How Do You Build Friendships with NFL Scouts?

24 Friday Feb 2023

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This is a question I get all the time. With dozens (hundreds?) of aspiring evaluators ready to descend on Indianapolis next week, I thought delve further into this topic, though I’ve addressed it in this space previously and on social media. I don’t have the answers, but here are a few things to remember that might be helpful.

Desperation is off-putting: If you give yourself an ultimatum about getting a job while at the Combine (or anywhere else), that sense of urgency is going to be written all over you. It tends to come across in a negative way.

It’s about more than football: If you can find a common bond with a scout, your chances of building a relationship are infinitely greater. Ask about a scout’s family, his alma mater, or where he’s from, and you’re far more likely to have a lasting friendship.

Play the long game: In the early days of ITL, I was pretty desperate to befriend scouts, too. Two decades later, I have friends on all 32 teams. It just takes time. Obviously, you may not have two decades to pursue this, but the sooner you get out there and start making friends, the sooner that “long time” gets a lot shorter.

Understand that there’s an element of luck: When I was a kid, I thought people who worked in the NFL got there because they were way smarter and harder-working than I am. These days, I don’t think that’s true. In most cases, they got a break, then took advantage of it. Not everyone gets that break. You just have to accept that.

Know when to go solo: You may travel to Indy with others who are seeking a job in scouting, and I recommend this. At the same time, you need to realize that you’re competing with your friends, as well. It’s rare that a team hires several people that know each other. Be a good guy, but you’re going to have to put your own goals first.

Develop your instincts, then trust them: This is an inexact science. At some point, you will have to use your best judgement. Don’t be afraid to trust your gut.

Take risks: At some point, doing the safe thing will not be the way. In fact, the best way may go directly contrary to one of the points I’ve made in this post. That’s life. It’s not always predictable. Trust your gut and make your move if you feel it’s time. To get a job in scouting, you’re going to have to beat the odds.

One more tip: Go where the scouts go. One place where many of them will be will be discussed in this week’s Friday Wrap. If you haven’t already registered for it, make sure to do that here.

When Do I Go to the Combine?

17 Friday Feb 2023

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This week, I’m going to try to answer a very difficult, but very popular, question that I get this time of year: If I’m an agent who doesn’t have a client working out, or I’m going to Indy to network as an aspiring NFL scout, when should I be there?

I should start by saying there’s no right answer to this. It all depends on your budget, your schedule flexibility, your willingness to “put yourself out there,” and why you’re going to Indy.

So when should you arrive and when should you depart? You may be one of those people who has a job or classes during the work week, and good on you if you do. However, if you don’t arrive until Friday night or Saturday, the week is pretty much over. Workouts start Thursday night, which means they’re pretty much over on Sunday. if you don’t arrive until the weekend, much of the hay is already in the barn. I recommend arriving Wednesday and leaving Friday or Saturday. Obviously, Wednesday of combine is a key part of our year at Inside the League, which we discuss weekly in our Friday Wrap (register for it here).

There’s another important point to be made. The NFL Combine is still a workplace for the league’s scouts and executives (as well as the players working out), so unless you are employed by an NFL team or are part of the media covering things, you are gonna feel left out. Indianapolis is a great place to hold the combine, but it’s a cold-weather city in March, so everything takes place indoors, unlike at all-star games. You need a badge to get through the door most places you’ll want to be, but there are shortcuts to getting access if you know a few tricks.

I’m going to focus on two tracks: aspiring scout and aspiring agent.

AGENT

  • If your future is in player representation, you’re probably going to want to meet as many scouts as you can and maybe even catch the eye of a big firm that might hire you later.
  • Unfortunately, there is no one hotel where agents tend to stay. All i can tell you is stay downtown if you can afford it. If you’re really budget-minded, stay near the airport (you can find places there for a fraction of the cost, though the Uber rides may balance things a little). I generally use the restaurants downtown as my “office” when I’m in Indy, and you can, too. i recommend this place. It’s centrally located and has really big booths.
  • More bad news: The NFLPA no longer holds its all-agents meeting during combine. instead it’s held online the week before. So there’s no central location for contract advisors.
  • If you’re looking for a place to stake out, the halls and corridors of the Indiana Convention Center are probably a good place to start during the day. It’s kinda like the “highway” of downtown Indy. Lots of vendors set up here for that reason. In the evenings, you’re looking at the Yard House, Harry & Izzy’s, Prime 47 and, of course, St. Elmo’s.

SCOUT

  • If you want to be hired as a scout, you’ll need to be around scouts. One place to catch them is the Starbucks at the JW Marriott downtown. You’ll want to be there quite early; there’s actually been a whole story written about this in The Athletic. The key is patience and deference to the people you meet. If you’re too solicitous, you’re just going to make people angry.
  • The JW has probably replaced The Omni as the best networking location in Indianapolis. The NFL buys out the entire hotel (or at least most of it), and most NFL teams hunker down there. Where scouts are, agents (and everyone else) tend to be.
  • The hotel bar, Velocity, is also a popular place for scouts who want to catch a late beverage.

Ask the Scouts: What If the NFL Combine Went Away?

10 Friday Feb 2023

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This week, NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith called for the end of the NFL Combine. It’s probably bluster, and it’s unknown if it’s something Smith will continue to push for, but when a person in Smith’s position speaks, you have to consider what he says.

That’s why I asked a few of my friends in scouting what it would mean for there to be no combine. It’s a worthy question because, in the space of about 10 years, we’ve seen the annual Indianapolis workouts go from a mostly hidden evaluation exercise to a large media phenomenon which includes whistle-to-whistle coverage. That’s great for Internet scouts, but it’s made the job of NFL scouts a little less comfortable, at the very least.

Here are the responses we got and the points scouts made:

  • Why make medical examinations less efficient?: “They still have to have some type of central medical testing take place. It wouldn’t be feasible to have the players go to 32 clubs for exams, so I don’t ever see that component going away.  I could see them eliminating the interviews and making it a medical event with on-field workouts for TV.  They aren’t going to lose that programming for NFL network.”
  • A lot of talented players might go undrafted: “It would definitely affect the way things are evaluated. . . Would make it harder on the players with removing the medical aspect. . . Would create more financial and logistical challenges for NFL teams, college teams and agents as well.”
  • T-30 visits would have to be expanded: “My guess would be that there would be more medical question guys brought in for top 30 (visits), or the league may allow more than 30 visits. I don’t think it would affect pro days too much. There will still be the usual coverage with scouts and coaches to hash out questions.”  
  • It would ultimately mean more work for the players: “If you don’t have them all in one place, the kid will have to most likely (be evaluated medically, be interviewed, and work out) a bunch of times with all the teams individually. It’s big business, and when clubs invest big money, they want to get as much information as possible to make decisions. It won’t change the information they want from the kids, I believe, just the method and logistics of getting it.”

Is Smith really serious? Time will tell. Ultimately, though, it probably wouldn’t benefit players the way Smith thinks it would. . . or at least that’s what scouts think.

To learn more about how scouts — and others around the league — think, make sure you’re reading our weekly newsletter, the Friday Wrap. You can register for it here.

A Senior Bowl with a Different Feel

03 Friday Feb 2023

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Wednesday, I spoke to my friend Jane Verneuille, who’s in charge of credentials for the Senior Bowl. Jane is kind of like the “mom” of the game, beloved by people like me who’ve been coming for decades. Anyway, she told me the number of credentials awarded this year was about the same as it always is. That took me by surprise, because the talking point among people here all week has been how the numbers are down. It just doesn’t feel like the same place it was maybe five years ago, before Covid.

Maybe it’s not true. Jane would never lie. The numbers are the numbers. Still, everyone I spoke to this week said the same thing: where is everybody?

I think the main factor, as pointed out by one friend this week, is that teams don’t send coaching staffs to Mobile anymore. It’s more than just the two teams that used to staff the game; you don’t see any head coaches, coordinators or position coaches here, and at one time, you saw them all. My old joke used to be that on your first day at the Senior Bowl, you wanted to take a selfie if you saw Sean Payton or Mike Tomlin in the bathroom, but by Day 3, you just wanted to go to the bathroom. These days, coaches just aren’t here.

Here are a few more reasons Mobile felt a little more empty this week.

  • The closure of the second floor commons area at the Renaissance Mobile Riverview Plaza Hotel is the biggest post-Covid change in Senior Bowl policies. The old joke used to be if someone set off a bomb on the second floor of the team hotel on Tuesday or Wednesday, they’d have to cancel the draft. These days, however, if you aren’t directly involved with the game or the league, you can’t go up the escalator. Everyone who has been coming here since before 2019 feels the difference and laments it.
  • That’s not the only barrier segregating NFL personnel from everyone else. Since the game moved from Ladd-Peebles to Hancock Whitney Stadium, scouts and executives sit on one side of the stadium and everyone else stays on the other side. The view is the same; you just don’t get a chance to exchange pleasantries with the friends you’ve made the way you used to. That’s probably a good thing. They should be allowed to do their jobs without being bothered. Still, it’s different.
  • The Shrine Bowl schedule has had an undeniable impact. “Arrival day” used to be Monday; now that practices in Las Vegas overlap Senior Bowl week, no one gets here that early anymore. What’s more, because the Pro Bowl is also in Vegas, people leave earlier.
  • Similarly, weigh-ins used to be Tuesday’s must-see event. These days, like all but one all-star game, the Senior Bowl doesn’t even have public weigh-ins anymore. That’s one less opportunity for everyone on the coaching and evaluation side to be in one room together.
  • I think that the absence of NFL coaches here has taken away some of the “job fair” aspect of the game. Fired college and pro staffs used to descend on Mobile with resumes in hand. I think these days, the bigger names in coaching are relying on their agents to do their networking.
  • The AFCA Convention has probably replaced the Senior Bowl, to some degree, as an offseason rendezvous point. It’s held much earlier in the month, but it serves the same purpose.
  • The Senior Bowl used to be the third or fourth week in January, but now that the game bumps up against Signing Day, I think that has had a big impact on the number of college personnel evaluators who used to make it here.
  • XFL camps are under way. That’s a lot of coaches and scouts who might otherwise be in Mobile, either looking for jobs or simply renewing acquaintances.
  • One thing I heard all week is how Mobile has been “built out” much more than in the past. It’s true; there are more restaurants and hotels, and some of them are outside of the downtown area. This has had an undeniable impact on the bars and eateries that used to be packed this week. It shocked me to find out that Wintzell’s Oyster House, which used to be a Senior Bowl institution, wasn’t even open on Monday. Later in the week, there were multiple empty tables during the evening rush. The restaurant is clearly facing staffing and service problems, much as the rest of the country is, but this doesn’t explain the obvious dip in demand.
  • Financial professionals, especially those trying to break into the industry, used to be ubiquitous here, but they don’t get credentialed anymore. Granted, they don’t need to if they just want to watch practices or gather downtown, but I think many of them feel intimidated without the stamp of approval that comes with holding a badge.
  • The number of people covering the game, sharing their opinions and interviewing players has grown immensely. Maybe people feel they don’t need to be here as much anymore.

I think some of the void has been filled by aspiring NFL scouts from all walks of life. Some of them are from college personnel departments, but a lot of the people I’ve met have never worked for a college or pro team. Their fascination with player evaluation brings them to Mobile with hopes that they can make a connection that could be life-changing.

Mobile used to be the one place where everyone in the scouting and player representation industries gathered for one low-pressure week. That sense of community isn’t gone, but it’s certainly lessened. Not seeing people carrying around the faux-leather Senior Bowl notebooks that used to be handed out kinda makes someone like me sad. It’s nobody’s fault, I guess, but it’s a bit of a downer, and I’m not sure it will ever be the way it once was.

Ask the Scouts: Thoughts on the New NFL GMs

27 Friday Jan 2023

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Last year around this time, we asked several friends in the industry about Joe Schoen, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Ryan Poles, who had just been installed as the new general managers of the Giants, Vikings and Bears, respectively. Here’s what it looked like.

It’s a new year, and there are new GMs in Nashville and Phoenix. We thought we’d ask around about them, as well. Here’s what they told us.

Monti Ossenfort, Cardinals (former Director of Player Personnel, Titans)

  • “Well-organized but will need to become his own man. Bided his time and climbed the ladder. Heavily influenced by (his time in New England); will be interesting to see what new systems and ideas he will put in place. Very hard worker who is organized, but who will need to put experienced guys around him he trusts to allow him to run the entire organization from a football operations standpoint.”
  • “Genuine individual, active listener and skilled leader!”
  • “Monti is a well-respected person and evaluator in the personnel community. Very good work ethic. Always a hard worker when I went to schools and was on the road with him. Very good in school skills, with knowledge of coaches and contacts at each school. Excellent people skills. Very low-key, not an attention-seeker, and just goes about this job. Will be a popular GM for scouts that want to work with him because of his management skills and sterling reputation.”
  • “Very high-character person that treats people the right way. Handles himself well. Doesn’t look for attention. Low ego. Very good leadership and people skills. Has come up the right way and didn’t skip any steps. Has been around consistent winners his entire career. Will take the foundation of the NE system and make it his own. I’d bet on him to succeed.”
  • “Monti is A-plus all-around. The person, the scout, the leader, tremendous in all facets. Outstanding ability to collaborate and take every angle into decision-making processes.”

Ran Carthon, Titans (former Director of Player Personnel, 49ers)

  • “Very sharp. Very organized. Outstanding evaluator whose voice has grown in that organization each year since his arrival. Got personality and does a great job mentoring young scouts for them. Niners have a deep bench but he will missed.”
  • “Excellent communicator. Really cares about relationships.”
  • “The job won’t be too big for him. He will be prepared. He knows how to treat people and will be a solid leader.”

  • “Ran has a well-roundedness about him that is unmatched. It goes without saying he has the knowledge/history of the game and has put in the work – that’s clear. But his authenticity and charisma are what make him who he is. He’s true to his roots and makes you feel like someone is always in your corner. . . I’ve never seen players interact with an executive like they do with him, either. Very natural.”

For more insider takes on the game, make sure you’re reading our weekly newsletter, the Friday Wrap. You can sign up 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.”

 

 

2023 All-Star Season: Notes from Week 1

13 Friday Jan 2023

Posted by in Agents, ITL, Scouts

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Week One of all-star play for the 2023 draft class is in the books with the College Gridiron Showcase wrapped and the Hula Bowl set for this weekend. Here are a few things of note that have happened, or that I’ve heard, so far.

  • You like long arms on offensive linemen? Then you’ll love South Florida OT Demontrey Jacobs, who turned in 37-inch arms as a member of the CGS Desperadoes roster this week. That’s a full inch-and-a-half longer than any other player in Fort Worth. Special notice also goes to East Carolina WO Isaiah Winstead, who had 33.25-inch arms as a pass-catcher. That’s longer arms than six of the Wranglers offensive linemen. Meanwhile, Illinois St. DT Jason Lewan had the biggest hands at 11.5 inches. The only other player in Fort Worth with an 11-inch hand span was Jacobs

    Legendary IFL coach (and would-be train wreck veteran) Les Moss and me, the idiot who managed to get hit by a locomotive in ’85.

    (11 inches exactly).
  • One of the fun things about all-star season is seeing old friends, but this year was special for me as I got to shake hands with the reigning Indoor Football League Coach of the Year, Les Moss of the IFL’s Northern Arizona Wranglers. Les is more than just a legendary coach in the indoor game, but he was also in the car behind me when, in 1985, my car (a tiny MGB) was hit by a fast-moving coal train in Poca, W.Va. One day I’ll tell the story of that day in this space.
  • I also want to say what a pleasure it was working with the member of the 2023 CGSU class. Mike Rittelman and I had the honor of leading 16 aspiring NFL scouts who came to Fort Worth and worked extremely hard over a three-day period. The 16 were Brandon Ashe, Mark Austad, Garrett Ballard, Mike Bey, Davarus Branigan, Gus Christensen, Daniel Docal, John Grout, Dondrell Harris, Michael Joiner, Jordan Kalfon, Joe Luke, Brandon Morris, David Senko, Cardell Rawlings and Brandon Tamres. This group was very tight-knit and worked as a team, just as a football group should. Look for them in NFL front offices some day.
  • I also want to thank all the scouts who spoke to our CGSU class, sharing their experiences and providing tips on how to break into the game. Among scouts who spoke to our group were Dom Green (Jets), Eloy Ledesma (Lions), Tom McConnaughey (Jaguars), Bob Morris (USFL’s Gamblers) and Rodrik David (formerly of the Falcons). All of them were very giving of their time and did so without any compensation.
  • Kudos also go out to the 13 players who arrived in Fort Worth as part of the Small School Showcase (the Marshals) and fought their way onto the Desperadoes roster after impressing scouts. They were Lincoln DE Arnold Mbembe, Westminster OB Brayden Thimons, La.-Monroe DT Caleb Thomas, Arkansas Tech OH Devontae Dean, Texas A&M-Commerce OB Demetrius Walker, Texas A&M-Commerce DE Celestin Haba, Nevada DE Phillip Huff, Sam Houston St. OT Jordan Boatman, Delta St. OT Nicolas Melsop, SE Oklahoma St. DC Ja’Lon Freeman, Utah Tech FS Darrius Nash, Sam Houston St. WO Cody Chrest and Carson-Newman WO Braxton Westfield.
  • I also learned of a new Panthers scouting intern Kaleb Leach, who earned his way to Carolina by developing an overseas scouting service called Europe’s Elite. All week, we preached to the CGSU class that sometimes the road to fulfilling your passion is one that’s less traveled. Going your own way after identifying an underserved market is a great way to succeed in football.

We’ll discuss what’s ahead during the all-star phase of the pre-draft period in today’s Friday Wrap. Register for it here.

What Kind of Package Does It Take To Sign a 2023 Draft Prospect?

06 Friday Jan 2023

Posted by in Agents, NFL draft, NIL

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A question I get quite often is, what does it take, in 2023, to land a draft pick? What kind of package cinches a signing?

Even though I have conversations with agents at every level every day this time of year, it’s a really hard question to ask. But I’m going to try to answer it here. First, let’s define the factors that influence the price.

  • Start with the player’s draft ranking. Obviously, this is super, super, super subjective, especially this early. Still, players and agents make educated guesses on this in December and January every year, and it’s an important part of the formula. I think the major dividing lines are the first five picks in the draft, the first 100 picks, and the next 50 or so. I would say the first five picks are in one tier, the next 95 (end of Day 2) are in another tier, and the players drafted by about the end of Round 4 are in the final tier. After that, it’s really hard to predict who gets all the modern accoutrements (monthly per diem, signing bonus, costly training, fee cut, etc.). But I think these three tiers are pretty much set in stone. Obviously, it’s also important to recognize that there’s a big difference between the top and bottom of each tier. The sixth pick in the draft gets a much bigger package than the last pick in the third round.
  • Next, does the player play offense or defense? That’s a key distinction. Offensive players get more than defensive players, generally.
  • Next, if he plays offense, is he a QB, running back or wide receiver? If you score touchdowns, you get a premium, if for no other reason than your marketing appeal.
  • What kind of program did the player come from? Obviously, a player from a top-five program sees himself differently from one from an FCS program. It doesn’t matter if the big-school player is a backup and the small-schooler is a solid regular. There’s a different level of entitlement. Also — bigger programs can offer bigger NIL packages. I’ve heard that, lately, smaller schools are hurriedly sending out money requests to boosters, trying to match the big offers being tendered to players entering the portal. By the way, it’s probably too late for those smaller schools.
  • How was the player rated coming out of high school? Once one of the high school ranking services places a four- or five-star label on a player, in his mind, the player never sees himself as less than that.
  • What kind of agency is trying to sign the player? Bigger firms with more clients and an established reputation will have to pay less, obviously.

So how do you price things? Let’s start from the bottom.

Early Day 3 picks (bottom of the third tier) are getting $3,000/per month and up, probably topping out around $10,000/month, January through April. They might get a signing bonus of around an extra month. Obviously, all training costs are covered, as well, adding another $20,000 to $30,000 to the price tag.

In the second tier, the floor for monthly per diem is probably $7,000 per month, with some kind of five-figure signing bonus. That signing bonus could come in the form of a marketing guarantee, which usually makes the number a good bit better. I would think most first-rounders are getting six-figure marketing guarantees, with at least a portion of that coming in cash upon signing the SRA. Also, first-rounders typically don’t pay more than one percent on their rookie contract. Typically, second-rounders pay two percent, and the rest pay three — if they get a sizable package. Agents who don’t offer all the financial bells and whistles normally have to cut their fees as a lure.

For the the top five picks, the top tier, you’re looking at seven-figure packages, especially for quarterbacks. I’ve heard of a million dollars as a signing bonus, usually structured as a marketing guarantee, plus a five-figure monthly per diem that could be as high as $50,000 per month. Also, the players rated in the top five are almost always paying no more than one point on their contract. Many are paying less than that. Some are paying zero.

Keep in mind that as recently as 20 years ago — not really that long ago — agencies didn’t even pay for training. Those days, of course, are long gone. These days (especially as schools offer hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep a player on campus), it’s anything goes. We may be way off on our numbers, but based on the conversations I’ve had, we’re in the ballpark.

CGS 2023: A Look at the First Major All-Star Game

30 Friday Dec 2022

Posted by in Agents, NFL draft, Scouts

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This week, I hope you’ll allow me to brag a little on my friends Craig Redd and Jose Jefferson and the event they founded that enters its ninth year next month, the College Gridiron Showcase in Fort Worth, Texas. It’s different from your normal all-star game, and since I always get questions about it, I thought I’d use this space to explain how it’s different.

There is no “game,” per se. Instead, game organizers have multiple events for participants at all strata of the game. All of our events “work” because NFL scouts are on site for the full schedule, so participants get seen more than they would at your typical one-off event. Here’s a quick rundown.

  • Pro Free agent event: This workout is aimed at “street” free agents from previous draft classes. This event is usually held the Friday that CGS week kicks off.
  • Specialists Showcase: This is held closer to the end of the week, and is aimed at draft-eligible kickers, punters and long-snappers.
  • Small College Showcase: This runs Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and once it’s completed, NFL scouts vote to determine which players advance to the main rosters, the Wranglers and Desperadoes.
  • Two full rosters of all-stars: The Wranglers and Desperadoes work out as part of our more traditional format. The difference is that because we don’t have a game, we don’t have coaches cramming in a playbook or running through endless special teams drills that show little about a player’s abilities. Everything we do at the CGS is geared toward allowing players to show what they have.

All of this is why the CGS has a well-earned positive reputation among NFL teams. There are other facets to the showcase that make it stand out from other evaluation events.

For example, 2023 will be the second year of CGS University (CGSU), a program designed to help aspiring scouts get practical experience with NFL scouts and executives. Much of this comes from CGSU members’ activities on interview day, the nine-hour period we set aside to allow scouts to interview as many players that they’d like. Participants also spend the week hearing from scouts on how they got into the business and what they look for in scouting hires. I really feel there’s no other opportunity like it. 

It makes for a satisfying and professionally run five days for everyone involved, from the players to the scouts to CGS officials and others. However, this year, we have two new items we’re especially proud of.

One is the interview-only invite. This allows players who cannot participate due to injuries to come to Fort Worth and take part in the weekend’s sit-downs with NFL scouts. Obviously, we can’t mandate that an NFL team interview a player. However, we can make players available if they take part in this program. Interviews and background checks are such an underrated part of the draft process, and often their value is misunderstood by agent and prospect alike. This program allows players to get to know NFL teams before crucial pre-combine meetings when scouts and executives do a lot of their sorting out of the draft class. Cost is $250 and players are responsible for their own travel. For more information, contact Craig at info@cgsallstar.com.

Also this year, there’s one more enticement: Agent Live 360 will host a mixer for NFLPA-licensed contract advisors on Monday, Jan. 9, from 5-6 p.m. at Chef’s Table Bar in the Sheraton. This will be a great chance not only to meet a former NFL scout (Rodrik David, formerly of the Falcons) and to learn about a really incredible product like AL360, but also to do a little networking with other members of the football business community.

At the end of the day, the CGS offers opportunities for almost anyone trying to make his way in football. I look forward to getting started along with my friends in Fort Worth in six days. If you’re in town, I hope you can stop by.

 

 

2022 Next Wave Zoom: A Few Scouting Takeaways

21 Wednesday Dec 2022

Posted by in Scouts

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Tuesday night, we had our annual Zoom session aimed at aspiring NFL scouts. It’s become a kind of end-of-the-year tradition. Last year, we had director-level scouts from the 49ers, Chargers and Vikings. This year, we had Brandon Yeargan (Raiders), Tyler Lyon (Chargers) and Rick Spielman, who until recently was the GM in Minnesota.

Here are a few of the highlights from last night.

On marriage/relationships: None of the three put off serious romantic relationships, though they all discussed the value of preparing their now-spouses for the rigors of life in pro football. Brandon and Tyler both met their future spouses in college, then nursed the relationships along for several years (most of a decade for Tyler; Brandon maintained a long-distance relationship for three years while with the Patriots).

On professional relationships: Rick is still on good terms with the Vikings, who let him go in January. In fact, things are still so close that team representatives were the first to reach out when Rick’s South Florida home was hit by a hurricane earlier this year. Head coach Kevin O’Connell has even spent time picking his brain. Spielman was fired by Nick Saban in his Dolphin days, but today, he works as a consultant for the Crimson Tide football team. 

On paying dues: Though Tyler was a highly recruited quarterback at Arizona, and his father was a longtime high school football coach, he worked hard to develop his own contacts in the industry, even writing for small online draft publications while attending law school. Brandon played at a small North Carolina college, Davidson, but made his way to Chapel Hill, where he was an intern, then a grad assistant, for the Tarheels. He worked for little or no pay there for several years, then did the same for the Patriots before finally making area scout. Rick build the athletic program from the ground up at a small college in Columbus, Ohio, when he got his big break with BLESTO.

On developing your evaluation skills: All three said the best qualities in scouting assistant hires had nothing to do with an eye for talent. Instead, it’s about treating every menial task as if it’s crucial to the performance of the team. Tyler even said he’d be more interested in hiring someone with no evaluation skills but a great attitude over someone with a stack of reports and hopes of making GM in 2-3 years.

If you’re an aspiring scout, we hope you can make it next year (we don’t record these sessions to encourage transparency and candor). It’s part of our special annual rate for prospective NFL evaluators. Let us know if you’d like more details. We also encourage you to sign up for our weekly newsletter, which you can do here.