Category Archives: Coaches

A Beginner’s Guide to Working the NFL Combine

17 Friday Feb 2017

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Every year I talk to people looking to break into the NFL as an agent, scout, financial advisor or even player, and very often, their plan is to start with the combine (yes, several years I’ve seen ex-college stars trying to give their resumes to scouts and writers in Indianapolis).

Look, I get it. Nowhere else can you find every scout, every coach, and every top NFL prospect in one city at the same time. Not at the Senior Bowl, and certainly not at the NFL draft. In addition, Indianapolis is pretty easy to navigate. Unlike my home city of Houston, you don’t need a car once you get downtown. Pretty much everything is within walking distance, and if you know the walkways, you never even have to go outside.

If you’re an aspiring member of the football business who’s headed to Indy in two weeks, here are a few do’s and don’ts.

  • If you’re a financial advisor headed to Indy, hoping to hit up as many top players as you can talk to, curb your enthusiasm. Players are in town for four days, not a day more, and while they’re in town, almost every minute is scheduled. In fact, players are assigned to groups with a scout who takes them around; it’s almost like they have a chaperone. In addition, all players stay at the Crown Plaza Downtown Union Station, and it might as well be Fort Knox. Twenty years ago, the lobby at the Crown was the nerve center, the place where writers, agents, and even scouts hung out. These days, take as much as a step inside the lobby without the proper credentials and security tackles you.
  • I spoke to a young man today who will be taking the agent exam this summer, and he’s headed to Indy to meet as many scouts as he can. I have a lot of respect for someone who’s spending his own money with no agenda but to try to make ‘cold’ introductions to scouts. This is also a tough proposition. Most scouts don’t want to know an agent unless he’s got a player that interests them. Until then, these agents are just someone else clogging their inbox or handing out business cards. I’m going to try to help this young man, but I’ve tried to keep his expectations reasonable.
  • It helps to have a sense of ‘place’ when you’re at the combine. For NFL scouts and personnel, obviously, it’s everything going on at Lucas Oil Stadium, and for the media, it’s the interview room at the Convention Center, with players and executives streaming through regularly. For agents, there’s the NFLPA seminar all day on Thursday. Even selected fans will have something to do this year with Indianapolis turned into a Super Bowl-style hive of NFL entertainment and activity. But if you’re someone looking to make connections, it’s a little tougher. That’s one reason we at ITL have held a seminar for seven years. We’ve hosted a number of ex-NFL GMs and scouts, as well as key members of the NFL draft media. This year, for our eighth event, we’ll have former NFL scout Matt Manocherian, who’s now with Sports Info Solutions. He’ll give an insider’s look at how analytics are being used by NFL teams. String that together with a happy hour sponsored by one of our partners and a few other lunches open to people in the agent business, and it gives you something to do. But you kind of have to know where to go and what to do.
  • If you don’t fit into any of these categories, I always recommend The Omni as a place to people-watch and maybe meet a few key people. Lunch is good at The Ram, which has big, enclosed booths that can hold 6-8 people; it’s almost like having your own mini-meeting room. After dinner hours, you can find scouts and executives at St. Elmo’s, Shula’s, and High Velocity, the tony bar at the J.W. Marriott.

My Son, and a Draft Prospect’s Mindset

06 Friday Jan 2017

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This week, I had an epiphany on why so many draft prospects (especially projected late-rounders) struggle to see the game as a business and fail to see their place in it. It sprung from an experience I had at a hometown eatery with my wife, son, and his swim coach.

My oldest son, 14, plays pretty much whatever’s in season, but basketball, swimming and track (long jump) are his passions, and what he’s best at. He’s long and lean, with a perfect swimmer’s build, and at 6-foot-3 just an inch shorter than I am. But he lives in suburban Houston, a place where young men start being groomed for the pros at second grade. He’s also captivated by Michael Phelps, and aspires to the Olympics. So there we were at lunch with his swim coach, wanting to know what it might take for him to realize his dreams, however impractical they may be.

In the space of an hour, my son’s coach talked about his decorated career as a high school swimmer under one of the best coaches in the state of Texas. He talked about giving up summer vacations and holidays; about two-hour swim sessions early in the morning followed by two-and-a-half-hour sessions in the afternoon; about having only one month (August) off from that routine every year; and about giving up all other sports in junior high to focus solely on swimming. His sacrifices and devotion to life in the pool produced a scholarship to an excellent Division II school in the Midwest, where he swam four more years and earned an engineering degree. To me, or any other adult, that’s an incredible success story. At the same time, it came at a stiff price, and despite his excellence, fell far short of Olympic glory.

 

The coach’s story of sacrifice and work gave my wife and I pause. I’d heard pretty much all I had to hear, and to me, the path was clear: swim, yes, but also play as many sports as possible, whatever’s in season. Have fun. Let life play out, hoping to play basketball in high school but also trying to swim and maybe even continuing his long jump career. And as the competition stiffened, he could withdraw from sports, but it would all happen organically. In short, something less than total devotion to one sport in a probably fruitless Olympic chase.

That’s the reaction I expected from my son. Instead, he turned to the coach and said, basically, when do we start?

There’s a postscript. That evening, coming home from youth group at our church, we had a long talk, and he admitted his tension about what lay ahead. The commitment to swimming was daunting and he didn’t know if he could do it. “I just want to make you and mom proud of me,” he said. Though I assured him that my wife and I love him and have no expectations, and that we would support him no matter what, the next day he sent me a text a few hours before the afternoon’s basketball game. “Still nervous,” it read. Not about the game. But about swimming.

I take two things from this. One, when you’re young, you believe everything is possible. I mean, everything. With the right amount of effort and the necessary training, you’ll get to your goals. I think this is why so many aspiring NFL players feel combine prep is so absolutely critical.

But the other is this. Many of these young men feel overwhelming pressure to get to the NFL. A lot of it is internal, because they know it’s ‘put up or shut up’ time. However, a lot of that is external. Their whole identity has already been associated with their status as a football player, and when their NFL dreams die, they become someone else, not just to themselves, but to their friends, family, the people back home, everyone. That produces desperation, and it’s probably why it’s so hard for that dream to die.

As a 47-year-old, it’s so easy to forget what it’s like to not be established, and how difficult it is to grapple with the weight of expectations. But I think I understand it a lot better now.

Who Gets Hired As An NFL GM?

03 Friday Jun 2016

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With the dust settling in NFL front offices, I thought it would be interesting to look at the general managers hired in the last three years. Where do they come from? What do they have in common? What do NFL teams seem to be looking for in the best candidates?

To answer these questions, we came up with this graphic comparing the 10 GMs hired in the last three years. The 10: Ray Farmer (Browns) and Jason Licht (Bucs) in 2014; Mike Maccagnan (Jets), Scot McCloughan (Redskins) and Ryan Pace (Bears) in 2015; and Sashi Brown (Browns), Chris Grier (Dolphins), Bob Quinn (Lions), Jon Robinson (Titans) and Howie Roseman (Eagles) this year.

Here’s what we came up with:

Finished at 50: The oldest GM hired in the last three years is Maccagnan at 47, and his hiring comes with a bit of an asterisk because his relationship to the man conducting the Jets’ search (former Texans and Redskins GM Charley Casserly) was central to his selection. Second-oldest is new Fins GM Grier, and like Maccagnan he’s a bit of an outlier because the real iron in Miami’s front office belongs to Mike Tannenbaum, the team’s Executive Vice President of Football Operations. Toss out those two, and average age of the last six GMs hired is 40. In fact, all four GMs hired this year (except Grier) have been 40.

Patriotic: Four of the 10 on the list had experience at New England on their respective resumes. Two others, Farmer and Pace, had the Belichick ‘scent’ as Farmer worked under ex-Pats executive Scott Pioli during his time in Kansas City while Pace was schooled in the Parcells way in New Orleans by head coach Sean Payton. The other four are outliers for different reasons. Brown and Roseman both earned the trust of ownership and worked their way into the GM position from within, while Maccagnan benefitted from his time with Casserly and McCloughan had a different, though substantial, pedigree from his status as a Ron Wolf protege.

Some experience necessary: Though all 10 could be considered experienced in league circles, none could be considered an old hand, per se. Only four (Grier, Licht, Maccagnan and McCloughan) had more than two decades in NFL front offices when they were hired. On the other end of the spectrum, the Browns hired not one, but two, GMs in the last three years who had 14 years or less in pro football management. Farmer and Brown combined for 26 years’ experience. That’s just two more years than Maccagnan and McCloughan each had (24) when they were hired.

There’s plenty more to know about the men who are being hired as general managers these days. We develop it a bit more in our Friday Wrap, a free weekly newsletter that goes out to more than 3,000 people all around the game. Want in? Register here.

 

 

A No-Win in Waco

26 Thursday May 2016

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The dissolution of Baylor’s football coaching staff, about three months before the Bears kick off the ’16 season, has consumed much of my morning. Until today, I thought the hiring of Lovie Smith at Illinois had been late, but that’s nothing compared to what’s happening in Waco with Art Briles now out of the picture. For several hours now, I’ve fielded texts from friends and associates. It’s a weird, wild time.

I talked to a few friends in the business who handle coaches to get their feedback on the situation. Would they send a client into the unsettled situation that Baylor offers? Bay Harbor Islands, Fla.-based Brian Levy of Goal Line Sports, who represents several hot young college and NFL coaches as well as Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin, said he’d stay away.

“I think with this situation, you’re not gonna send an up-and-coming guy,” he said. “The program is great, but it has a lot of problems. With the President (Kenneth Starr) on the chopping block and the AD (Ian McCaw) too, I don’t know what they’re going to do and how they’re going to restructure. They’ll probably want to get a big name to reestablish dignity and order there, and they’ve gotta bring in the right guy.”

Brian said it could be a no-win situation with so many variables and so little time until the season starts.

“Do (the circumstances that led to Baylor’s upheaval) have a lot to do with the caliber of players they recruited? I can’t answer that. They may have been taking a lot of guys whose ACT and SAT scores are not the greatest and they get them in. Sometimes those are the kids you have to babysit a lot. These coaches aren’t looking to be babysitters. They want structure, and you don’t know how these programs are run. There’s no accountability and no system set up for the player to come in and ask the right questions and get the right results before the program imploded. All these big sports supporters who will do anything to win, that doesn’t go over well (with the better coaches), and then all of the sudden you have a disjointed program.

“(The school will) have to spend money. I really believe they’ll try to keep the continuity this year. Who are you gonna get (at this point)? It won’t be a big-name guy. You can’t get a guy from the NFL at this point. Your next coach will be a disciplinarian, an experienced, veteran coach who will bring them respectability. . . At this point, you can’t build a staff.”

He said the team is probably conducting two searches simultaneously.

“This (hiring) process will start immediately for next year. Now, the interim head coach could do an incredible job. You don’t know. But I’m telling you, anyone with the stench of the past regime they will want to get rid of. As we’ve seen with the Lions, who got rid of their whole offensive staff. I think you’ll see that there. Will get new a new President and a new AD, and then they will immediately begin the search for a new head coach.”

 

A Look At NFL Coaches’ Alma Maters

11 Monday Apr 2016

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Recently, I did a breakdown of all the NFL coaches and assistant coaches (full positional coaches only — no ‘assistant safeties coaches’) and the schools they graduated from. It was interesting, and I thought I’d make a few observations based on the compiled list.

  • There’s an incredible amount of diversity, with 213 schools represented. That’s good news for people who aspire to be in the game, and something I’ve tried to hammer for a long time. No matter where you are, if your school has a football team, and you want to work in football, get your butt to the football office and volunteer. Immediately.
  • The top three schools are all football titans: Southern Cal leads with eight, while Penn State and Ohio State are tied for second with seven each.
  • Here’s something interesting. For ages, Miami (Ohio) has been known as the cradle of coaches for producing legendary names like Paul Brown, Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler and Sid Gillman. Of course, football was very different then, and Miami (Ohio) could play on a more level playing field then. Mid-America Conference football is very different from what’s being played in the SEC, Pac-12 and ACC now, but the school is still producing coaches. It’s tied for No. 3 overall with Pittsburgh with six NFL coaches, and some of them are still quite young. They include Ravens head coach John Harbaugh as well as an offensive coordinator (Sean McVay, Redskins) and a former (interim) head coach, Aaron Kromer, who now coaches the offensive line for the Bills.
  • By the way, Miami (Ohio) has more coaches in the NFL (6 v. 5) than the ‘other’ Miami.
  • William & Mary is tied for sixth overall with five coaches in the NFL, while Indiana (Pa.), Montana and Springfield College are tied with four each. William & Mary, IUP and Montana are all FBS schools, but Springfield is Division III.  Again, you don’t have to go to a big school to make it to the NFL as a coach. Arizona State, BYU, Georgia, Michigan and Nebraska are all schools with just one coach in the NFL who graduated from their schools.
  • Other non-FBS schools in the top 38 are New Hampshire, North Dakota State and Southwestern Oklahoma, which each have three coaches in the league.

I hope these numbers show you that NFL coaches come from all around, and if pursuing a place in the league is your ambition, don’t let the school you attended stop you.

A QB’s Dilemma

22 Tuesday Dec 2015

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I’m working with the family of a QB who’ll be part of the ’16 draft class, and I had a long conversation with his father today. I thought his perspectives on the coming draft, and what concerns he has for his son, were interesting, and I thought they shed a lot of light on the decision-making process. Without providing specifics that would give the young man away, here are a few observations on our discussion.

  • Marketing is a major concern: We talked at length about the marketing situation that faces his son. As we recounted in last week’s blog post, quarterbacks, receivers and running backs are really the only three positions where a player can make considerable off-the-field money. For this reason, the father is seriously weighing the value of splitting off his son’s marketing work to a firm that specializes in it (normally it’s something that the contract advisor is left to do).
  • What can an agent do?: There’s a perception, especially among lower-rated players, that an agent can get a player drafted much higher than he would without a good agent. Is that true? Yes and no. However, one thing that a good agent can do is get his client to the highest-rated all-star game available, and if the Senior Bowl is attainable, that’s big. That’s a major issue for my friend.
  • Coaches are a major influence: I already beat this drum pretty hard already in this space, but when it comes to the major draft prospects, it’s rare that there’s not some coach offering (usually unsolicited) advice. Some of the coaches have the player’s best interests in mind, but some are getting some form of compensation from interested parties. The hard part is figuring out who’s up to something and who’s trying to help.
  • Training decisions are tricky: When it comes to quarterbacks, release and footwork are critical, and the wrong trainer can come in and try to rework things, just to put their own spin on things. That’s why finding a QB coach who is willing to yield on some things but be forceful and stern on others is pretty important.

Inside the College Advisory Committee (Pt. 2)

09 Wednesday Dec 2015

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Today, though it’s War Story Wednesday, let’s continue our conversation with Cara Luterek, whose extensive experience in the NFL’s personnel office includes plenty of time with the College Advisory Committee that reviews juniors and redshirt sophomores’ requests for a draft status review.

As always, my questions are followed by Cara’s answers. They indicate that the league takes this process seriously and doesn’t simply try to discourage players with negative grades.

How early can a request be submitted? How many players typically submit their names?

Any time following the completion of a player’s regular college football season. Approximately 185-200 the past few years.

I’ve always heard that there is a set number of rotating teams whose representatives evaluate the names submitted. Is this true? How many teams are part of this rotation? How long is a team on this rotation? Does a team typically use a director-level scout for this? A combine scout? Up to the team?

All 32 NFL teams are represented on the Committee, as well as National Football Scouting and BLESTO. Each team’s representative is a senior level personnel evaluator, whether it is the General Manager, Vice President of Player Personnel, or Director of College Scouting.  Each player request is assigned to a minimum of four NFL teams, as well as NFS and BLESTO, for a total of 6 grades. After grades are submitted to the NFL office through an internal website, the player personnel department looks for a consensus, not an average. Additional teams are asked to submit grades if there is not a clear consensus.

Have you ever had any coaches, or anyone affiliated with a school, intimate that ‘the kid isn’t ready’ or ‘he’s crazy to do this’ and maybe try to influence you to rate the kid poorly?

There have been instances where a college coach expresses concern that a player is not ready for the NFL or is making a poor decision, but never to influence the committee.

Has anyone ever ‘appealed’ their grade? Have you ever gotten pushback from a player or team based on the information you returned to them?

There were instances when players clearly thought they would be evaluated more highly than the grade the Committee returned or did not agree with a grade. However, the NFL office always asked for additional grades on any player that had a wide range or who was bordering on rounds. Despite the player’s shock, many times he ended up being drafted exactly where the Committee projected.

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.

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.

More Cap Insights From J.I.

26 Monday Oct 2015

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We’ve been using this space to share the insights of former Redskins cap guru J.I. Halsell, who’s worked for the league as well as for one of the biggest agencies in the business, Priority Sports, as a contract advisor. I think he does a good job of making the cap understandable for the layman (like me). You must agree, because his posts have been pretty popular.

Here are a couple more questions and answers from J.I.

Former Jets GM John Idzik was criticized by some and hailed by others for creating several million dollars in cap space, then sitting on it during the final year he ran the team, contending that there weren’t quality players available and that he’d rather spend the money the next year. In general, is this a wise strategy?

In personal finance, it is normally ill-advised to spend money just because you have it. However, if there is need in your household that must be addressed, then spending the money is most likely prudent.  Some would argue that the Jets under Idzik had many needs in their proverbial household; Idzik obviously differed in his opinion.  Clubs like the Packers eschew veteran free agency and instead prefer to build through the draft and reward those home-grown players with cap dollars on their second contracts. In my opinion, given the various uncertainties (scheme, comfort, et al) with signing a pricey veteran free agent, the most prudent use of cap dollars is on your own because you know what you’re getting.  The key to this philosophy, however, is that you have to draft and develop players.  If you unsuccessfully develop players, then you have to go into the uncertainty that is free agency to address your needs.

For a healthy team that enjoys success over the long run, what does the team’s cap picture look like? Where is the money spent? What percent of the cap is usually bundled up in how many players? Is most of the cap space devoted to defense or offense? On average, how much of a team’s cap space is devoted to the starting QB?

Sustained organizational success in the league is often correlated to the presence of an established franchise QB.  Accordingly, a club’s biggest cap allocation is (usually) at the QB position, where the average allocation per player is 3.1%, compared to an average of 1.3%-1.8% for all other positions per player.  The split between offense and defense in terms of cap allocation is fairly even at 44.8% and 42.9%, with the balance of cap allocations consisting of specialists and players no longer on the roster.

As always, don’t forget to follow J.I. on Twitter, and if you’re serious about finding a niche in the game that few people pursue, give serious consideration to joining his site, NFL Contract Metrics.