Which NFL Teams Develop their Draft Picks Best?

Are draft success stories the product of the player drafted or the team that drafts that player?

It’s a question I’ve been grappling with pretty much since 4 p.m. on Tuesday, when teams were required to make their cuts to 53. In the last week, we’ve seen a third-rounder (Jets WO Malachi Corley), a fourth-rounder (Patriots OG Layden Robinson) and several fifth-rounders (Denver OH Audric Estime as well as Miami FS Patrick McMorris and OB Mohamed Kamara), not to mention a fifth-rounder from this year’s draft in Chris Paul, formerly of the Rams. There are several others drafted on Day 3 that also got the axe. Should they have gotten a longer leash? Or was it the picks themselves? Ultimately, do teams deserve more credit for what happens on draft day, or for what happens after draft day?

It’s a good question, but today, I want to take it from the top with this question: which teams are best at developing their talent, regardless of who they draft?

To find out, I did what I usually do: I asked several of my scouting friends. You can read the comments from several of them in today’s Friday Wrap, which comes out at 7:30 p.m. (register here).

Here’s one that was a bit more involved than the others, so I decided to include the whole thing (with a few minor edits).

“Three teams in recent years come to my mind in no particular order.

  • “The Rams — who embodied the “(screw) those draft picks” philosophy — went all in and won a Super Bowl. They developed a unique approach, using the ‘super powers’ of their scouting staff to find the ‘super powers’ of draft choices and free agents. The proof is winning ITL’s Best Draft Award and hitting on late draft choices and UFA’s.
  • “The Lions have also done a good job of drafting through all rounds of the draft and sticking to what they like and how they see players. It appears they have no confirmation bias within the organization. While you can say they are from the Rams family tree, I think GM Brad Holmes (who arrived from Los Angeles) has his own values and different ‘super powers’ that sets his team apart from the Rams, but with similarities. You can point out the failure of QB Hendon Hooker, but as I say in scouting, you have not scouted until you got a player wrong!
  • “Lastly, the Ravens have always been consistent in their batting average through the years with draft choices and particular with UDFAs.

“Some of the traditionally strong teams appear to have lost their willingness to draft and develop, going with a “band-aid” approach, i.e., signing free agents; this is usually due to a leadership change. These teams are chasing immediate success vs. sustainable success. Time will tell if they were right.

“One last thing. One study in my career was that around 60 UDFAs make a 53-man roster each year. That’s roughly two per team. The teams that consistently find these players are elite franchises. All three of these teams (Los Angeles, Detroit and Baltimore) excel in this area.”

If this topic intrigues you, and learning which teams are most respected around the league for the job they each do after draft day, make sure to check out today’s Wrap. These three teams aren’t the only ones who got kudos from evaluators around the league.

Getting NFLPA-Certified? Don’t Make These Three Mistakes

We’re expecting results of the 2025 NFL Agent Exam a week from today, next Friday. That would make 38 days from exam to answers, right on track with last year’s term of 39 days. If you took the exam, you’re probably getting antsy, but before you find out if you passed or not, there are a few strategic errors you need to not make.

After sifting through how every agent did (draftees, UDFAs, tryouts and signees that didn’t achieve anything), both in the 2023 and 2024 agent classes (sorry, pay links), here are a few major mistakes that were made.

Signing no one in Year 1: It seems crazy, but 49 of the 140 contract advisors certified last year didn’t sign a single player for the 2025 draft. These people waited all their lives to get certified, passed a difficult test, then got nothing out of their rookie years. Still, that’s nothing compared to the 2023 class, in which 79 of the 164 first-year agents (close to half the class) skipped out on signing anyone. But here’s the kicker — 45 of those 79 from 2023 didn’t sign a single person in their second year! Now they’re staring at a do-or-die 2026 draft. If they can’t get at least one player on a 90-man roster in 2026, they’re out of the league practically before they got started.

Signing too many players in Year 1: One member of the 2024 agent class signed 17 players and not one made it into camp this summer (just one of them even got a tryout, which seems impossible). One signed eight players and not even one of them got a tryout, much less a UDFA contract. I get it — there’s a temptation to play the numbers game, but if you sign the wrong players, you have a monumental problem because now all those players (and their parents and coaches and girlfriends) are now calling you all summer wondering when they’re gonna get signed (and they aren’t). In my estimation, 2-3 clients is the sweet spot in Year 1 (no more than four). Basically, plan on spending money on training for all your clients. Usually, the agents who sign dozens of players aren’t training them. They’re trying to beat the system, to outsmart everyone. You can’t do that.

Signing small-schoolers: This is a big mistake for two reasons. No. 1, usually a sub-FBS player won’t have a pro day, which means you’re desperately calling around, trying to find a school that will take your player. Usually, you hit a brick wall. No. 2, and more importantly, a growing number of NFL scouts aren’t spending their time poring over FCS and lower prospects, reasoning that if they had ability, they’d take the NIL money and run to a bigger school. That’s the reality in the modern era.

We’ll talk more about the agent business, the success stories and the mistakes that are made in the Friday Wrap, as always, which comes out at 7:30 p.m. later today. Want in? It’s free. Register here.

Want to Sign a Legit NFL Draft Prospect? Here Are the Rules

With the NFL agent exam in the rear-view mirror, our focus turns to helping agents who’ve had a little trouble getting started. For a lot of contract advisors, it takes a while to learn a few lessons. These include:

You can’t tell a legitimate prospect where to train. At least, not one who’s in that group of 800 players in each draft class that are actually worthy of a 90-man roster spot. Obviously, there are exceptions, but usually the best players come from FBS (mostly P4) and play marquee positions (OL, DL, QB, plus a few WRs and CBs). Those players know the market will bear a good training spot and a decent stipend (monthly allowance in the low four figures, usually) from an agent. If you don’t want to pay that, you better be real good at rolling dice.

You can’t create buzz for a player no one wants. I always feel terrible when a new agent comes to me in April and asks what he can do to promote his client(s). NFL teams begin to show their respective hands three weeks out from the draft. At that point, if he’s not getting interest from scouts, there’s nothing the agent can do. Zero. You have to have solved that problem in December or January.

Like it or not, a player’s pro day performance matters a great deal. I’m old enough to remember when the Eagles got killed in the media for taking Boston College DE Mike Mamula in the 1995 draft. Because Mamula owned his pre-draft workouts (which back then were still a rather new phenomenon), Philadelphia traded up to take him seventh overall, before Warren Sapp and Hugh Douglas. Though it’s popular to criticize the “underwear Olympics,” if we’re being honest, 30 years later, workout numbers still matter just as much. One thing I learned while writing my most recent book, Value Picks, is that a poor workout almost does more damage than poor character grades, i.e., a player could be taken completely off the board for it.

Representing a player who makes it to the NFL is worth it. There’s a reason the NFLPA had to institute a three-year rule (you must get at least one player on a roster over a three-year period) to cull the herd of agents on the rolls. It’s because signing and helping a player reach his dreams in the country’s most popular sport is well worth the cost, whatever it is. Lots of people get into the business before realizing how hard it is, then give up soon after certification because they don’t have the contacts, NFL background, or recruiting skills they need to sign a player with league bona fides. They never realize how close they could have come to actually accomplishing their goals.

Next week, we’ll have a Zoom session for people who are NFLPA-certified but struggling to get a player into an NFL camp. We’ll have details about our “bridge” program and who’s eligible. If you’re an agent who just hasn’t had any luck so far, make sure you register for our Friday Wrap, which will have more information. I hope you can join us.

A Few Thoughts from Nashville

I was in Nashville this week for the 2025 Personnel and Recruiting Symposium Presented by Teamworks. It was hella impressive, which I’ll discuss in more detail in this week’s Friday Wrap (register here). I thought I’d share a few observations based on what I saw this week. Here goes.

  • Having spoken to some recently hired personnel types with NFL backgrounds, the big question is if they’ll be “attached” to the head coach, as often happens on the pro side. One person I talked to said he interviewed with about a dozen schools before getting hired and about half made it clear his job continuity would be tied to the athletic director, while the other half tethered him to the head coach. If today’s personnel hire model becomes untangled with anyone — i.e., there’s no spoils system, and scouts can expect to stay at a school for a decade, as long as they perform — it could become an even more enticing place for NFL evaluators.
  • I love how they were serious about networking there. The last hour before Monday night’s social was a “speed dating” type of event where about 500 people from across personnel, recruiting and operations sat at tables of 6-8 people, each answering questions off a card. Everyone was encouraged to share their name, school, title, contacts, etc., with everyone else. That’s a big step up from when I was here in 2019, when people were mostly left to their own devices to network (and most remained in their silos, unfortunately).
  • What’s remarkable is the sheer volume from everyone across the industry. It’s far more than just personnel and recruiting staffers. Monday night alone, I saw probably a half-dozen agents, plus representatives from probably 10 NFL teams, and I had just gotten there. Most people I spoke to who were here last year said it’s doubled in attendance since 2024.
  • It’s pretty clear why Nashville has become such a destination place for bachelorette parties. The nightlife in Houston, my hometown, is definitely mild downtown, but wow, it is booming here. Monday night in Nashville is something I’ll never forget. One of the members of my party this week called it a “mini Vegas.” From a lights and electricity perspective, it’s hard to argue. The Renaissance was a beehive Monday night, but there was even more action once you got out on the street.
  • At one point, the topic of visiting Memphis came up. The Tigers are located in a questionable part of town, apparently, which makes for expedited exits once practice is over. A few years ago, one director-level scout went to check into his ground-floor hotel room, only to find the window open and TV, microwave and anything else of value cleaned out. He immediately returned to the front desk, cancelled his reservation, and established a policy whereby scouts would only evaluate the Tigers on the road.

Hats off to this year’s organizers. They have a tall order in topping this year’s event. As I mentioned, I’ll touch more on the symposium in the Wrap.

Here’s Why You Should Attend Next Week’s Personnel Symposium

The 2025 Personnel and Recruiting Symposium takes place Monday through Wednesday of next week in Nashville. If you read this blog, you need to be there. Here are a few of the reasons why.

The program is sure to enlighten and educate anyone in college and pro football: See for yourself what’s ahead. The topics are important and the people who’ll be presenting know their stuff. You don’t get to hear people like this talk football on a regular basis.

Look at who’s going to be there: Reviewing the Personnel Symposium Twitter account, I count 18 NFL teams headed to Nashville (49ers, Broncos, Browns, Bucs, Chiefs, Colts, Commanders, Cowboys, Eagles, Falcons, Jaguars, Jets, Lions, Packers, Rams, Seahawks, Titans and Vikings). The Bears’ GM, Ryan Poles, will be one of the speakers. The new executive Director of the Senior Bowl, Drew Fabianich, will be there, as will his counterpart at the East-West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galko, and the co-founder of the College Gridiron Showcase, Jose Jefferson (I think there’s a good chance Scott Phillips, the executive director of the new American Bowl, could be there Tuesday, as well). Countless members of P4 and G5 personnel departments will be there, too. I also know of four former NFL scouts will be there. It’s going to be big.

This is how you get a job in modern college/pro football: I preach it all the time — football is a people business. There are hundreds of aspiring scouts and evaluators trying to get a job in the game. The only way you vault past them is with the relationships you develop. The only way to meet people who might be able to help you is by being around people in the game. There will literally be thousands of them in Nashville next week.

I’d love to autograph your copy of my books: If you’ve been kind enough to buy Value Picks lately, or Scout Speak in the last few years, I’m much obliged. I’ll have a Sharpie next week and I’d love to sign whatever you have. Incidentally, all the speakers and panelists next week will get copies of Value Picks.

We’re going to be conducting an interesting survey in Nashville: We’ll have more details in the Friday Wrap, but we’re going to conduct the first-ever poll of people working in the industry on the college level. So many people aspire to work in college personnel, but many are getting out. I want to reconcile that, and our survey is going to be really enlightening. Make sure to check out the Wrap tomorrow (register here if you don’t receive it already).

So anyway, I know there are costs associated with it, and I know it’s not easy to just pick up and go, but I think this will be worth it. DM me at @insidetheleague if you’re going. I’d love to connect.

2025 NFLPA Exam: Wrapping Things Up

As we turn the page on five months of getting hundreds of people ready for the 2025 NFL Agent Exam, we wanted to tie up a few loose ends. Here are a few last thoughts, whether you took the exam, want to take it, or have taken it.

The NFLPA’s online sessions got mixed reviews: The Players Association’s first run-through since Agent Relations chief Mark Levin retired was always going to be a little bumpy, but all in all, the feedback received was not a lot different from what we’ve heard the last 10+ years. Bottom line, if your strategy is to let the NFLPA serve as your exam prep program, you’re in deep trouble. There’s just too much content to present in a two-day period.

Don’t like math, but want to be an agent? You’re in luck: If the last two agent exams are any indication, you don’t have to be able to work simple algebra to obtain certification. Though we aggressively taught all the concepts for figuring workman’s comp offsets, injury settlements, termination pay and forfeitable salary, questions have focused more on the theoretical than on determining hard numbers of late.

There were a few repeat questions from last year’s exam: Last year, dozens of test-takers expressed surprise at a question that involved a scenario where a player pushes a coach, then punches him, during a game. Well, that question made a surprise reappearance this year.

The study guide remains a big hit: We got lots of unsolicited (positive) feedback on our study guide, which remains the best resource on the market for passing the exam. “The study guide was really helpful as a quick reference!,” said one prospective agent. Said another: “I would have been lost without your study guide and practice exam.” One more: “The study guides and practice tests have been worth their weight in gold.” On second thought, the practice exams have been pretty popular, as well. We’ll have more feedback from this year’s test-takers on our exam prep materials in the Friday Wrap (register for it here).

Extreme measures: Judging from the experiences of a couple of this year’s test-takers, some of the staffers at testing facilities have a background at TSA. At least two people showed up for the exam and had to prove they had nothing in their socks. Jackets, shoes and all manner of pockets were not off-limits.

Results are about six weeks away: So how long will it take for results to come back? Last year’s results arrived Sept. 6, a Friday. The two previous years, they came in the second Friday of September. Generally speaking, the Players Association likes to give successful test-takers about a month to round up the necessary funds to pay for liability insurance and dues (about another $2,500).

We’ll go into greater detail on our service the people we serve in today’s Friday Wrap. Register for it here.

Your One-Week Cram Strategy for the NFL Agent Exam

We preach 60 days, minimum, to prepare for the NFL agent exam. It’s a very challenging test with a very high failure rate. Of course, we still have lots of people who, for whatever reason, get a much later start. Those people need an expedited plan, obviously. We thought we’d put one together this year.

If you’re a big-time procrastinator, or you’ve been studying but suddenly realize you need some help, here’s the strategy we recommend. Disclaimer: It’s going to involve plenty of our products and services. Sorry if that sounds self-serving, but you’re going to have to come out of pocket to do this.

Here goes.

Buy our study guide. It all starts there. No study guide, you seriously impact your chances of passing. That’s why we sell lots and lots of them every year. “The study guide explains everything very simple which is great,” said one client this month. “I’m able to catch on to it quickly. Said another, also this month: “The study guide has been amazing.” We get these comments every year.

Or . . . buy our videos: Maybe you’re more of a visual learner. We have six one-hour videos for sale (February, March, April, May, June and July) that cover all the important topics in the CBA. They are $50 each, plus tax. If you prefer to watch our CBA guru, Ian Greengross, teach all the topics, order them all here. Theoretically, you could watch all six over the course of a day as a kind of self-taught CBA course. Each video lists the topics covered.

Either way, you need to spend 10-20 hours studying the guide or the videos. To me, that’s the minimum for covering the topics like split contracts, injury grievance, reading the signals report, drug policy, benefits and the like. You’re talking about a detailed 700-page document and, technically, everything in them is game for the exam. You’re probably talking about taking one or two days off from work this week. I’d also say 10-20 hours is the floor. It might take you longer to really grasp the concepts.

Listen intently to the NFLPA virtual seminars Wednesday and Thursday. This is still a legitimate way to learn the material, and NFLPA officials tend to give hints on what’s going to be tested. The problem is, they go at a breathtaking pace, so it’s hard to keep up (especially if you don’t have our study guide, which gives an excellent overview of all the key topics). You also tend to get really boneheaded questions, and the officials try to take them all seriously. This takes away from the time on task and the flow of teaching.

Take our practice exam on Friday. We actually have two, but you have to buy them in sequence, so start with Exam 1. I’d try to take it Friday morning. Don’t expect to ace it, but you’ll get a good handle on your weaknesses. Register for it here. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to get them both (Exam 2 registration is here), but at least get one of them.

This is the bare minimum that I would recommend. I’d also think you should join us for our two-hour exam review and Q&A on Saturday night at 7 p.m. (details in the Friday Wrap, which you can register for here), but I think this at least gets you to some level of competence before Monday’s exam.

Best of luck. I fear you’re going to need it.

Interested in How to Enhance Your Chances in the Portal (and beyond)? Check This Out

Wednesday, I was honored to speak to a little less than 100 high school and college players, parents, coaches, NIL agents and NIL agent hopefuls as part of the NIL Explained Zoom session sponsored by Tim Lowney of Lowney Sports. It was a lot of fun, and though I only was given 10 minutes, I took 16. Even at that, I was talking pretty quickly, as you can see in the video segment I published Thursday.

My discussion centered mainly on player evaluation (on both the college and pro levels) and the changing college and pro football landscape, at least as I see it. In case you missed it, the following are the notes I prepared for my presentation.

No one knows what the future holds (and beware of anyone who says they do).

    1. The new reality is that it’s going to take a monumental sum of money to play football
    2. The P4 college GMs I talk to seem confident that they will find the moneyThe G5 schools . . . are hopeful (but that’s all)
    3. There is surely more litigation on the way

    Football is a relationship business. Make sure to align yourself with those who know more people than you do.

    1. Don’t want to hire an agent? OK, but the right one can be very helpful
    2. Know who you hired and understand that there is no certification process for NIL agents
    3. Just because an agent is NFLPA-certified doesn’t mean he’s an expert (on anything)

    Player evaluation is going through drastic changes that are reshaping how teams choose talent (college and pro).

    1. NFL scouting staffs are getting younger while owners are forcing more analytics
    2. College staffs are weighing incorporation of an NFL scouting model (maybe)Beware of non-NFL/college affiliated “scouts”
    3. College GMs are part financial experts, part scouts, part other stuff

    The best way to be a marketable player is to be a good player.

    1. Sometimes, you can spark interest w/colleges via social media
    2. The NFL doesn’t normally respond to social media performance
    3. Your HS pedigree (5-star, etc.) means far more on college side than pro side

    The key to good decisions is knowing your market value. Be honest with yourself.

    1. Don’t trust recruiting services
    2. You get what you pay for
    3. Your NFL value may be different from your NIL/portal value (and probably does)

    What do you think? Was I off-base? Was I pretty accurate? Let me know at @insidetheleague on Twitter. For more analysis of the game, make sure to check out our newsletter, the Friday Wrap, which you can register for here.

    Some Reality for the 2025 NFL Agent Class

    At Inside the League, we spend a lot of time getting prospective contract advisors ready for the NFLPA exam, which is 17 days away. It’s a test that must be taken seriously, but it’s far from the only one that agents face.

    We recently got finished breaking down the 2025 draft class (sorry, pay link) with respect to which players got drafted, which ones got signed in undrafted free agency and which ones got to camp as tryout players only, cross-referencing it all with the agents who signed these players. The information we got back was sobering but, I think, relevant, because player representation remains such a popular route into the football business.

    First, let’s start with the presumption that it costs at least $10,000 to get a player through the pre-draft process. You might get lucky and spend less, but we’re talking reality here. As an agent, you have three years to get a player onto a 90-man roster or you have to start over — pay $2500, pass the exam, etc. This is why our one goal at Inside the League, when it comes to new agents, “is resetting their clocks.”

    With all that in mind, there were 139 agents who got certified in the 2024 agent class. Here’s what we found.

    • Only 13 had clients drafted (less than 10 percent). Keep in mind that most of the new agents who had draftees work for major firms. Only a portion of that 10 percent were truly independent — guys who took the exam, then dove in head first without any help and figured it all out.
    • Just 34 of the 139 (about a third) got a player onto an undrafted free agent deal, the absolutely lowest possible level of achievement that allows the new agent to reset his clock. That’s two-thirds of the agent class who now have just two years to attain getting a player signed or drafted.
    • There were 21 first-year agents who sent players to rookie mini-camp tryouts but who had no undrafted free agents (in other words, their clients went to rookie mini-camp with no contract and left without one three days later). Simply sending a player to rookie mini-camp on a tryout does not reset your three-year clock — it feels like an achievement for an agent, but it doesn’t really help. That means despite recruiting, signing and training numerous players for the draft, these agents have nothing to show for it. Of the 21, six signed multiple clients who only got tryouts. One agent signed four! Presumably, they trained all those players, which isn’t cheap (as we mentioned before). That’s a big hole in their respective budgets going into the 2026 class.
    • A total of 49 members of the 2024 agent class didn’t even sign a client for the 2025 draft. That’s about a third of the class that went to the trouble of passing the exam, then took the year off. They have to learn all the hard lessons of player representation in two years, not three, to beat the clock.
    • Thirty-two members of the 2024 class signed one or more players, but didn’t get a single one as much as a tryout. One had eight, none of whom got to an NFL camp. Another had seven and two more had six each. That’s a lot of work and effort ending in frustration.

    The road to superstardom as an NFL agent is filled with huge potholes. We can help you avoid them, but it’s not easy. If you’re taking the test on July 21, please consider working with us. We’ve offered exam prep longer than anyone else and we’re also cheaper. Want more details about how we can get you ready? Register for today’s Friday Wrap, which comes out this evening, here.

    Blake’s Summer Sleepers for 2026: Reviewing A Couple Interesting Prospects

    On Wednesday, former NFL scouting executive Blake Beddingfield presented his Summer Sleepers list and joined dozens of agents on Zoom to discuss them. It’s our second year of presenting his list during the summer, but our sixth year of him doing this (we used to save it for in-season). Here’s a look at a past list.

    Anyway, the value in Blake’s list (as well as the timing of it) is in the players he spotlights. All of them enter the season as Day 3/UDFA types, and maybe they never rise above that, but even if they don’t, it’s valuable to know about them. As we’ve recounted on ITL this week, a growing number of players with Day 1 grades already have strong relationships with top firms, and the battle is for the players who aren’t on preseason mock drafts.

    Anyway, here are two of the 55 players Blake discussed Wednesday that I found especially interesting.

    Barion Brown, WO, LSU: Brown could be the fastest player in the draft, and he will play a role in Year 1 as he’ll be used to stretch defenses and create mismatches. He’ll also be a starting returner immediately. However, he has inconsistent hands and he struggles with the ability to catch a ball with tight zip and velocity. He will “double-catch” it at times, and other times, he just drops the ball. There’s already been a lot of hype this spring about Brown, who transferred in from Kentucky this offseason, but there are red flags due to his hands.

    Elijah Pritchett, OT, Nebraska: Pritchett has a first-round body but free agent film. There’s already video of him doing impressive feats of strength during his short time in Lincoln, but it’s not the tools that are in question. Blake got really passionate describing Pritchett’s unrealized potential on Wednesday; you don’t often find the combination of strength, feet and burst that the big ‘Husker shows. He’s already got 12 starts at tackle (mostly right, but one at left) from his time at Alabama, and the potential is tantalizing, but at this point it’s just potential. Still, if the light comes on, he could be elite. The question is, will it?

    The point is, unless you’re with one of the top 50 NFL agencies (and maybe, even if you are), you need to know about the players Blake described Wednesday. It’s still early, and if you get in with one of these young men early, it may be the difference when it’s decision time in December or January. For $45 plus tax, you get Blake’s list with his notes and projections on all 55 players, but you also get the video, during which he really gets passionate about who these players are, their NFL comps, and the details you can’t find anywhere else.