Tag Archives: Agents

Three Things for Scouts, Agents and Trainers to Monitor This Fall

07 Friday Aug 2020

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Just a few weeks ago in the Friday Wrap, we discussed the potential changes in an uncertain recruiting landscape dramatically affected by coronavirus. Just two weeks later, we are already getting answers to the questions we asked in our July 24 edition. Let’s look at the changes, make a few new points and ask a few more questions.

  • These opt-outs are a test: No matter how you feel about the merits of their decisions, players who are opting out are an experiment. Will they preserve their draft status despite not playing? When we asked active NFL scouts a few weeks back in this space, the number most came up was about 20 players who can pull this off (here are the players we’d guess can do it). We already know that top players skip the Senior Bowl by the bushel, and in recent seasons, players like Christian McCaffrey and Leonard Fournette have skipped their teams’ bowl games without a draft penalty. Will the next generation skip their last year of eligibility without effect? We’ll know in about 10 months.
  • This is another blow to the agent middle class: Based on our conversations with people in the business, the players who’ve opted out already (and the ones we’ve heard are strongly considering it) will receive full stipends through the draft. Normally, you’re looking at anywhere from $5,000-$10,000/month for four months, depending on the player and the agency. That adds $30,000-$40,000 to the pre-draft tab before you figure in training (about $20,000 conservatively, including food, residence and rental car). Agencies used to get that back in fees over the life of the first contract, but in the days of the one-percent deal (or zero) and slotted salaries post-2011 CBA, it’s all on getting to the second deal and charging three percent. There are no guarantees. It’s been a tough landscape for middle-class firms for a while now. This year — coming off a year when fewer UDFAs were signed and there were no tryout players — could be a real death blow to those who make unwise financial decisions.
  • Some combine prep facilities, as well as agencies, won’t make it to 2022: Today, the success of a combine prep facility is predicated on four things: geographical location (you pretty much better be in the Sun Belt); ability to find reasonably priced lodging (incredibly hard on short-term leases, especially in splashy settings like Miami, Phoenix and Los Angeles); what you do the other nine months of the year; and your ability to recruit and win over the top prospects, obviously. Many solid combine prep facilities have been forced to close down during the lockdowns, and that takes a huge toll when you have thin margins (and yes, most of these facilities have thin margins, despite beliefs to the contrary). The lion’s share of the players who’ll train from now until the draft will go to the top facilities, so the smaller sites won’t benefit from that. It’s going to be another tough year.

In today’s Friday Wrap, we’ll talk about what’s ahead for the scouting profession, based on hiring practices this summer. Give it a look this evening. If you still need to register, click here.

2020 NFL Draft Process, Coronavirus Edition: How Scouts, Agents, Players Are Adjusting

27 Friday Mar 2020

Posted by in Agents, Coaches, Scouts

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Obviously we’re in an unprecedented time. Here are a few observations on how the football world is shifting to accommodate the coronavirus situation, and how we’re trying to be a small part of the solution.

  • It looked bad for open venues this week, so we moved several up in an attempt to stay ahead of the closings. As a result, we were able to get two in on Tuesday in Dallas and one in Tampa, thanks to former NFL evaluators Bob Morris (Browns, 49ers) and Richard Shelton (Titans). Bob handled things in Dallas and Richard in Tampa. Unfortunately, our instincts were correct. We had a workout in New Orleans slated for today, but the venue was shuttered on Thursday. We’re hoping two pro days we have scheduled for today in Atlanta go off without a hitch (ex-Raiders scout Von Hutchins and Mike Hagen, last with the Chiefs, are calling the shots there).
  • Because we’ve brought in former NFL personnel to run these pro days — sort of serving as a ‘proctor’ for the big exams — we’ve gotten good feedback from NFL teams. Contacts with two teams have asked for all the numbers from our scouts’ pro days, and we’ve been happy to oblige. Meanwhile, our RT of a Twitter post on another player drew an immediate response from a director-level scout with another team. If you’re a player or agent, don’t think for a minute that teams aren’t working overtime to make the best of these strange circumstances.
  • We’re pretty excited about the response we’ve gotten on our Google Form that will supplement the work the APT Coalition (the consortium of NFL scouts that shares pro day information during a normal March) normally does. We’ve gotten more than 300 players’ information so far with about 48 hours to go before we pull the plug and ship it out to all 32 teams. “Through your help, I’m down to 27 players that I need draft info for,” said one scout that we’ve been trying to help with player, agent and college contacts. We’re hoping that after this weekend, those remaining 27 players’ contacts (and their agents, of course) are in his notebook.
  • One note about that Google form: a handful of agents included their contact info but not their players’ contacts. While we understand that they represent the players, scouts are not going to want to have to go through a third party to collect simple information about draft prospects over the next month before the draft. We’ve removed all entries that omitted players’ info, but not to worry: we’ll send out the form one last time this evening.
  • Of course, if you’d like to update things immediately, we also sent out the link to all NFLPA-licensed contract advisors last Friday at 6:30 p.m., Monday at 6 a.m. and Wednesday at 6 a.m. (all times central). The link is somewhere in your inbox if you’re a licensed agent, so check your trash.
  • We’re hoping to be part of a national solution to the lack of pro days in mid-April. We’re working on a project that, hopefully, can bring a neutral, professionally run local workout to hundreds of players. Fingers crossed, of course, that we’ll have open venues and some return to normalcy by Easter.

That’s all we have so far. Hopefully, we’re still moving in the right direction. For more on how “the new normal” is affecting the data-gathering process and how teams are adapting, check out today’s Friday Wrap. You can register for it here.

 

Our First Seminar for Coaches of Agents: Three Takeaways

02 Saturday Mar 2019

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So yesterday was our first-ever seminar solely for agents of NCAA and NFL coaches, the Franklin Capital Strategies Coaches Agent Seminar presented by Texas Interventional Orthopedics.

Actually, it really wasn’t a seminar; it was a limited-participation morning with our three panelists, Joe Schad of the Palm Beach Post (formerly ESPN); Doug Whaley, Sr. V.P. of Football Operations for the XFL (and formerly with the Steelers and Bills); and perhaps the top name in the coach search firm business, who preferred to remain anonymous.

Here are a few takeaways:

  • While there’s a lot of energy associated with representing players, the real interest is in working with coaches. The problem is, no one has nailed down the business model. Joe told the story of one assistant coach who dangles the prospect of 10 percent of his first-year salary to any agent who can get him a job as head coach of a specific team. In this way, he sends droves of hungry agents out to work for him without locking himself into an agent who may or may not always burn the midnight oil.
  • Doug said the key to getting a job in today’s world is knowing the trends. One thing he said was that in the old days, trends trickled down from the NFL. That’s not true today. College football is undergoing a renaissance, and the most imaginative offenses are not in New Orleans or Kansas City but in Oklahoma and Texas Tech (hence Kyler Murray and Kliff Kingsbury). Therefore, to get a job in the NFL with a progressive team, it’s advantageous to have an association with one of the hotter programs in the NCAA, even if you’re on the personnel side.
  • Also from Doug: When he was with the Bills, he and his staff conducted a review of all coaches in the NFL just in case the team needed to fill a vacancy on the fly. We hear a lot about breaking down the draft, and even scouting active NFL players, but who knew teams actively scouted and evaluated coaches.
  • What’s the first thing an agent negotiates for a coach? His salary, of course. However, once the salary is set, it’s time for the benefits. Country club memberships. Private jet hours. A car for the coach’s wife. Luxury box access. You might think that a coach getting paid millions of dollars wouldn’t worry about these things, but that’s not the point. The point is, a good agent sets it up so that they don’t have to. If you want to rep coaches, you better be prepared to do the same.

Still curious about what was said and heard at our first-ever seminar for agents of coaches? We got you. Reach out to our title sponsor, Paul Franklin of Franklin Capital Strategies, by any of these methods.

WSW: You Just Never Know

03 Thursday Mar 2016

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As I’ve discussed previously in this space, I was on a panel last month at the Fowler School of Law at Chapman University in Orange, Calif. It was a fascinating time, to say the least, and a pleasure to hear some great minds talk about the business in a real, factual basis. So many times you wind up on a panel with people who think they know the business, but don’t. These folks did.

One of the stories that was told there I wanted to use for today’s Thursday edition of War Story Wednesday. The story is told by Sean Kiernan, a seasoned agent who’s based in the Los Angeles area. Though he’s with Select Sports Group now, the story he tells is from his time with Impact Sports, which is based in Boca Raton, Fla.

For what it’s worth, the five players he discussed below are taken from Impact’s draft class of Tennessee OG Arron Sears (2/35), Notre Dame DE Victor Abiamiri (2/57), Georgia DE Quentin Moses (3/65), California DC Daymeion Hughes (3/95), Oklahoma St. OG Corey Hilliard (6/209), Florida IB Brandon Siler (7/240). Apparently Sean didn’t recruit one of the players from this group.

“You look at it from a draft perspective, the best year we ever had as a company (at Impact Sports was in 2007. Erik and I were talking about it this morning. (All year) I was on the road between Atlanta and Phoenix, watching five guys, and I thought we had the best draft class ever. We ended up with two seconds, two thirds and a seventh, and I was at a company where we were consistently in the first round with at least one pick every year. None of those guys got second deals. None of them. One had concussion issues, was out of the league. One had a bad knee. Out of the league. One couldn’t run and played corner. Not a good thing. One, the top pick of the third round, got cut at the end of training camp. He was the highest guy to ever get cut in like four years, and he was the highest player on the BLESTO report and the third-highest player on the National report, eight months ago. And he got cut. Now, he survived four years in the league and he made it. We found the right place for him, but he never got a second deal. The seventh-round pick tore his Achilles going into his second deal. Five guys. And if you would have asked me, any year in my career, if I was to bet on any year of guys, that was the group of guys I would have bet on all day. All five of them, nothing. Then there’s guys I sign off of practice squad who get a four-year, $16 million deal. You just never know.”

I agree. This class looked like a lock going into the draft and even beyond, but it didn’t work out that way. If you get into this business, understand that it’s very fickle. There are no guarantees.

War Story Wednesday

11 Wednesday Jun 2014

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As we go forward with this blog, we hope to enlighten our readers weekly with a ‘war story’ or two that illustrates a theme we’ve been developing. Today, with the draft just completed, we’ll step away from our series on NFL scouting to discuss two stories related to the agent world that illustrate the uncertainty and unpredictable nature of the business.

One has a happy ending, and one less happy. First, the happy.

A first-year agent decided to aim high and recruit a player rated as a fourth- or fifth-round draft pick in the just-completed 2014 NFL draft. This agent decided to leverage a growing relationship with a top combine trainer to initiate contact with this top prospect, who seemed eager to communicate through the course of the fall. As the relationship with him grew, the new agent decided to improve chances by seeking to partner with a more seasoned firm. After initiating contact with several, there were a number of firms that expressed serious interest. Excited about the prospect of signing him, the agent heightened pursuit. Unfortunately, the player’s performance was disappointing this season, but his expectation level never slackened, and the agent began to realize that subsidizing training and providing living expenses would represent a sizable risk. However, the agent was willing to go ahead with the recruiting process, hoping to make a big first-year splash. Unfortunately, though the agent felt there was a close relationship, he opted for a bigger firm with a long client list and big reputation.

Ultimately, the story turned much sunnier for the agent. The player’s fortunes fell so far during the season that he was snubbed when combine invites went out, which was no small disappointment to the agents he had chosen. Furthermore, though he attended one of the top all-star games, his performance was lackluster. The coup de grace was an ordinary pro day performance that left his draft status floundering. Still, it didn’t stop his family from holding a major draft party at a local pizzeria. They invited dozens of friends, coaches, former teammates and family members to be part of their special weekend. Unfortunately, it all turned out quite awkwardly as the player went undrafted.

The agent wound up settling for a player who was grateful, less entitled, and ultimately far cheaper to represent. Like the big-name client the agent sought to sign, he’s also an undrafted free agent signee who’ll compete for a spot on a 53-man roster this summer, with about the same odds of making the team.

About 10 years ago, our second agent was a teacher in a high school in the Southeast. A conscientious sort who looked out for his students, many of whom came from underprivileged homes, he took an interest in one young student who was especially gifted on the gridiron. Speed was this young man’s forte.

The young teacher came to know the player’s family and he became an active mentor for the youth, so when it came time to weigh the college offers that came pouring in later in his prep years, the teacher was a key part of things. The teacher figured out how to compile and edit highlight films and put them on YouTube, while also imparting advice during challenging times with many suitors for the young athlete’s services. Ultimately, the player went away to school on a full scholarship, but the two kept in close contact. By then, the teacher was practically part of the family.

Flash forward four years, and the teacher, who had by then attained a position as an assistant principal, left the education profession and gained certification as a certified NFLPA contract advisor. This would be his chance to help the young man take the next step and live his NFL dreams, and the teacher would be a big part of things. When the player’s senior year became one of injury and unreached expectations, the teacher was still there, and signed the young man as his first client. He sent him to one of the best training facilities in the business to prepare for the combine, and helped with other expenses along the way, making a financial investment that was as significant as the personal investment he’d made in the young athlete.

Unfortunately, the player’s fortunes dimmed as his injury dogged him throughout February and March, and the relationship became more and more frosty. Never more than a late-round projection, he began to blame his longtime mentor because he wasn’t seeing his name among the lists of top-rated players. Slowly, the teacher began to realize there was no way he’d see a return on the five-figure training bill plus the added expenses he’d taken on over the past few months. At the same time, however, the player’s mother had turned belligerent and had taken to regular explosive phone calls to the teacher, blaming him for her son’s sagging draft status.

Ultimately, the draft came and went, and predictably, he went undrafted. The teacher worked hard vetting the various teams interested in him, but the player was reluctant and lacked enthusiasm. He signed with a team after the draft, but there was little joy between the agent or his client due to the stress of March, April and May. I spoke to the agent recently, and he told me that the player had fired him, blaming him for his fall in the draft. The agent, my friend, told me it was an  incredible load off his mind. But there was no joy in his words when he said it.

If you’re considering becoming agent some day soon or in the far off future, I tell these stories not to discourage you, but to give you a clearer picture of what happens in the business.

More stories next Wednesday.