Category Archives: NFL draft

Two Chances to Learn the Finer Points of Day 3

11 Thursday Apr 2024

Posted by in Agents, NFL draft, Scouts

≈ Leave a comment

As of today, we are exactly two weeks away from the 2024 NFL Draft. That means it’s white-knuckle time for the hundreds of draft prospects hoping to hear their names called over the three days of the draft. 

If you’re one of those players, or you represent one of them, you’re probably foraging for all the information you can find that might be helpful the last weekend in April. If so, I’ve got something for you. 

Tonight, former Panthers GM and Seahawks executive Scott Fitterer will join dozens of members of the ITL family for an hour, answering my questions and, maybe, even a few from the attendees. Here are the questions I’ll pose him tonight. 

  • Let’s talk about the month of April for an NFL team. Take us through, week-by-week, on what you’re doing as you finalize things for the draft.
  • If you could choose only one characteristic, would you choose traits, total playing experience, or most recent season’s production as the main reason you drafted or signed a player? 
  • About how many players each year get “draftable” grades? About how many wind up on your board as UDFAs? About how many does the staff “write,” typically?
  • What is your philosophy on Day 3? Are these picks normally players that had exceptional pro days? Are they players that “slipped” that you had rated much higher? Are you looking to fill out special teams in these rounds? 
  • Take us through your process for removing a player from your draft board, either for character or medicals. Was he really “removed,” or was he just moved to a much lower position?
  • What does Day 3 look like for you? How did you usually determine who got drafted and who got left for the UDFA chase?
  • What did your post-draft UDFA process look like? How did you integrate RMC/tryout invitations? 
  • Do you prefer rookie mini-camp the weekend after the draft or the second weekend, and why? How often did you take players who had been in a camp on Wkd 1, if you camped Wkd 2?
  • Can you ever recall “discovering” a player, or even getting information that led to you drafting/signing a player, from an agent-generated, mass email? 
  • For a player drafted in 2023/2024, when was the first time one of your scouts started evaluating him? 

If you’re an ITL client, you’re invited to join us at 9 p.m. ET for an hour-long session. Just contact us and we’ll send you the Zoom link. If you’re not part of the ITL family, it’s not too late to sign up. 

Now, let’s say you’re limited, budget-wise, but still need to get coached up on what scouts do (and agents should do as a result) related to Day 3 and the UDFA process. We got you covered. Wednesday’s edition of the Scouting the League podcast had me asking my podcast co-host, Rodrik David, several questions that are similar in nature to what I’ll be asking Scott tonight. Here’s what Rodrik, former area scout for the Falcons, handled in our podcast, which you can check out here: 

  • What is April like for an area scout? Is all the hay in the barn, pretty much?
  • Did you feel like you had a pretty good handle on all the players the team rated as draftable? Or did you mostly feel comfortable with guys from your region?
  • What were Top 30 visits like? What could players do/not do?
  • Do you ever remember a Top 30 visit that took a player off your board?
  • How much say did you have in moving players up/down during April?
  • When was your board totally “set?”
  • What was your role on local pro days? What about during the UDFA process?
  • How much power did you have during the UDFA process to really stand on a table for a guy?
  • When did you start looking to the following year’s draft class?

Either way, if you’re interested in professional development, you’ll benefit from one or both of these options. Need even more help? Make sure you’re signed up for our weekly newsletter. Do that here.

                    Here’s Why Getting Drafted is Harder Than You Might Expect

                    22 Friday Mar 2024

                    Posted by in Agents, NFL draft

                    ≈ Leave a comment

                    I think there’s a perception that there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of possible draftees in each draft class. I think the copious NFL Draft coverage and the NFL’s encouragement of the media hype surrounding the draft just feed this perception. It’s one reason why so many players feel like they have an NFL shot despite not being regular starters, even at the sub-FBS level, in college. That puts a real strain on a lot of well-meaning contract advisors.

                    This week, I wanted to test my theory by getting a better sense of how many players are seriously considered by NFL teams. To do this, I asked several friends in the industry this question: Typically, my impression is that the typical team puts “draftable” grades on 100-120 players each draft. How many of those usually made it to the UDFA process? My goal was to illustrate how many of the players teams rated as good enough to help a team nonetheless got pushed down the board all the way into the UDFA process.

                    The answers I got were mostly on par with what I expected. Some teams cast a wider net, or perhaps had a lower bar for being considered “draftable,” than others, but most boiled the board down to a limited number. For example, one scout said his team had “about 20-30 (undrafted prospects) every year” — I think he signed off on my 100-120 number — and those slid due to “a medical issue” or it “could be an off-the-field issue.” Another team was very comparable to the first team. “Maybe five” didn’t get drafted among the 140 the team valued as worthy of being selected. Those five had Day 3 grades.

                    Another friend’s team clearly cast a much wider net. He said each area (I’m presuming  areas would be West Coast, Midwest, Northeast, Southeast, Southwest and Midlands) had about 300 total reports, with around 40 percent of each area going undrafted. I felt that was a lot of players who made that team’s radar, which translated to a lot of players leaking into the undrafted pile. He also said “a good chunk would have their final grade dropped to a UDFA grade” prior to the draft. I got the sense those players were downgraded at some point in the weeks leading up to the draft.

                    A third friend said his team set up a “hot list” of around 100 players, depending on the team’s number and quality of picks. The team held strictly to that list and only 4-6 would slip through to the UDFA crop. I got the sense that this team made it a priority to sign that small list of undrafted-but-legitimate prospects (“we’d recruit the (crap) out of UDFAs, starting a week or more before the draft”). 

                    Every year, about 1,500-2,000 players sign with agents. Though I want to be encouraging to the players hoping to be drafted, the truth is that though 250+ players get drafted each year, even that number is probably on the high side of which ones are really prospects. Remember that when your favorite draft pundit runs down the “best values” in the waning minutes of the broadcast.

                    More Updates, Tidbits on the NCAA Transfer Portal

                    15 Friday Mar 2024

                    Posted by in NFL draft, NIL

                    ≈ Leave a comment

                    At Inside the League, we’ve been focusing a lot of our attention on the college football transfer portal. We had a widely attended symposium at the NFL Combine and we discussed it in the Scouting the League podcast with guest Oscar Monnier (former portal boss at five P5 schools) last month. It’s one of the hottest topics in the player representation industry, but it’s still mostly a mystery, at least among the bigger agencies.

                    It’s got me thinking about the fundamentals of the transfer portal, starting with how, exactly, it all works. As near as I can tell, there’s a process.

                    • Player enters the portal.
                    • A director or member of the personnel staff, knowing which position(s) the school is targeting, does a preliminary evaluation of the player.
                    • The personnel staffer submits his evaluation and any game film he can round up to the relevant position coach, who then makes a determination on whether to pursue him. This normally takes less than 24 hours.
                    • The team decides if the player is worthy of an offer. If the offer is made, a visit is scheduled. 
                    • At some point, the coaches huddle with the collective (if the school has one) to determine how much money, if any, can be offered.
                    • Once the player accepts an invitation to visit and shows up on campus, his height and weight are recorded. At the end of the visit, a formal offer is made, often by the head coach, personally. 
                    • The player is not official with the school until he is enrolled and attends class, by my understanding. 

                    This led me to more questions. For example, we’ve got a portal window opening in April. It’s a shorter one (only two weeks), but will still be a popular one, I’m sure. How will it work, given that there will only be a few short weeks of school left and no chance for transfers to actually enroll? 

                    I posed the question to an expert on the process, and his response was: “Spring transfers take summer classes 99% of the time, so that triggers it being finalized. It’s also the worst possible time to transfer, which is a big deterrent on its own, not to mention there’s no portal window for undergrads at that time.”

                    After a week of speaking to portal specialists at schools big and small, here are a couple more notes and takeaways:

                    • More progressive schools are using flashy graphics — yes, similar to the ones splashed all over social media when a player gets an offer — to recruit portal players. The only difference is, the schools pass these along via text rather than social media. Like it or not, communicating in this manner is the way to attract today’s top prospects.
                    • One school has 16 volunteers committed to doing nothing but evaluating players once they hit the portal or preparing their board with players they anticipate entering the portal.
                    • Some schools with big war chests but limited personnel departments simply wait until players get multiple offers, then make their own. 
                    • We had several other interesting tidbits in Tuesday’s Rep Rumblings report, including the ratio of dollars spent on retention vs. acquisition for one school, the going rate for a middling QB prospect, how schools of varying size prepare for the portal and more. 

                    As always, we’ll be chopping it up on the portal and other football business matters in today’s Friday Wrap, which comes out at 7:30 p.m. ET. Register for it here.

                     

                     

                    Why It’s So Hard to Measure Scouts’ Performance

                    08 Friday Mar 2024

                    Posted by in NFL draft, Scouts

                    ≈ Leave a comment

                    Last week, it was my pleasure to hand plaques to 27 NFL scouts who were voted by their peers last fall to the 2023 BART List, our honors system for the best evaluators working in the league these days. It’s the only way I know to recognize the best people in the scouting industry.

                    Some, however, may wish there was a more objective measure. I’m one of those people. I’ve even seen that some teams, apparently, do just that for their own scouts. I really like that teams are working to identify the best members of their staffs. 

                    I’ve often thought of how to measure the effectiveness of scouts across the league. People who believe in analytics feel you can put a number on anything, right? But I keep bumping up to the following reasons that evaluating the evaluators is next to impossible.

                    Each team scouts for its team, not the league: We would have to have complete records of the grades given by each scout to players drafted and signed, every year, to even get a baseline of his effectiveness. Even at that, we could only hope to determine the best scout for each team, not for the league. Until every team runs the same defense and same offense, this is impossible.

                    A player’s success is not solely based on where/when he was drafted: To some degree, a draftee is a lump of clay. That lump gets shaped by the team’s coaching staff once he’s drafted. Some teams develop players better than others, and some teams have more “rope” to develop them for various reasons (usually, prior success). Therefore, just because a player worked out doesn’t necessarily mean the scout did his job.

                    Hungry players play better: If Tom Brady gets drafted in the second round instead of the sixth round, does he still wind up the same player? Maybe. Still, it seems to me unmistakable that players selected lower than they expected tend to play harder, while sometimes, players drafted earlier take the game less seriously. Obviously, this is hard to measure, but seems evident, nonetheless. Either way, it has an effect on a player’s grade. 

                    Obviously, there are other factors. Teams that have great depth at a position might mean a good player never gets a chance to really prove himself. Players drafted higher than expected may nonetheless get multiple chances in the league due to their draft pedigree. I could go on. The point is, the NFL draft is hopelessly subjective. I guess that’s one reason it’s so fun.

                    Do you disagree? Feel like it’s easier than I’m making it look? Give me some ideas on Twitter/X at @insidetheleague. Make sure you’re also reading our newsletter to get more insights on scouting and how teams evaluate players. 

                    2024 NFL Combine Week: A Few Highlights

                    01 Friday Mar 2024

                    Posted by in ITL, Media, NFL draft, NIL, Scouts

                    ≈ Leave a comment

                    The NFL Combine is a major event for the entire football community and represents probably the biggest week of the year for us at ITL. Here are a few highlights and observations from the week.

                    • There were so many highlights of our 15th annual event (the 2024 USI Insurance Services ITL Combine Seminar Presented by The Tatnuck Group) at the Indiana Convention Center, but two stick out to me. One was very selfish: Lions GM Brad Holmes, who accepted the Best Draft Award for Detroit, cited Inside the League for its commitment to the scouting industry, especially crediting the Friday Wrap for its focus on the community. That was really, really humbling, and unexpected.
                    • Also humbling was the reaction of Broncos Senior Midwest Scout Scott DiStefano, who accepted the C.O. Brocato Memorial Award for lifetime service in NFL scouting. Scott had to pause to gather himself a couple time during his remarks. It’s awesome to recognize people in front of their peers. Equally awesome: Broncos GM George Paton and virtually the entire Broncos scouting staff showed up to cheer Scott on.
                    • Another highlight was spending a little time with the co-winners of the Pro Liaison of the Year Award, N.C. State’s D.D. Hoggard and Illinois’ Jay Kaiser. Both of them are humble men who are deserving of their acclaim. D.D. flew in on his own dime to accept the award in person, which was a “wow” moment for me when he could easily have appeared via video. 
                    • By the way, my partner in the presentation of the Eugene E. Parker Award for service to the agent industry, Peter Schaffer of Authentic Athletix, announced that he’s creating an online hall of fame for player representation Wednesday night. At this time, it’s not a brick-and-mortar place, but will live online. I will contribute to Peter’s efforts, and we’ve already got our first member chosen (to go along with the previous four winners of the award). We’ll have further communications about it soon. It’s a great idea and I’m pretty excited about it.
                    • Also of interest: our award winners are starting to get social media graphics made about them. Check out this one that Duke University made for David Feeley, who won the Strength Coach of the Year Award as voted on by active NFL scouts. 
                    • We also had our second annual NIL-oriented event Thursday. It was a pretty fast 90 minutes with guest speaker Oscar Monnier, who ran the transfer portal at Northwestern, Stanford, Oregon, Duke and Texas A&M. He spoke for an hour about his experiences and recommendations for exploiting this new part of the industry. We had about 80 guests, most of them from top NFL agencies and interested in learning how to get the most out of the portal process. What impressed me the most, however, is how 10-12 people lined up to talk to Oscar after his session, and none of them had questions about what he discussed. They all wanted to explore working with him. Oscar arrived to town a free agent, but there’s a good chance he won’t leave as one. I think the transfer portal is a space that has not been recognized for its potential in player representation, but I think it’s getting there. 
                    • One scout I spoke to went on and on about how impressive Ohio State WO Marvin Harrison Jr. was in interviews. His comments came as part of a discussion on how so many players are coached by their agents in interviews. It’s unknown if Harrison has undergone interview prep, but it sounds like his natural personality made it pretty academic if he did. 

                    For a complete rundown of all the winners and more highlights from the week, make sure to check out the Friday Wrap, which comes out this evening. Register for it here. 

                     

                     

                    New Agent Zoom X: A Few Tips on Pro Days

                    23 Friday Feb 2024

                    Posted by in Agents, Getting started, NFL draft

                    ≈ Leave a comment

                    Thursday night, I hosted our 10th Zoom session for new agents. I try to be topical with each one, and in November and December, we dealt with a number of subjects, from all-star games to choosing a trainer to setting a budget to signing your first client. With March looming, our topic Thursday was pro days. 

                    Actually, we touched on NFL local pro days; the new Big 12 Pro Day; what to do if you’re attending the NFL Combine; and ITL’s two big events slated for next week in Indianapolis. 

                    Though I can’t run through everything we covered in our hour-long session, here’s what we covered related to pro days.

                    • Just because a school CAN host a player for its workout doesn’t mean it MUST: This is the part that most often confounds young agents. They sign a player, often from a small school, presuming that the school will hold a pro day. That’s not always the case, however. This forces the agent to begin searching for a bigger school in the state that will allow the player to work out. However, though NFL scouts are permitted to evaluate a player in such a situation, the school is not required to let the young man work out.
                    • It’s harder than ever to get someone into a pro day: About 15 years ago, long before pro days were the kind of thing that the average draft fan even knew existed, it was commonplace for bigger schools to allow the better small-school prospects to work out with their players. However, as more and more players seek a place in the NFL, they’ve become reluctant. About 10 years ago, most schools started asking for a scout to vouch for the player. Five years ago, it became two scouts. These days, it’s often three scout, if the school will even entertain the thought of an outsider gaining entry.
                    • One workaround: I’ve been told that if a player’s head coach calls the head coach of the team holding the workout, it really enhances the player’s chance of getting an invite. It’s probably harder for a head coach to turn down another head coach. Of course, not every head coach is going to do that, but it’s worth a shot.
                    • Don’t send a player to a pay workout to enhance his NFL chances: These days, agents get an email nearly every day pitching a pay workout somewhere. I never recommend players go to such workouts. If your client doesn’t have a pro day, I get it — your options are limited, and if the kid doesn’t have a pro day, he really doesn’t exist. What’s more, very often, the better organizations holding these workouts have plenty of “alumni” who have gone on to the NFL. The thing is, most of the time, they got there on the strength of a pro day performance before NFL scouts. 

                    This session was the rare one that we recorded, and all members of the 2023 agent class got a copy of the video. If you’re new to player representation and wondering how to help promote your client in the last weeks before the draft, consider joining us. Do that here. Limited on funds? At least sign up for our newsletter, which comes out every Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET. You can register for it here.

                    Responding to a Dumb Tweet About Draft Decisions

                    09 Friday Feb 2024

                    Posted by in NFL draft, Scouts

                    ≈ Leave a comment

                    This week, I tweeted positively about a Patriots executive, Eliot Wolf, who seems on track to become the GM in New England after years of paying dues in Green Bay and Cleveland. Though there were literally dozens of positive responses from scouts, agents and others, there was also one knucklehead who blamed him for QB Mac Jones’ struggles over the last two seasons.

                    I know you can’t take people seriously based on one off-the-cuff remark on social media, but this kind of comment really bugs me. I guess it springs from a fundamental misunderstanding of how the draft works by people whose main claim to fame is making the playoffs in their fantasy league.

                    Anyway, here’s why that’s a dumb tweet.

                    • Jones had a great rookie season. It’s not like Jones has never performed. In his first year, he threw for almost 4,000 yards with a 22-13 TD-to-INT ratio and a. 92.5 quarterback rating. He did that without a 1,000-yard receiver (Jakobi Meyers came closest with 866 yards). That’s pretty good for a first-year QB following a legend.
                    • How a player is developed after the draft is critical to his success. Josh McDaniels has had his ups and downs professionally, but there’s no arguing that his 2021 season as offensive coordinator in New England wasn’t a good one. Prior to McDaniels’ departure to be head coach of the Raiders, Jones was seen as a rising talent and worthy heir to the Brady throne. Since then, Jones’ offensive coordinators have been a weird combination of two defensive coordinators (Bill Belichick and Matt Patricia) in 2022 and Bill O’Brien this past season. I’d argue that Jones’ confidence was pretty much crushed entering the ’23 season, and from what I’ve read of O’Brien, “nurturing” is not a quality that’s in his makeup. The point is, the player Jones was on draft day is very different from who he is today, and that has everything to do with how the team around him has encouraged his progress and helped him evolve. That’s not just true of Jones, but of every player ever drafted. 
                    • There are no picks “made” by one scout or executive. This is the part that really drives me crazy. Yes, there has to be accountability on who picks whom, but how is Wolf responsible for the team’s picks that haven’t worked out? Wolf was no more than a consultant — a murky title, for sure — in the 2021 draft, but even if he was Jones’ champion, it doesn’t happen until all of the team’s braintrust has seen him play multiple games; has interviewed him multiple times; and has put him through various tests and evaluated his pro day. This doesn’t happen, and can’t happen, with just one guy making the pick. The Patriots’ decision to draft Jones (and every decision by every team) was collaborative. That’s an essential part of every draft for every team. 

                    I don’t know Eliot exceptionally well, but here’s what I can tell you: he is universally respected because he’s thorough and almost without an ego, but more importantly, he’s won everywhere he’s been. Now that he’s brought in one of the best pure talent evaluators in the league in Alonzo Highsmith, I’d be buying stock in New England’s future. 

                    For more on the draft, free agency, scouting, player representation and everything else that makes this a fun time of year, register for today’s Friday Wrap here.

                    What Mantooth77 Can Teach New Agents

                    26 Friday Jan 2024

                    Posted by in Agents, Getting started, NFL draft

                    ≈ Leave a comment

                    This time of year, I start hearing from the people who are taking the NFLPA exam that summer. They want to know what we offer in the way of exam prep, but we usually discuss the road ahead for new agents, as well. 

                    One of these pending agents mentioned that he’d heard about ITL on Reddit, which is a platform that I rarely use, so I checked it out. What I found was some sage advice from a person known only as Mantooth 77. His entire post is here. What I’ve done is to copy some of his responses to a question about his brief career as an NFL player representatives, and offer my comments. 

                    “I was an agent a few years ago. I went all out for a year, signed about 6 prospects and 1 FA veteran who was trying to get back in the league. Three of those prospects got mini-camp invites and 1 was signed to a practice squad. After a year, I found that my main business was suffering as a result of all the time and money I had to spend on being an agent, so I didn’t renew. I think those in the industry would tell you, for a first year guy, I did well.”

                    This is exactly what success looks like for a first-year, independent agent. If you’re aiming a whole lot higher than this, you may be in for a severely rude awakening unless you have some excellent relationships with players prior to taking the exam.

                    “When I had asked around ‘should I do it’ before I pulled the trigger, I didn’t get a lot of resistance. But then when I got out there, different story.”

                    This is so commonplace. Friends want to be encouraging, which is understandable, but it’s almost impossible to know what’s ahead unless you’ve done a really good internship under an agent. 

                    “Many agents sign guys the first year that don’t even have a chance. Trust me, I did. I’d see a guy made all conference or 2nd team in a smaller conference and think, this guy has a chance. But for whatever reason, the scouts don’t like him. Maybe he’s too small or too slow. Regardless, they all think that if you send them to the Disney World of training, they are going to light up Pro Day and make Scouts fall in love with them on the spot. So, if you sign a guy anywhere near worthy, you’re going to have to spend money to help him train for pro day.”

                    So many agents enter the business when they are not ready financially, then think they’ve thought of things others haven’t. They find out their ideas aren’t so original after all. You have to spend some money. There’s no getting around it. 

                    Agents: The league is run by the bigger agents. The newer guys, if they play their cards right and get lucky, they get a guy in the league. Let’s say the guy signs an UDFA contract after the draft. This is great for guys like you. Only problem is, guys like Drew you know who pray on guys like this. You bust your ass and take all the risk of getting the guy in the league. You’re praying that he gets 4 accrued seasons to be eligible for a veteran FA deal. That entire 4 seasons you better believe the bigger agents are pouncing on your guy Bob Sugar style. It is very very common that you lose that battle and you’re fired. The bigger agencies simply have more to offer in every way. In that case, you get paid out on the rookie deal, but the veteran deal is goners. You’re done.

                    This may be the most important paragraph Mantooth77 wrote. It’s pretty self-explanatory.

                    Players will sweet talk you but are 100% out there for themselves. And they will turn on you in a split second for someone better. And if something goes wrong (i.e. they don’t get a camp invite, etc…), it’s all your fault. That being said, I don’t really blame them. They’ve played their whole lives to get into the league, so everything is at stake. Beware of these guys, most of them are hustlers and you are just a means to an end. Very shallow relationship.

                    This is sad but very true. 

                    “Oh, and don’t allow yourself to get biased for any reason. Look first and foremost at HEIGHT/WEIGHT/SPEED. Say it to yourself over and over again. HEIGHT/WEIGHT/SPEED. If a guys HWS isn’t NFL quality, you’re wasting your time. They all think they’re amazing. All of them. “Just give me a chance.” They’ll sweet talk you into thinking they’ll blow out pro day with proper training. They rarely do.”

                    Training is important, but a player is who he is. No amount of training is going to cut a full second off their 40 time or add a foot to their vertical jump. 

                    I encourage you to read the whole post. I couldn’t have written it better myself.

                    For more on player representation and the ups and downs of being an agent, read our newsletter, the Friday Wrap. You can register for it here.

                    2024 Hula Bowl: A Few Notes

                    11 Thursday Jan 2024

                    Posted by in Agents, NFL draft, Scouts, Uncategorized

                    ≈ 1 Comment

                    It’s been a great few days in Orlando for the 2024 Hula Bowl. Here are a few notes from the preparations for this year’s contest.

                    Foolproof scout lure: All-star games love to maximize the attendance of scouts because it gives them credibility, and the Hula Bowl has come up with a foolproof way to raise their numbers. Since I ran the game in 2008, the Hula Bowl has always run practices concurrently between the two teams rather than at separate times. This forces teams to send 6-8 representatives instead of 2-3 (or even one or two) just to make sure everything is covered. 

                    Today’s NIL craziness items: One of the best parts of going to all-star games is hearing the stories from the recruiting wars as well as the crazy NIL pitches. For example, this week, I was told of a player at a lower-tier SEC school who lost his starting spot midseason. He decided to enter the portal, but before he could, he found out the school’s collective would offer him $50,000 to stick around. They were offering him more than the median annual income for the average American just to make sure they had a quality second-stringer at his position.

                    On the other hand, I heard about an FCS wide receiver who was offered $250,000 to go to a Big Ten school, but who chose to pursue the NFL instead. I respect his passion, but I’m not sure I would have made the same choice.

                    One takeaway from hearing the NIL stories this week is that a loose, position-by-position “wage scale” is developing among schools and agents, especially the schools from the P5 conferences that have big budgets. I also heard that Memphis has been one of the most aggressive teams when it comes to adding players from the portal; apparently, the athletic director’s efforts to raise funds have been successful. 

                    Humbling: Another great facet of the all-star season is that I begin notifying the scouts who were voted as winners of the various awards we’ll present at our annual seminar in Indianapolis in about a month-and-a-half. The scout who will receive one of our bigger awards next month was obviously touched when he got the news. It was really cool to see.

                    What if?: The 2024 East-West Shrine Bowl is scheduled to begin workouts Saturday, Jan. 27, at the Star in Frisco, Texas. If the Cowboys win a home playoff game against Green Bay in the Super Wildcard round of the playoffs, then win the following weekend and advance to the NFC Championship, they’ll need their field and locker rooms. The scuttlebutt around the team hotel this week was that the nearby University of North Texas is the “rainy weather” site for the Shrine Bowl.

                    Clearing skies: When you have all-star games in Florida, the threat of rain is always there. A lengthy thunderstorm Tuesday night meant practices moved indoors today, which created serious consternation among agents who wanted to watch their clients (indoor practices usually mean scouts only). But there’s good news: practices will be outdoors again Thursday. Hopefully, Tuesday night’s rain won’t make for muddy conditions tomorrow.

                    Impressing: I’m always asked which players are rising and falling, and I rarely get enough feedback to have an intelligent answer. However, one player who seems to have won a few fans is Western Carolina WO David White. 

                    If you haven’t already, make sure you’re signed up for our newsletter to get more scoop on this busy (and exciting) time of year. 

                     

                     

                    Need An NFL Agent? Here Are A Few Tips

                    28 Thursday Dec 2023

                    Posted by in Getting started, NFL draft

                    ≈ Leave a comment

                    If you’re a member of the 2024 NFL Draft class and you think you deserve a shot, but can’t seem to earn attention from agents, there are “dos” and don’ts” that will make it a lot easier to get signed. Here are some of them.

                    • Google “Find an Agent NFLPA:” This will take you to this page, which lists all certified NFLPA contract advisors. 
                    • Think local: You may want an agent with a national name, but the truth is, if you can find one who is located close to you, it’s going to be to your benefit. 
                    • Take what you can get: If you find an agent who shows interest, don’t hold out for someone with a bigger client list or more experience. Remember, you’re doing the recruiting, not the other way around, so if someone is willing to work with you, don’t take that for granted.
                    • Think of paid training as a bonus, not an entitlement: The best way to make sure no agent will touch you is to lead with your training expectations. The words any potential agent dreads most is, “what do I get?” If you’re the one seeking an agent, you don’t really get to ask that question. 
                    • Be willing to share costs: You may have to pick up your own flight, cover part of your training, or help with the registration cost of an all-star game. That’s only fair. 
                    • Be honest with yourself: If you weren’t a star, or didn’t play at a big school, or suffered a major injury (or all of the above), realize that an agent is not going to be able to get you into the first round. 
                    • A deal is a deal: If your new agent is wiling to cover all or some of your costs, don’t come back later and try to “re-cut” your arrangement. Stand by your agreement.
                    • Be careful comparing your deal with others: There are lots of reasons your former teammate, or someone you’re training with, or whoever, might be getting more covered by their agent. Remember, you didn’t even have an agent before all this started! Embrace what you got. Ultimately, scouts don’t care about fancy training or amenities. They only want to know how well you perform at your all-star game or pro day. 

                    I really hope you can find someone to walk with you through this process. There’s a perception out there that agents are unnecessary, or greedy, or incompetent. None of that is true, or, at least, it’s rare. After 20-plus years working with people in the industry, I wholeheartedly believe having representation is a must for aspiring NFL players. Best of luck.