Category Archives: Agents

An Open Letter to the Bubble Draft Prospect

15 Tuesday Dec 2015

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Every year, I work with dozens of players that are draft hopefuls and/or their parents. Some are top prospects and some are much lower rated. Some get the unique situation they are in, and the effort it will take to get to the next level. On the other hand, some seem to think it will all take care of itself, and that time is on their side.

Today, I want to address the player who hopes to be drafted, but knows in his heart it’s a long shot, and furthermore, knows just getting to an NFL camp will be a challenge.

First of all, there’s no shame in being a fringe draft prospect. You are already well ahead of most football players out there, and even though all those around you have already seen you as a future NFL star, there will be no shame if you don’t make it. That said, I think there are some mistakes that you can avoid this time of year that will help your cause. I’ll list them here.

  • We’re a little less than three weeks away from the unofficial/official start of combine prep for the 2016 NFL draft. It’s not a big deal if you wind up training somewhere other than a splashy, sun-drenched facility. But it’s very important that you take steps in the next 10-15 days to have a plan for training, no matter where that is.
  • You may have gotten minimal interest from agents this year, far less than you were expecting. You may be hurt or angry, but don’t let that stop you from aggressively finding representation in the next week or two. Some big-name players may put off selecting an agent, but you don’t have that luxury. You need someone working for you right now.
  • Avoid the temptation to look at the next four months as a time when you might prove you can’t play in the NFL. You don’t have that luxury. You need to look at the next 120 days as an endless audition. You’ve got to move past the 10-15 players at your position that are in the same boat you’re in. If you don’t, there’s a chance you don’t get into a camp.

Now for a brief plug. You are very close to doing something very cool in life that few get to do. I realize that in 2015, there’s a perception that anything worth finding is available for free on the Internet. Well, that’s not true. The highly detailed, highly nuanced counsel associated with helping someone get into the NFL is something that only ITL does. We are not an agency, but we will help you get the kind of agent you need as soon as possible. It’s a critical part of the process for you. We’d love to help.

Best wishes to you. I hope you have the best of luck this spring, and that one way or another, your dreams come true.

Good luck!

Neil Stratton and everyone at ITL.

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.

 

 

 

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.

 

Small School, Long Odds

09 Monday Nov 2015

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Last week, I reached out to a new agent who had expressed interest in our service. It’s a big time to reach new contract advisors, and we do a lot of work walking them through the process this time of year.

At any rate, he expressed reluctance to join ITL. A combine trainer himself, he had gotten his wife certified so he could cut out the middle man and sign, then train, his own prospects. He explained that several of his recent trainees had gotten camp invites despite coming out of DII schools.

It’s true that small-school players make it to the league sometimes, especially from FCS schools, but sometimes even at the DII and DIII levels. Still, though small-schoolers get lots of ink and make for excellent stories, they tend to make it in far fewer numbers and have far shorter careers than their FBS counterparts.

To illustrate the scarcity of small-schoolers in the most recent NFL draft class, I took at look at the opening-week rosters. Including practice squad players, I counted 461 rookies in the league. Of that 461, eight had formerly played at Division I-A programs, so if not for grades or off-field matters, they’d still have big-school pedigrees.

Looked at another way, of that 461, only 65 (just 14 percent) did not come from Division I-A programs (i.e., FBS). Of that 65, 43 (two-thirds) came from FCS schools (formerly known as Division I-AA). Just 16 came from Division II schools.

I had lunch with a scout who lives near me about a year ago, and when I asked him how they made sure they didn’t miss any small-school phenoms, he just shrugged his shoulders. He said that the FBS schools do the job of sifting out the truly impact players from everyone else for NFL teams, and most take their chances that they’ll trip across any small-school players that matter in the course of their work.

Bottom line, I hope this young agent can keep his momentum going and find the small-school players that will stick, but it’s not going to be easy if this year’s draft class is any indication. And I think it is.

WSW: A Little Help From His Coach

21 Wednesday Oct 2015

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Players get to the NFL in different ways. Some are obvious talents that are highly regarded by ‘Internet scouts’ as well as league evaluators, and some take less direct routes. Last week, we chronicled the story of a Saints OH Khiry Robinson, who had to wait for an all-star invite, then wait for an NFL camp tryout invite, and finally beat the odds by making the team in New Orleans.

This week, we illustrate the ‘who you know’ aspect of evaluation with another former Saints rusher, Pierre Thomas, who is the team’s all-time leader in catches by a running back. Though Thomas was never a headline-grabber during his time in the Crescent City, he was a reliable part of an explosive offense and a versatile back.

He came in through the back door with the Saints, however, with the help of a former coach. Ex-Saints scout Barrett Wiley tells the story of how the team wound up signing him as an undrafted free agent. Here’s the full interview, if you want to check it out.

“(Assistant special teams coach Greg McMahon), the position coach who coached Pierre (at Illinois had recently been hired to the Saints’ staff). . . and he knew what Pierre would bring to the table. So he knew that every day, Pierre was going to show up, (and) he was going to work as hard as he could. He was going to give his all, everything he could, and he . . . informed us that, you know, Pierre may not be the prettiest, the biggest, the fastest, but he’s going to work. At worst, if he makes the roster, he’s going to be able to contribute on special teams, because everyone has a role on the NFL team. Whether you’re a starter or a backup, you have to contribute on special teams. So with that said, Pierre came in — Pierre was a need position – an (undrafted free agent) after the draft and he became that running back who just blossomed into a solid borderline starter and a contributor for the Saints. He was a guy who showed up every day, did everything, you know, just whatever his deficiencies were, he overcame them. That’s the best way to describe Pierre. I can’t say anything negative about him. He can’t break an 80-yard run; that’s his only negative if you think about it. But everything else he does, he does well and you can live with it.

“The coach would start to talk him up a lot . . . leading into the draft . . . like that Thursday, Friday (before draft weekend). He would come down (to talk to the scouts), and say, ‘I got a guy.’ He would come to the draft room and say, ‘I got a guy, (and) wherever he may be on the board, when we need a running back, I got a guy.’ One of those situations. The coach, he’s putting his neck on the line for that guy in terms of, from his evaluation standpoint, not his true livelihood, but just his evaluation standpoint. So the coach said, ‘hey, I got a guy,’ and we went with that. The area scout watched him, and said, ‘well, it depends on what you want, but I wouldn’t have a problem with that, I wouldn’t fight against that.’ (It was) one of those situations.”

“The Value Is The Film”

13 Tuesday Oct 2015

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This morning, I got a text from an agent who’s been a client and a friend for a long time. He told me one of the FXFL teams is in complete disarray, and that the players had gone on strike. Meanwhile, the coach had walked out (mid-practice, I was told) and the players hadn’t been paid since the season started two weeks ago. According to my source, their laundry wasn’t getting done and they didn’t even have water at their workouts!

In my efforts to confirm the strike (I’m still working on it), I reached out to another agent who’s been hardened to the roller-coaster world of minor-league football. Though he’s got two clients in the FXFL, he’s all too aware of the pitfalls of playing in these leagues. “It’s crazy,” he texted me. “The value is the film, but (the league) can’t keep screwing the players.”

This morning’s texts came on the heels of another communication I got last night from the father of a player who narrowly missed a camp invite this spring. His son, a very good college player who still has NFL dreams, had just been told that his school would not allow its seniors from ’15 to attend its 2016 pro day, a big change from previous seasons. It left my friend’s son with limited options and no way to jump-start his pro football career. I had to tell him his son’s only remaining options were probably paid tryouts (costs are usually around $100) with Arena and CFL teams. It wasn’t easy to tell him that.

So here’s the takeaway. This week, as I mentioned in Monday’s report, more than a hundred agents from the 2015 class were added to the NFLPA’s rolls. Many of those agents will soon start getting phone calls and/or emails from desperate players from recent draft classes, hoping to get one more chance at film. They’re mostly willing to go to the AFL, or the CFL, or to virtually any league that might get them fresh film, which in turn might get them another look with the NFL.

In November, these new agents will hear from dozens of players slated for the ’16 draft class that aren’t getting recruited by agents, but still want to play in the NFL. If (when?) the ’16 draft comes and goes with no calls from the league, they’ll be looking for fresh film, too.

If you’re among those in the new agent class, understand that only a select few players are NFL-worthy, but thousands believe they are. Be very careful about believing a player’s story when he tells you he’d be a top prospect if not for a bit of bad luck. The road to finding new film is a long and winding one, and it usually leads only to a dead end.

Welcome to the Grind

12 Monday Oct 2015

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There’s a member of a recent agent class that loves to tweet 20-30 times per day, sometimes more. He does this despite the fact he’s got fewer than 500 followers. In fact, my former intern and I coined a term for having more followers than tweets — it’s a ratio named after this agent.

The funniest part is that probably half of his tweets are about how he’s ‘grinding.’ He usually throws in a hashtag to really drive that point home. In fact, whenever my associate and I see him at an all-star game or the combine, it’s a contest to see which one of us can say “grinding.” first.

I dropped by the NFLPA website today and found, to my surprise, that the members of the 2015 contract advisor class have already been added, maybe a week or so earlier than normal. To those new agents, I wanted to say, “Welcome to the grind.”

I’ve spoken to dozens of agents who passed the exam, and they are all brimming with excitement. The intrigue and the excitement of the business are before them, and they want to dig in, but often, they don’t quite know where to start. In these cases, I’m only too happy to help get them on the road to success with a few simple steps.

On the other hand, I also contrast the excitement of a new start in the game with the response I often get from those same agents a year later, when they’ve gotten a taste of the business. They’re a lot more realistic about their expectations, and they are a lot more aware of the costs (financial and otherwise) associated with the business. They also better understand the competition before them and the forces pushing back, from the NFLPA (often) to the schools that presume they have bad intentions.

But now’s not a time for that. Instead, I’m excited that there are more than a hundred new faces in the game, eager to make their mark and help guide young men along the road to realizing a dream. I might add that I’m here to help everyone who’s newly certified. At Inside the League, we’ve been fortunate to be a helping hand to those who are themselves looking to live a dream, and we’re happy to walk with you.

This is a day for celebration. Congratulations on your arrival! Now it’s time to get down to business.

Three Things to Watch For in ‘The Agent’s’ Finale

06 Tuesday Oct 2015

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I hope you’ve been enjoying the eight episodes so far of ‘The Agent,’ the first show to truly take viewers behind the scenes of the world of player representation. Tonight’s show (10E/9C on the Esquire Network) wraps the series. Here are three things I found interesting about the show.

  • I guess the idea of a draft party is just something too tempting to resist to families of players that are draft-eligible. I understand; potentially being selected in the draft represents the culmination of a lifelong dream not just for the young men involved, but for their extended families as well. But what happens if you’re not one of the 250-odd players drafted? Or, as happens frequently in tonight’s episode, you’re drafted much lower than you expected to? It’s agony seeing your dreams die (or dim), but when it’s on camera, or when you’re accompanied by everyone you know, it’s infinitely worse. Tonight, you get to see families experience the crushing despair of lost hope when young men go undrafted. There’s somewhat of a happy ending when teams all post-draft, recruiting them for UDFA deals, but it’s a pretty hollow victory. But to all players hoping to be drafted next spring: if you weren’t invited to watch the draft in Chicago by the NFL itself, consider planning a very subdued draft-day get-together.
  • When I watch movies based on true stories, I like it when, right before the credits roll, they show what happened next to the main characters, how their lives played out. To the credit of the show’s producers, this takes place for all the players signed by the four agents profiled in the show. I’ll warn you — it’s not all happy endings. This is inevitable, but the striking thing to me is how much recruiting, hand-holding, flattery, protecting, and, yes, coddling, goes into signing a player who winds up as an undrafted free agent or late-rounder. The price of signing a player who’s even on an NFL radar screen is to treat him as if he’s a certain Hall of Fame talent. That’s sad but true. Every year I get a few new agents who claim they’re going to get tough with their players and provide no kid-gloves treatment. It’s very hard to do that when these players have been given special treatment all their lives.
  • On a related note, Peter Schaffer of Authentic Athletix spent a big part of this series pumping up Washington State QB Connor Halliday, encouraging him and patiently walking through the process with a young man whose draft chances were limited. Tonight, Peter is repaid for all his good will and financial investments by being hung up on when Halliday goes undrafted. Most players not only have a limited memory of the good things agents do for them, but are quick to blame an agent when things go poorly. This is another reality of the game.

I hope you’ll check out our live-tweet tonight. Lots of good insights as we wrap a fun nine weeks. See you tonight.

Three Things to Watch For in ‘The Agent’

29 Tuesday Sep 2015

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Episode 8 of ‘The Agent’ is tonight (10E/9C). The show covers the first three rounds of this year’s draft, and have plenty of intrigue and behind-the-scenes pageantry and byplay.

Here are three things I thought worth noting.

  • The players spotlighted tonight all have major family parties complete with guests, food, and people crowded around a TV set. This is very common, very tempting, and in my mind, a big mistake. The draft is an incredibly vexing and unpredictable event. You’ll notice that the agents don’t attend any of these events, and there’s an obvious reason why: they don’t want to be the focus of everyone’s ire if (when?) things go wrong. If you’re like me, you’re going to be especially sympathetic with Kentucky DT Za’Darius Smith, who winds up getting pursued by an irritable broadcaster that absolutely insists his selection is imminent . . . until the picks pass by and it’s not. Smith is a really patient and engaging young man before he finally hides from the guy.
  • One note on the sports media: when I worked in newspapers, we would occasionally get phone calls from people that wanted to settle a bet. I remember, in ’95 or ’96, I was working at a paper in Lubbock and some guy called, asking us who the best QB of all time was (my vote went to Marino; everyone else said Montana). The point is, there’s some perception that sports writers/reporters/etc. know more than the rank-and-file fan. These days, I’m not sure that’s true. They may have a few more connections, and may have some insights they don’t share with readers, but for the most part, the wide variety of information sources and deeper analysis means fans don’t have to take a backseat to media these days. The guy who keeps bugging Smith is pretty much Exhibit A.
  • One more note on the media: often during the run-up to the draft, you’ll hear that a certain player interviewed with 7-8 teams at the combine. This is always spun as the teams that have the most interest in the player. That’s not true. It’s often the teams that have the least interest in the player, because they didn’t even get basic interviews done during the draft process; they’re just covering their bases, nothing more. This manifests itself tonight when the agents list the teams they expect to draft their clients. In most cases, they’re dead wrong. Teams have become quite adept at hiding their true intents, and often, the teams an agent lists as having the most interest are actually the teams where the agent has the most contacts. He’s talked up his clients with his buddies on those teams, and therefore, he feels his client has an excellent chance with them. But really, it means nothing. Watch for this tonight.

Make sure to join me for more insights tonight on the ITL live-tweet.