Category Archives: Agents

Ask the Scout: A Sneak Peek at Blake Beddingfield’s Summer Sleepers

14 Wednesday Jun 2023

Posted by in Agents, NFL draft, Scouts

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Several years ago, my friend Blake Beddingfield, who spent two decades on the Titans’ scouting staff, began getting on Zoom in October to discuss 50-plus rising players who were still off the grid with NFL draftniks (and even some NFL teams).

It got pretty popular and we had dozens of agents join us. We even had a few friends with NFL teams join us, just to make sure they weren’t missing anyone. It’s become a pretty popular feature and a regular part of what we do pre-Thanksgiving. The value is in the hidden gems Blake uncovers; everyone knows the 100-odd players who will go in the first couple rounds, but it’s much harder to predict the players who will make up players 150 to 250, plus the hot undrafted free agents.

It’s really hard to ask someone to provide names of players who are just good enough to be drafted, but not so good that they’ll be drafted before the fourth round. This is where you really have to have an eye for evaluation. Here are a few highlights from last year’s list:

  • Blake provided a list of 58 players. Only seven entered the draft and didn’t get drafted or signed. Of that seven, five went to one or more rookie mini-camps.
  • Of the 58, 21 went back to school, no doubt after being offered fat NIL deals. Can’t blame them for that.
  • Of the 30 remaining players, Blake accurately predicted all but 5-6 to go on Day 3 or to be signed post-draft. Of the other half-dozen, all went in the second or third round. 
  • Blake recommended four players who would be invited as tryout players, then earn UDFA deals during rookie mini-camp. They included Ball State DC Jaquan Amos, who recently signed with the Ravens; Arkansas FS Latavious Brini, who signed with the Jaguars; La.-Lafayette DC Eric Garror, who signed with the Titans; and UCF OH Isaiah Bowser, who signed with the Bills. There were only 24 players, total, who went from rookie tryout to UDFA deal, and Blake predicted four players who would pull off that difficult task.

This year, we’re going to put out a preseason list. Blake will present 50-plus players Thursday night at 8 p.m. ET on Zoom. Cost is $40 plus tax, and anyone can join us. Everyone that participates will get a copy of the video as well as Blake’s XL list. We’re expecting dozens of contract advisors and even a few friends of mine in professional evaluation. 

Like everyone else, I’m eager to see Blake’s list. “I tried to focus a lot on OL,” Blake told me. “Pass rushers and some other good PFAs and a few players that didn’t play as much last year, but may be big risers this year.”

Here’s a sneak peek at some of the players Blake will discuss Thursday night.

  • Logan Brown, OT, Kansas — Has the size and traits for the NFL, but needs to add strength and experience. Has character issues.
  • Reggie Grimes, DE, Oklahoma — Rising player with good bloodlines. Developing as a pass rusher. 
  • Willie Lampkin, OC, Coastal Carolina  — Very competitive player in camp who needs to continue to enhance his quickness, speed and athleticism.  
  • Joe More, OT, Syracuse — Four-year starter at Richmond who is hoping to prove he can compete on the FBS level this year. 
  • Zion Logue, DT, Georgia — The latest defensive line project out of Athens isn’t on the Jordan Davis/Jalen Carter level, and has been mostly a reserve to this point, but has interesting upside.

I hope you can join us Thursday night at 8 p.m. ET. It’s going to be a lot of fun. I can hardly wait to see the players Blake has on his list. Cost is $40 plus tax, and you can register here.

When Should You Start Studying for the NFL Agent Exam?

09 Friday Jun 2023

Posted by in Agents, Getting started, ITL

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This week, I got this same question from two different aspiring NFL agents. I’ve included one of them verbatim (or mostly verbatim):

“I’m . . . interested in figuring out when I should start reviewing (exam) materials, when I should hop on the zooms, and when I should start doing the deep dive? Is it too early to start looking at things now for the sake of at least getting a general understanding? Let me know your thoughts.”

My response is different from the one I used to give.

With the exam less than two months away, we’re starting to get our usual surge of study guide, video and practice exam purchases. I think that used to be the right amount of time. Not long ago, if you studied hard for two months, you were pretty much golden. It wasn’t long ago that the passing rate for the exam was, well, pretty reasonable. However, starting in 2015, the pass rate got a lot harder.

I remember the responses from people who had barely failed a pretty passable exam in 2014, then came back excited and optimistic in 2015, only to find a test that was appreciably harder. I felt terrible for the ones who came up short that year, earning themselves a five-year waiting period until they could try again. Most never did. However, since 2015, the NFLPA has doubled down. I tell test-takers these days that there’s about a 25-percent chance of passing for first-timers, and maybe 50-50 on the second try. That’s not based on hard numbers, but I think it’s pretty accurate.

As a result of this, when people approach me about taking the exam next year, I tell them it’s not a bad idea to get started now. I recommend they pick up the study guide and start getting familiar with the terms. Maybe they order the videos if they are more visual learners. Bottom line, if you think you can just wait until a few weeks before the exam to get started, like it’s an algebra test, you’re sorely mistaken.

I mean, it’s possible to pass in less time, but you’re looking at a major investment of time and money. It just makes no sense to take that kind of risk, especially when the amount of money you’re spending is absolute peanuts in the face of the costs associated with representing players in the modern era. 

If you’re reading this, and you’re taking the exam in the summer of 2024, get started on the CBA now. You’ll thank me later. If you’re taking it in 46 days, start now. NOW. You cannot procrastinate and expect to pass an exam that 75 percent of test-takers (all of them with a secondary degree, most of them attorneys) routinely fail.

For a full rundown of everything we offer, including topics of all our videos and costs of all our services, sign up for the Friday Wrap. You can register here.

 

2023 XFL Rookie Draft: A Recap of Our Zoom

02 Friday Jun 2023

Posted by in Agents, XFL

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I’ve been fortunate enough to have developed a good relationship with Russ Giglio and Doug Whaley of the XFL, and as a result, they’ve joined me on several Zoom sessions aimed at NFL contract advisors. The latest session was Wednesday, and it was really productive as Russ and Doug opened with remarks about the Rookie Draft set for Friday, June 16, then answered questions for the better part of an hour.

Here’s the complete recording of our session. If you don’t have time to wade through it — and if you represent a player who hopes to be drafted later this month, I think you should — here are a few highlights.

  • The actual time of the draft is not yet set. However, it will be a 10-round draft, so only 80 players will be selected. Doug and Russ didn’t expect any of the teams to pass on their later-round picks, as happened in January.
  • This will be a rights draft. Players won’t be tendered contracts after they’re selected. However, Russ and Doug said they expected them to be provided no later than August/September. The league is working on finalizing contracts for the 2024 season. 
  • One of the holdups is that players are weighing forming a union. They said they expect the union issue to be resolved by the end of the summer.
  • The draft class is made up solely of players who were NFL Draft-eligible in April. If a player has signed an NFL, CFL or USFL contract, that player is not eligible for the draft June 16. On the other hand, due to the league’s partnership with the Indoor Football League, players under contract with IFL teams will be included in the XFL June draft pool.
  • There is no player pool, per se. Players just have to be draft-eligible for 2023 and not signed with another league. 

  • Players who are bypassed in June are not shut out of the league. There will be a second draft after NFL cuts in November, and there are no restrictions on age or playing experience for that draft (exact date still TBA). 

  • After this summer’s six showcases across the country in June and July, the XFL will take the’ top performers to a two-day combine in Arlington, Texas. There are about 200 players at each of the six showcases, and the league will take the top 150-200 performers from all six of the events to the XFL combine. 

  • Agents with players interested in the June 16 Rookie Draft or the draft at the end of the summer are encouraged to send their clients’ information to fbo@xfl.com. Make sure to include player’s name and position; last school played for; draft year; last pro team (if applicable); email and cell of player; and player’s agent. 

There’s plenty more to know, so I encourage you to check out the video if you hope to play in the league next year or represent someone who does.

Need even more info? Check out the Friday Wrap, which comes out later today. You can register for it here.

A Brief Explainer on Training Addenda for NFL Agents

20 Thursday Apr 2023

Posted by in Agents, NFL draft

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A tweet from my colleague Darren Heitner today got a lot of traction with people interested in NFL player representation, and I feel it bears some explaining, so I thought I’d use this week’s post to break down how combine prep agreements work for the lion’s share of contract advisors and their clients.

Before we go on, I think it might be helpful if you review the evolution of training options NFL agents have offered (and players have commanded) over the past 20 years. When ITL launched in 2002, there was no combine prep to speak of, but year by year, that’s changed, and today, it’s a critical part of the agent-prospect relationship.

At any rate, the standard representation agreement (SRA) that the NFLPA mandates that all agents sign with their clients makes no mention of combine training. It strictly lays out the fee agreement between a player and his representative, how the agent will bill the player and what he can bill him for, etc. Any contract advisor who’s going to offer training — and I preach this, time and again, to new agents that we work with at Inside the League — MUST set forth everything he’s offering in a separate addendum that he requires the player to sign.

It’s commonplace to think of this addendum as solely related to traditional training — that the agent will pay for 6-8 weeks of combine prep as well as lodging and food at an agreed-upon facility. However, as players’ expectations have grown to include stipends, per diems, signing bonuses, rental cars, mid-training trips back home, more well-appointed apartments, etc., those addenda (commonly called “training riders”) have expanded significantly. If you don’t have one — and if you don’t, you are really playing with fire — it’s tantamount to gambling thousands of dollars. Just ask the nearly 50 agents who’ve already been fired by their clients with a week to go until draft day.

Now, you might think an agent would be crazy to offer such training options to players who have negligible chances to even make a 90-man roster, much less play several years in the league. Well, that’s the dilemma facing every modern player representative. Do you try to hold the line on the soaring cost of simply helping a player through the draft process, knowing you’ll probably only sign players that have no NFL interest? Or do you risk large sums of money, hoping to contain costs along the way and betting that your client beats the odds and makes a roster? These are the things no one tells you as you pursue the exciting and potentially fulfilling life of an NFL agent, just as so many are these days in the months and weeks leading to July’s NFLPA exam. 

It’s easy to criticize those who are in the arena for the decisions they make. What I can tell you is, most people who get into the agent business do it for the right reasons. Often, they only fail because the economics of the game have become so upside-down. Any honest modern NFL agent — there are more than 900 of them certified by the NFLPA — will tell you it’s gotten out of hand, but there’s no easy way to fix things. 

Ask the Scout: What We Learned From Our Final New Agent Zoom of ’23

14 Friday Apr 2023

Posted by in Agents, NFL draft

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Monday night, we welcomed former Titans scouting executive Blake Beddingfield for our final monthly Zoom session aimed at rookie agents fighting to get their first-ever clients onto NFL rosters. Obviously, for the newest contract advisors, every shred of advice from good counsel matters, so Blake’s input was critical. The best part of having a seasoned former NFL exec around means learning, and that goes for me as well as everyone on the call.

This session was different because one thing Blake said was contrary to what I’ve always preached. One participant asked Blake if there was value in reaching out to all 32 NFL teams to remind them of an agent’s clients and their workout numbers, and Blake encouraged him to do so.

My approach has always been that, with the APT Coalition and the cooperation between teams on workout numbers, most scouts would see such communication as unnecessary and maybe even less than trustworthy. Blake’s take was that he’d rather have the chance to sift through all the numbers and make his own decision on what’s valid and what’s not. That makes sense, as long as contract advisors don’t get the impression they can lobby their clients onto NFL rosters. I think that’s a misconception that’s been long-held by some of the lesser prospects in each draft class. At the end of the day, there’s something to be said about making sure your client is front of mind on Saturday.

Here are a few other things we discussed that I found intriguing.

Not all teams are good at developing players, and you need to know which ones are and aren’t before you make a UDFA choice. Blake mentioned the Seahawks as a team that’s very good at making Day 3 players into stars, and that extends to UDFA signees. Indeed, Seattle got a lot of mileage out of two Day 3 cornerbacks, Cincinnati’s Coby Bryant (4/109) and UTSA’s Tariq Woolen (5/153), last year. Remember this if you’re weighing a post-draft offer from the Seahawks and a rival team.

Don’t lose hope if your client doesn’t have a home on Saturday. Rookie mini-camp invitations are not preferred, but they’re better than nothing, and sometimes they aren’t extended until Monday, Tuesday, or even later. It’s even possible a player get a UDFA offer Sunday or later.

There’s value in “accepting” an offer now, especially if it’s a rookie mini-camp invite. No one is going to be angry if your client gets a UDFA deal, but it’s OK to make a gentleman’s agreement on a rookie mini-camp nod before the draft. Of course, this is strictly illegal, so don’t tell anyone, but it happens all the time.

The $3,000 signing bonus mark is a pretty good measure of how invested a team is in your UDFA client. The real graduations, Blake said, are $5,000 or more (highly invested), $3,000 (reasonable investment) and $1,000 or less (these players are strictly a dice roll for the team and not at all expected to make the roster).

There’s a lot more to learn about the industry, and it starts with our weekly newsletter, which comes out in just a few hours. Register for it here.

Our Next New Agent Zoom on the Pre-Draft Process: What’s Ahead

07 Friday Apr 2023

Posted by in Agents, Getting started, NFL draft

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Monday night, I’ll gather with dozens of members of the 2022 NFLPA contract advisor class to discuss the critical next three weeks leading up to this spring’s draft. These sessions are always a lot of fun and, I hope, informative. The questions that get asked are always relevant to every participant. What’s more, we don’t record these sessions, so we get really honest, really candid questions, and I try to respond with similar answers.

This month’s session will be special because we’ll be joined by a special guest. Here are a few topics we’ll be covering and what’s ahead at 9 p.m. ET Monday night.

  • How do I promote my client in the next three weeks? Obviously, this is a popular question, and the answer depends on many particulars. 
  • How do I know if my client is a candidate for the draft? UDFA? How do I know if he’s not really under consideration? Most rookie agents don’t represent players who are locks to be drafted, so we’ll talk about the differing degrees of interest.
  • How do I choose which offer to take in undrafted free agency? This is where having former Titans scouting executive Blake Beddingfield as part of our staff comes in handy. Blake will give his thoughts on how to weigh offers from teams, and what their offers really mean.
  • Which teams are best at developing talent? This will be another key point that Blake will address. Knowing which teams can do more with late-round talent, and which ones are more patient than others, is key information.
  • What does Day 3 really look like? What does undrafted free agency look like? It’s a critical topic for a first-year agent, and we’ll set the scene.
  • My client had a good March and seems to be on the rise. How do I prepare him (and those around him) for worst-case scenarios? This is always a tricky topic. We’ll have tips.
  • Is there a point where it’s clear my client won’t get a camp opportunity? The post-draft singing process could last 2-3 days at times. It’s important to know who to contact (and not to contact) if you’re trying to round up opportunities.
  • What’s the difference between a UDFA signing and being invited to rookie mini-camp? This is another important distinction that we’ll discuss.

If you’re an ITL client, and you’re a first-year contract advisor, we’ll be sending out the Zoom link Monday afternoon. We hope you’ll make time to sit in and learn. However, if you’re not yet an ITL client, and think there is something to gain by joining us, we’d love to have you. All you have to do is sign up for ITL and you’re in business. 

We hope to see you Monday night at 9 p.m. ET. However, if you’re looking to learn more about the business, but you’re short on cash, you can sign up for our free newsletter, the Friday Wrap. Do that here.

Ask the Scout: Takeaways from our Rookie Agent Zoom

15 Wednesday Mar 2023

Posted by in Agents, Getting started

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Tuesday night, dozens of our clients who are in their first year as certified contract advisors assembled for our monthly Zoom session. This time, we were joined by Bob Morris, GM of the USFL’s Houston Gamblers. Here are a few takeaways.

  • I take no joy in saying this, but it’s incredibly hard to get a small-school player into a big-school pro day, and I’d say it’s gotten harder each year over the past decade. It’s gone from “maybe we’ll let you into our pro day if your school is in our state” to “we’re gonna need at least one scout who’s attending the pro day to call and vouch for the player” to “we’re gonna need two scouts to vouch” to “we’re full.” Almost exactly a third of players signed by agents so far are from sub-FBS schools. That’s a lot of players who may not get a chance to work out for scouts.
  • If you do get a player into a pro day, there’s no guarantee he’ll get to do the entire workout. Most schools use the 40 as a weed-out drill. A slow 40 might mean game over for the entire workout.
  • There’s a perception that the USFL (and to some degree, the XFL) are easy backup plans for players who go undrafted. However, Bob made it clear that he’s looking for NFL-caliber players and not just any player who’s every put on pads before. Also, the USFL can’t take players who weren’t in the draft pool until after Week 3 of the season (around the end of April). If there are any positives, it’s that the player doesn’t have to undergo a physical or a tryout to become part of the player pool in May. The player just needs a USFL GM to ask the league’s personnel director, John Peterson, to add him to the pool. That way, all eight teams have a crack at him.
  • In the USFL, players who are brought in for a tryout are responsible for their own travel and lodging. Hey, it’s a new league. They’re trying to be smart about spending money.
  • Bob said he uses all-star appearances as a good indication of whether or not a player has even minimal appeal to an NFL team. He said he wouldn’t even consider recommending a player for a pro day if he didn’t at least participate in an all-star game.
  • There are about 1,400 players signed to standard representation agreements this year. The size of the class should be down this year. Given how many Day 3 types went back to school with tidy NIL deals, the depth in the class isn’t great. That’s good news for first-year agents whose clients are more fringe.

Next month, we’ll have our final Rookie Agent Zoom, and it’s a key session. We’ll talk about draft weekend, how to gauge interest in your client, what to do if your client goes undrafted, how to spark interest and may other topics. Especially if you’re a new agent, I hope you can join us. Sign up for ITL here, or sign up for our free newsletter here.

 

Evolution of Signing Compensation for Top Draft Prospects

08 Wednesday Mar 2023

Posted by in Agents

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Tonight, I’m joining my friend Eugene Lee of 3 Strand Sports in his sports law class. We’ll be discussing the history of compensation provided to players by agents interested in signing them for standard representation.

The following is what I came up with. Is it perfectly accurate? Probably not, but pinning all this down is not easy. I reached out to several of my friends in player representation who’ve been around for a while, and most of them generally agreed with this timeline and the various facets of compensation (don’t call them inducements) I’ve listed.

  • Prior to around 2002: We didn’t really see players offered anything to sign with an agent until about 2002. Players might train on their own, but often, an agent would go to the combine to recruit and sign players.
  • 2005: This is about when the first training packages were offered. These were pretty bare-bones. Players would be tutored on speed, but programs were far from comprehensive.
  • 2007: It was around here that training started to be somewhere away from a player’s school or hometown, and began to specialize. More importantly, it was around this time that solely training was enough to offer. We began to see no-interest loans at this time, i.e., money the bank wanted back.
  • 2009: As the new CBA arrived, agents were beginning to shift from the no-interest loan to a marketing guarantee. This was legit; it wasn’t just free money disguised as earned money. Most of the marketing consisted of trading card and other deals. Back then, it was still common for the major shoe companies (Nike, Reebok, etc.) to provide apparel to draft prospects. It didn’t last much longer, however.
  • 2012: By now, we were well into the new CBA, and agents were now operating without the promise of the gargantuan rookie signing bonuses that teams handed out to top picks pre-2009. Still, players were expecting what previous draftees had received. We saw training really ramp up (by now, most combine training was taking place in the Sun Belt) and we saw marketing guarantees swell. This is also when agencies started providing a monthly allowance to top picks (called per diems) and we started to see agents offer to bill only two percent, not three percent, to top draftees.
  • 2015: It was around here that packages really began to expand. Players were getting training that also included rental cars and, at times, splashy living accommodations. They were also getting bigger signing bonuses while per diems were also inching up. Fee cuts were becoming more common, and marketing guarantees were stacked on top of signing bonuses.
  • 2018: It was probably around this time that we were seeing four-figure per diems become commonplace. This is also when fees were beginning to be 1 point for first-rounders, 2 points for second-rounders and 3 for all others. At  the same time, this is when I started to hear of some desperate firms offering a no-fee rookie deal (the agency would make money solely on marketing until the second contract). Obviously, all the other stuff (training, signing bonus, marketing guarantee) was also on the table.

Today, we’re seeing the following:

  • Training that typically runs in the $30,000 to $40,000 range.
  • Per diems — especially for players projected in the first 10-20 picks — in the $10,000 per month range.
  • A standard one percent fee for projected first-rounders, and in many cases when a firm is truly desperate to sign a top player, no fee at all.
  • Some agencies are even beginning to offer a fee cut on the second deal, the place where firms used to get well financially.
  • Marketing guarantees are still around, though often, agencies don’t expect a lot of actual work on these, i.e., appearances, signings, social media posts, etc. 

Obviously, not everyone in the draft class is receiving this — not by a long shot. These are mainly available to only the top prospects in the draft, though many of these are becoming commonplace even to later-round players. This is true to the point where, in my opinion, many players lose sight of their important goals while trying to maximize “what they get.”

If all of this sound excessive to you, you’re not alone. “It’s the most asinine, short-sighted cannibalism in American commerce,” said one established agent of the direction the industry is taking.

A Few Thoughts on Combine Week 2023

03 Friday Mar 2023

Posted by in Agents, NIL, Scouts

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It’s been a pretty busy few days in Indianapolis. Here are a few things that stuck with me.

  • Giants Executive Scout Jeremiah Davis won the C.O. Brocato Award at the 14th annual 2023 USI Insurance Holdings ITL Combine Seminar presented by American Tens. It was special for a lot of reasons, but especially so because, for the first time, we had a member of the winner’s family join us. Jeremiah’s daughter, Chloe, filmed her dad’s acceptance speech from that audience, and she seemed to be near tears as she did. I mean, it was pretty touching. It’s exciting to be part of something like that.
  • Jack Mills won our Eugene E. Parker Award for his years as a contract advisor. Two things stick out. One, he has been an agent for 55 years! If you follow the industry, that’s like 3-4 eras of representation he’s seen. Second, when Denver-based Peter Schaffer (who assists me in selecting the award winners) told him he’d won, he bought a plane ticket the next day. So that’s pretty cool. Again, very rewarding to honor good people.
  • In our BART List balloting — which determines, by vote of active scouts and executives, the top scouts in the game — we saw four repeat winners each in both conferences. In the NFC, Tariq Ahmad (49ers), Jeff Ireland (Saints), Tokunbo Abanikanda (Falcons) and Ted Monago (Rams) won for the second straight year. In the AFC, it was Ed Dodds (Colts), Terrance Gray (Bills), Matt Terpening (Colts) and Johnathon Stigall (Jets). 
  • Our first-ever Agents and Collectives (don’t call it NIL) Summit was a smashing success. There was a tremendous amount of candor and transparency; you couldn’t help but learn. Any time you assemble a lineup of experts, you hope they won’t talk “over” people and you hope they won’t hide the inner workings of the business. We had very positive outcomes on both counts this morning.
  • One last note — it was also a lot of fun talking to the future stars of the football industry who came to Indianapolis as part of the Lynn University sports management program. I got a chance to talk to the 13 folks here in town on the value of taking risks if you’re pursuing a career in sports. I shared a few war stories and, hopefully, didn’t bore them too much. Professor Sherry Andre’s students had some good questions, and they’re obviously passionate about the industry or they wouldn’t be here.

It’s been a fun and productive week, but a pretty taxing one, too, with late nights and early mornings. It’s all part of getting out there and building your network, which is a critical part of growth and progress. If you didn’t make it this year, I hope you do next year.

We’ll have more on what took place here in non-Lucas Oil Stadium action in our newsletter, the Friday Wrap. You can register for it here.

Highlights from Week 2 of the ’23 All-Star Season

20 Friday Jan 2023

Posted by in Agents, NFL draft, Scouts

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This week, I’m in Orlando, Fla., for the second half of the 2023 Trillion Tropical Bowl. The first part of the week was dedicated to players fighting to win spots on the roster for later in the week, when teams arrived to evaluate prospects. It’s a new dimension added this year by Michael Quartey and his team.

Here are a few things that happened this week that caught my attention.

  • Per yesterday’s measurements, there are 16 players in Orlando with at least 10-inch hands. UNLV DT Tavis Malakius has the biggest mitts with at 10 7/8 inches. Hawaii WO Jordan Murray has 10 1/4-inch hands, biggest of all the non-linemen. Murray’s got 33-inch arms and a 80 1/2-inch wingspan, enormous for a receiver. Southeast Missouri St. WO Johnny King has quite a catch radius, as well, with 34 1/8-inch arms. Auburn DE Marcus Bragg has the longest arms on either roster at 36 inches.
  • This is not a comprehensive list, but I’ve seen multiple scouts here from the 49ers, Bucs, Bears, Colts, Falcons, Jaguars, Jets, Packers, Saints, Steelers and Texans. As always, the Trop is a popular destination with NFL teams.
  • There are 70 agencies (or advisors working on a less formal basis) representing the 139 players here. That number seems high. Many of the agencies that regularly send players to Orlando aren’t here this year. Not sure what that means, if anything, but it’s different.
  • Here’s something I thought was interesting. Former Ravens DT John Urschel has his doctorate in mathematics, and though his playing days are behind him, he’s found a way to stay around the game. He tutors draft prospects on the Wonderlic via Zoom for combine prep trainees at EXOS Arizona.
  • Like any game these days, the Tropical Bowl has had to deal with players who said they’d be here, but who pulled out quite late or just no-showed. We counted 16 players who weren’t around Thursday morning for meetings and measurements. Good for Boise St. DC Caleb Biggers, who showed up this morning in time for practice, and Florida St. TE Camren McDonald, who got an NFLPA Collegiate Bowl invite but decided to stay for practices before departing the day before the game to report to Los Angeles.
  • Do these no-shows have an impact on players’ draft standing? Maybe not if handled well, but there’s a right way and a wrong way to do things. I’ll never forget when I ran the 2008 Hula Bowl and I was approached mid-week by Jim Abrams, now the Senior Scout for the Dolphins but then in his time with the Bucs. Jim pointedly asked me if there were any players we’d had trouble with that week. Well, we had one lineman from a MAC school who started complaining on the first day and didn’t quit until he got on his plane home. Keep in mind he was on an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii. I mean, how bad could things be? I was happy to tell Jim about this friend. For more on this topic — one that strikes a nerve with me — check out today’s Friday Wrap, which comes out at 7:30 p.m. ET. You can register for it here.
  • I’m always approached about what it takes to become an agent. If you choose player representation, I’d keep in mind this expression from one established, successful, and maybe a little world-weary contract advisor who’s been a friend for a long time. When discussion today turned to when retirement might come, his response was maybe a little wry but accurate: “The only exit strategy is death.”