reason to think they won’t have one. I’ve had probably a dozen agents ask me how much the curve will benefit test-takers, and exactly what total one needs to pass. It’s impossible to tell.
• Word continues to get out on our practice exam and study guide. One person said the two people he sat next to and hung out with in D.C. also used our resources. That’s a good feeling. And next year, we’ll be even more prepared to help would-be agents. We’re hoping to add a second complete practice exam next year, and we hope to sharpen up our current one, as well.
• While we’re at it, we’re also working on a practice exam for the MLBPA exam, which will be offered next month and next year (twice annually).

If you don’t mind the indulgence, I’d like to close with a few final words, all unsolicited, from our clients.

• “Hey Neil. Just wanted to say thanks for your help on this process. The review really helped me prepare for the seminar and for the most part the seminar was just a review. I feel really confident that I passed the exam.”
• “(Test was) cake. Was far easier than I anticipated.”
• “You provided helpful tools for me for an important task. I appreciate your services.”
• “
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• “

Sunday and today, I’ve been exchanging emails with an attorney who feels woefully unprepared for Friday’s NFLPA exam in Washington, D.C. Based on our exchange, I got the impression she felt she had passed the point of no return on her procrastination, and was headed for a very difficult time in D.C. My message to her was, and is, that it’s not too late.

If you’re an agent hopeful who’s in a similar plight, this is my message to you, as well.

If you read this blog regularly, you know we’ve got a practice agent exam on our site, as well as a study guide we can provide, each of them with a $150 (plus tax) price point. You also know we’ve been offering these for several years, and that our rate of passing (about 70 percent) is 25 points higher than the passing rate of the population at large. At the same time, maybe you’re not sold on these resources as especially valuable. If so, check out these testimonials, all received within the last month, none of them solicited.

• “Thank you for everything during the test process, I really appreciate it and look forward to working with you after the test.”
• “Really grateful that I found ITL.  Not sure if I will be able to master enough of this material by next week but ITL is certainly helping.”
• “I have appreciated these testimonials and the practice exam has been very helpful.”
• “Just wanted to let you know I really appreciate the information you provide that can’t be found anywhere else.  It is an invaluable resource for guys who are crunched for time.”
• “A note to say that ITL has made my life a lot easier. I appreciate the work you put into it.”
• “I don’t know you from Adam (pun), but brother you’re on top of your Shi— 🙂  I love that!”
• “Thank you for being the only true resource on the web to find useful information pertaining to the world of agents, financial advisors, scouts, etc.  The tools and resources you’ve created with ITL have so far been extremely helpful.”
• “I appreciate your help.  You’re amazing. Always stay the Legend that you are!”

I quibble with the ‘legend’ description (sorta), but you get the point.

On the other hand, maybe you have questions about the practice exam. If so, check out this video we recently commissioned. It’s kinda cool, and I think you’ll find it helpful. Our tweet containing this video garnered us a positive RT or two.

We’ve even got a newsletter series that has dozens of testimonials from agents who took the test over the past two years, and have passed along their recommendations on what they did to pass it since the NFLPA really ramped up the difficulty of the exam. We’ll be happy to send that as a third resource to anyone who uses either of our other two; dozens of agent hopefuls have already been receiving it for the past couple months.

Still have questions? Hit us up. Happy to field all of them. I promise, you don’t need to be afraid of us, and we won’t spam you.

Still not sold? No problem. Even so, I wish you the best of luck. At Inside the League, for as long as we are around, we will be hoping everyone succeeds in football.

There’s less than two weeks until the draft. If you’re reading this, there’s a great chance you’re an agent, and an even-money chance you’re puling out your hair. It’s a crazy time. Here are a few thoughts that might help you preserve your sanity.

• Your clients may be panicking because nobody is talking about them in the media. The thing you have to remind them is that the draft media is really only interested in the top 30-40 picks. Unless your client believes he’s a first-rounder — I mean, really believes it, not some total pie-in-the-sky wish — no one on Draft Twitter, the NFL Network, or whatever is going to talk about them, and they shouldn’t expect it.
• When a “league source” is cited on Twitter, it’s always (every single time) an agent. Every time you hear about a team conducting a private workout with a low-ranked player, or inviting in a lesser name for a Top 30 visit, it’s because an agent called his buddy in the media to give his client some buzz. The irony is that often an agent will give a writer a tip on his client, then immediately call his client and tell him about the ‘buzz’ the kid is generating. Bottom line, there aren’t scouts working out players, then immediately calling the media to brag on the sleeper they’ve found.
• For my next point, a quick story. I made it into the Naval Academy out of a small town in West Virginia to great fanfare (at least around the Stratton household). Four years later, I’d failed out in grand fashion. I remember coming home on a rainy day in June 1991 hoping to lick my wounds a bit. Instead, my parents were loving, but hurt, embarrassed and scared. I realized I would have to be the strong one. There’s a great chance your client is going to have to be strong when his parents are demanding answers from you on why he’s not getting phone calls, why he’s not getting workouts, and the like. Communicating that to him might not be easy, but if you can get that point across, your life will be a lot easier.
• There is no league-accepted clearinghouse for draft rankings. Your guy is probably Googling NFL Draft Scout (the closest there is) every day, but whatever he finds doesn’t really matter. If your guy isn’t rated in the top 200 players, there is no earthly way that a team knows when, or if, he’ll be drafted or signed. There are too many players that will fall on draft day, and others that will rise, that will create chaos in undrafted free agency. I know that’s not what anyone wants to hear, but tis true.
• If at this point you’re not hearing from teams, start thinking CFL. Right now, even if your client isn’t draft-worthy, teams should be calling to persuade you to send your client to them in free agency. If that’s not happening, it’s OK, but it’s probably time to start walking back expectations.
• Remember, it’s a relationship-based business, so it pays to know the alma maters of scouts and coaches. We’ve already done the work for you on scouts, and today, we posted colleges of active NFL coaches, from head coach all the way down to quality control. Coaches are becoming a bigger and bigger part of the selection process. this info  might come in handy in conjunction with our email frames. Just a hint.

Try to stay sane over the next two weeks. It won’t be easy. Good luck.

If you’re a young agent reading this, just hoping that your client’s name gets called late (or during the UDFA process) in four weeks, you’re probably trying to weigh everything you’re reading and hearing online. Today, let’s give it our best shot and try to make sense of it.

• The best indicator seems to be calls from multiple members of the the same team’s personnel department. “I knew he had serious interest . . . when teams would call multiple times just to see how he was doing,” one agent said. “When . . . they are calling multiple times by multiple personnel people, then you can tell the interest is genuine.”
• For an agent to know his client has moved from undrafted free agent to definite draftee status, the standard seems to be calls from more than half teams and multiple calls from at least a half-dozen teams.
• As for the substance of the calls, when teams are asking who else is calling, that’s interest they aren’t faking.
• We’ve gotten mixed signals on the value of interview requests at all-star games. Some teams are just doing their due diligence, while others are indicating true interest. “I would say this,” said one agent. “At his all-star game, he met with 25 teams, which is a good sign.” Furthermore, in this case, the player met with the team that wound up drafting him three times at the same game, though they kept their interest under wraps until draft day.
• Of course, simple interviews at all-star games aren’t always predictors – the Chiefs are one team that likes to meet with as many all-star participants as possible. In fact, such meetings can be a downright false flag. “At the all-star games, a team’s initial board may not even be set yet,” said one wary agent, “so an area scout may like a kid as a camp-to-PFA guy early on, but after all the reports and pro day times come in, the kid is off the board. So what was once legitimate interest is now gone. But the player and agent may not realize it.”
• On the other hand, obviously, Top 30 visits are for real. “Looking back, when he got five Top-30’s, that’s really the biggest sign,” said the same agent, whose client was drafted in the sixth round after attending a lower-tier all-star game. “If you’re not getting at least a few top-30’s, that’s a bad sign I would say.”
• Another sure bet for a late-round prospect that didn’t attend the combine is when a team brings him in for a physical (a routine part of a Top 30 visit) or requests medical records. One agent told me that there’s no way an NFL team will draft a player unless they’ve conducted their own physical on him or he had an extensive physical done at the combine. When a player is drafted and fails his physical, most GMs and head coaches see that as a black mark against their own scouting and evaluation.

Obviously, this doesn’t give you a set of hard and fast rules, but hopefully, it gives you a little more direction, whether that’s good news or bad news. Good luck next month.

I know we just wrapped up a four-week series on things any NFL agent hopeful needs to know before getting certified. However, upon further review, I’ve come up with one more. Let me illustrate it with a couple of stories involving my team, the Saints.

• You may have read that Sean Payton and Johnny Manziel met during Super Bowl week, and rumor has it Payton is weighing giving him a shot with the team. My wife (who always refers to herself as ‘knowing more football than most women’) and I were discussing it, and she said she thought it was a bad idea putting a player with substance abuse problems in New Orleans. Though I saw her point, I disagreed. Manziel has plenty of athletic ability, and Payton has all the leverage, I said. He’ll sign a veteran minimum deal, and if he messes up, he’s gone. Simple as that.
• Meanwhile, the Saints are seriously considering bringing in DC Malcolm Butler, which would require a trade with the Pats because he’s a restricted free agent. Though it’s incredibly exciting to think of a big-time corner coming to New Orleans, the question is, how much is too much to give the Patriots for a guy that could suddenly experience a lack of drive after going from an undrafted rookie — a guy that didn’t even get a UDFA deal, but who had to come in on a tryout — to a man making $13 or $14 million per year? There’s certainly precedent when it comes to the Saints spending lots of money on free agent DBs who crap out almost immediately. Don’t believe it? Mention the names David, Browner or Byrd to any Who Dat guy, and watch how he twists his face into a look of disgust.

If you want to be a success as an NFL contract advisor, you have to have ‘hand’ over your client. Problem is, that’s becoming increasingly harder to do. The NFLPA, which you might expect would have your back, is increasingly interested in encouraging players to go agent-free. Meanwhile, ‘what do I get?’ is the money question that any prospect worth signing has for you, and there’s no signing a decent player without providing combine prep, which is probably $10,000 minimum. And don’t forget, a player can fire his agent any day, any time, for any reason, and all he has to do is give five days notice. I think this is one reason so many first-year agents sign small-school players. Not only are they easier to recruit, and might be less inclined to demanding big-time training, but their road is steeper anyway. They can’t be as disposable with their agents.

Of course, to some degree, NFL teams are the same way. When you draft a player in the first round, you are handing him anywhere from $5 million to $20 million guaranteed, and you pretty much can’t cut him for three years, even if he’s a Manziel-style distraction/bust. Players know this. That’s why it takes real character (and/or just downright love of playing football) to make it to a second deal and really have staying power in the league.

If you’re going to succeed in football, you’d better figure out a way to gain sway with the players you sign. It’s one of the real challenges of the game, especially for new agents.

In a few months, about 300 aspiring agents will assemble in Washington, D.C., for the 2017 NFLPA Contract Advisors Exam. If the last few years are any indication, at some point, one of the lecturers will ask the class how many expect to sign a player who will be drafted the following year. At least two-thirds of hands will raise, maybe more.

The truth is that, on average, maybe six people should raise their hands, and of those six, five are already employees of major agencies that will represent several draftees. Of those who are truly independent, who arrived with no ties to the big firms, maybe one hand should be raised. On an odd year, two.

There’s a perception that if a draft prospect completes four years in a decent FBS college program, starting a year or two, the natural progression is that he goes to the pros and plays 2-3 years. After all, that’s why the average career is so short, right? Everyone gets their shot, but only the Peyton Mannings and Deion Sanders have really long careers? And worst-case scenario, they go to the CFL, where they play for 6-7 years before moving on, right?

This perception is a big part of the problem, both for prospective agents and the players themselves. The problem is that it’s hard to perceive of the sheer volume of players vying for the 250 draft slots and 300 undrafted free agent contracts every year.

Let’s look at raw numbers. There are 125 FBS programs. Let’s say, on average, each of them has 10 graduating seniors that started a season or two, so that’s a pool of 1,250 players (conservatively). Last year, there were 484 rookies that made rosters (53 or practice squad), so right off the bat, that’s less than half of all draft-eligible seniors the NFL can fit onto its rosters. Now consider that of that 484, probably 100 never made it to their senior seasons. So that’s 384 jobs for 1,250 seniors, and we’re not even looking at the hundreds of FCS, DII and DIII players in the pool. Last year, 76 players made rosters from sub-FBS programs. So now let’s say 300 jobs for FBS players, just to make the math easier.

Of that 300, the vast majority will be signed by firms that have been around for years. Let’s say 250 go to established agencies. That leaves about 50 ‘make it’ kids left for mid-sized, small and rookie agents and agencies to divvy up. There are about 800 agents registered by the NFLPA. About 400 of them have active clients, so we’ll be generous and call them all ‘established.’ That leaves 400 agents vying for those 50 kids that slip through the cracks, yet make a practice squad (more likely) or roster (less likely). Oh, by the way, if your client makes a practice squad, you can’t bill him. So you get zero ROI on your training and recruiting investment. Ouch.

Of course, we’re just talking about making a team, for a game or two. All 32 teams are constantly churning the bottom of their rosters, shuffling players in and out due to injuries or just plain trying to improve their talent level. Making a team for any length of time introduces another reducing variable that we won’t even go into. But I don’t think we need to. You get the point.

Bottom line, if you’re taking the test this summer, or plan to in coming years, good for you, and I salute and congratulate you. But I want you to know what you face, and I want you to take seriously the challenge ahead of you. I’m always here to help, and I hope you’ll let me. Good luck.