By now, you know all about former Colts QB Andrew Luck’s decision to retire two weeks before the start of the season after just seven years in the league, and you may or may not have a strong opinion on it.

However, we wanted to get away from the fan reaction or the applause on social media and focus more on how, or if, Luck’s move might affect scouting and evaluation. Our question to some of our friends in the scouting community was this: With money exploding and head injury concerns already creating doubts among players about long careers, do you think scouts will start wondering if players with excellent academic credentials (like Luck) will have shorter careers and/or leave prematurely?

Here are a few of their reactions.

• “It comes down to the love of the game and if a player really needs ball I guess…. everyone is wired differently, though. The guys who are overly analytical could raise questions moving forward. Mental toughness is definitely high on the scale, regardless of position.”
• “With the Luck decision, no, I don’t think I would question what could potentially happen to a player down the road in their career. Luck’s mentality and attitude was second to none. He laid (it) on the line, probably to a fault. He’s a total winner as a person. You can’t ask for any more. Each player’s path is different, as well, with health and injuries. (Former Patriots TE Rob Gronkowski is) very similar. The players today are just more informed and educated about training, health, and safety, along with quality of life. The older generation of players had no choice, other than to exhaust their careers, and the young guys see the consequences.”
• “I don’t think it will be something that comes into play too much.  This isn’t a common occurrence.  If and when it does, then it could become a piece of the puzzle that would require some more thought. It wasn’t like he retired after 2-3 seasons. Most players don’t play for as long as he did, regardless. If you get seven years out of a player, you’d be fairly happy. It stinks because he played at a high level last year, but his body just couldn’t sustain it. (Still,) the timing is awful.  Go on (injured reserve) and then retire. They’re going to let him keep the money, so they could’ve worked something out. That part is rough.”
• “I think scouts will only ask that question on extremely elite players. I could see it coming up with (Oregon QB
• “We are concerned with all players thinking that way regardless of the academic credentials. But we don’t know if it was his mind that hurt more than the body?

We’ve got more reaction in today’s Friday Wrap, plus plenty of other good stuff for fans of scouting, representing, coaching or parenting players. It goes out to about 5,000 people across the industry every week, and it comes out later today. You can register for it here.

This week, my team and I presented our thoughts on how to get a job as an NFL scout at the second annual Personnel Symposium at the J.W. Marriott in Nashville. Jason Montanez of Catapult Leadership and Blake Beddingfield, former Director of College Scouting for the Titans, joined me as we took turns during ITL’s 30-minute segment.

Of course, though we were happy to share our knowledge at the request of CAA’s Ed Marynowitz, the founder of the event, I came away with new information of my own. Here are three of my personal takeaways from the two-day seminar in the Music City.

• Don’t forget about the power of media, and specifically, social media: The NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah told the story of his introduction to social media shortly after being let go by the Browns. It was a lot of fun to hear in person, but here it is from a story in The Athletic:(ESPN’s Chris) Mortensen had told him to sign up for Twitter so he did. Jeremiah remembers being on an Alaskan cruise with his family and stopping by the internet cafe to check his email. He had 1,100 new messages.“I go, ‘What the heck?’ It was because I got a new email every time I got a new follower,” he remembers. “I could not figure this out. So I kept scrolling down, finally saw an email from Mort. ‘Hey, I just encouraged people to follow you on Twitter … you might want to tweet something.’ Because I hadn’t even tweeted anything.”
• Persistence, done right, can be effective: Blake told the story of how he landed with Tennessee, but there’s a twist: it came due to his efforts trying to get a job with a different team. Shortly after graduating from Alabama, he was told by a friend of a vacancy with an NFL team, as well as who would be hiring to fill that vacancy. Blake decided to call that official once weekly, on a Thursday, at precisely 9 a.m., speaking for only one minute. After a time, the official began picking up with the greeting, “Hey, Blake.” Though he didn’t get the job, when the Titans were looking to hire, the official called and strongly endorsed Blake, who was subsequently hired.
• Network or die: Michigan State Executive Director of Player Personnel and Recruiting Sheldon White was part of an excellent panel Tuesday that focused on hiring and getting a job. Sheldon, who has been in football for more than 30 years as a player, coach and executive on the NFL and college level, said he never interviewed for a job before taking his present position. That’s because he always focused on meeting people and building relationships that he could draw on when it became time to turn the page. He applauded the Inside the League presentation Monday night in which I encouraged everyone in attendance to leave with no fewer than five business cards from new friends/colleagues before returning home. If you went to Nashville, and you didn’t make several new associates in the business, you weren’t trying.

I asked a couple friends what they got out of the conference. Here’s what they told me:

• “I think Ed Marynowitz and his staff did a very nice job of considering everyone’s feedback from last year’s event.  They listened intently and used the information to produce an even better version of the symposium this go-around. Obviously the panels are a main feature.  I particularly enjoyed hearing some of the more introspective answers from certain speakers – responses that emphasized the need to be adaptive and ever-evolving in this line of work.  We can all bring different talents and skills and ideas to our jobs, but above all, we are stewards of the Head Coach’s vision.  I thought it was great to hear some of those guys really hammer on the need to stay flexible and adapt to the changing landscape.” — Matt Doherty, former Director of Player Personnel at Miami (Fla.)
• “My biggest takeaway from the speakers at the symposium: having one strong champion is better than having multiple people who know your name but don’t know you. If you can learn, you’ll be fine. People want to know about your character. And the same thing applies to recruiting. The character/off the field traits tend to play a bigger role in determining if you will be successful. Another thing as it relates to recruiting, while ranking guys 1-5 might be good, don’t pass up the number 2 or 3 guy if the top guy is slightly better. Lastly, the biggest thing that was reinforced to me was to trust my eyes when scouting.” — Andrew Liacopoulos, player personnel specialist at Boston College

As we head toward the 2019 Personnel Symposium in Nashville Monday and Tuesday, we’ve already told you about the people who’ll be on stage Monday afternoon and we’ve given you a profile of the people who got hired as NFL scouting assistants this year. Next up, it probably makes sense to talk to some of the young scouts already in the game to get their insights.

We spoke to about a half-dozen young people who are area scouts or seasoned scouting assistants over the past week, and their responses were excellent. Obviously, they talked about the value of hard work, of proving yourself to the right people, and of how their passion gave them a persistence others didn’t possess. However, some made points I hadn’t thought of, and these are the ones I wanted to focus on today. Here are a few selected quotes.

• “Always be available. I was given opportunities early on simple because I was always around and always in the building. I was able to build a rapport with my bosses quicker than my counterparts.” The importance of being a ‘gym rat’ kinda gets lost sometimes, and I feel there’s a temptation to exhale once you get to a certain level. For those people who are willing to make their job their hobby, as well, there are certain rewards.
• “It is vitally important to have mentors and champions in the field.  It could be a GM, a director, or an area scout and most likely it will be a combination of all the above. Being able to trust and bounce things off people is vitally important to keep you moving forward!” The idea of having a mentor is something that seems old-school, almost passe’, to a lot of people these days, but I still think it’s essential. At ITL, we have been humbled to serve in a semi-mentor capacity with plenty of people in the game. I’ve also benefited from being a mentee, which I’ve discussed in this space. It’s a valuable relationship.
• “You’d be surprised stories you hear about people that say they desperately want to get in, and have had chances, but then when their name gets brought up you hear that they’re lazy or they didn’t put in the extra work to stand out when they got their shot.” In such an intensely competitive environment where everyone is watching, you’d expect that there would be few people slacking off, but it happens. So many in this game think they’ve made it when they secure a college personnel job, an internship or a scouting assistant position, but that’s not true. You can never take your foot off the gas in this game.

There’s a lot more to tell, and a lot more to talk about. We’ll have more details about Monday and Tuesday in Nashville in our Friday Wrap, which comes out tomorrow afternoon (you can register for it here). We’ll also have final details about our post-presentation plans Monday night; we’re still working everything out and nailing down a few final details. Stay tuned!

Next week in Nashville, I’ll be joining two friends to speak at the second annual Personnel Symposium at the J.W. Marriott Aug. 5-6. I’m honored to be part of this year’s festivities, and flattered that Ed Marynowitz, the former college (Alabama) and pro (Eagles) administrator and scout, asked me to contribute. My team and I are looking forward to meeting the 200-or-so scouting professionals who’ll be in attendance.

This week, in this space, I’ll be talking about our presentation in the Music City. That means I’m going to presume that, if you’re reading, it’s your desire to become an NFL scout someday. Over the next four days, we’ll talk about who will be speaking for us; what people who hire NFL scouting assistants are looking for; who’s getting hired, i.e., what are the characteristics of the people who are becoming scouting assistants; and what qualities young scouts say were important reasons why they got hired. In other words, we’re going to look at all sides of what it takes to get a job in the NFL.

Let’s start by talking about the two men who’ll share the floor with me for 30 minutes, all told, next week. They’re both good friends, but more than that, they’ve got a lot to say about the subject we’ll be discussing.

Jason Montanez of Catapult Leadership: Jason was a fullback in the early ’00s at Buffalo after spending his high school days playing in a suburb of New York City. Though Jason is still a young man, he’s quickly gained respect as a leadership guru and sales expert who’s in demand by corporations and business leaders. He’s also authored two books, I’ve Got 99 Things to Quit and Giving Up Is One and Lead, Sell, Care as Easy as 1, 2, 3. Jason’s energy level is infectious, and he’s as knowledgeable as he is convicting. Everyone who knows Jason gets a boost from his attitude, his delivery and his style, but you won’t like Jason (solely) because of his personality. He’s got a lot to say about how to get ahead in business. Especially the football business. You can follow Jason on Twitter here.

Blake Beddingfield, former Director of College Scouting, Titans: Blake is no stranger to any of last year’s attendees, as he represented ITL at the 2018 symposium. Blake spent almost three decades with the Titans and did almost everything in their scouting department, so he’s the voice of experience. What makes Blake so valuable is not only that he has had a front-row seat for the hiring process and development of most members of Tennessee’s scouting staff, but he also was around for the career of the late C.O. Brocato, one of the true “warriors” of the scouting profession. Blake not only knows today’s hiring trends, but he knows what creates longevity in a career. He’s also funny and engaging, a really great guy who’s willing to help others. You can follow him on Twitter here.

We’ll talk about what young scouts say about why they got the job tomorrow.

If you follow the NFL scouting profession — and maybe even if you don’t — you’ve noticed that more and more often, NFL teams are looking to the broadcast booth to find their GM and executive candidates. As you might expect, this has not gone unnoticed in scouting circles.

We thought we’d ask some of our friends in the scouting community what they thought about this. We posed this question: What are your thoughts on McShay, Jeremiah, Mayock, getting NFL jobs or consideration for them? Net positive (brings attention to scouting, which might improve pay/conditions) or net negative (people w/yrs of scouting/dues-paying getting overlooked)?

We got 12 responses, and some of them were pretty positive. Here’s a sampling:

• “The scouting community has changed over the past five years. New/younger owners and new/younger GM’s have depleted front offices of experienced scouts and hired brand-new-out-of-college ‘information-gatherers.’ This has dropped salaries of scouts tremendously. Assistant coaches in the NFL have seen a 400% salary increase in the past 20 years, whereas scouting salaries have stayed the same with experienced scouts but dropped overall because of the high amount of young inexperienced personnel. Adding GMs with zero NFL front office experience but just TV doesn’t help this new model, but only hurts the overall product. Daniel Jeremiah and Louis Riddick are different because each have a lot of experience in NFL front offices.” 
• “I really don’t see any big problem with it, if they convince an owner they are qualified. I think (the) biggest concern would be “boots on the ground” time at schools — all the contacts and little day-to-day items that scouts do. But then again, for the roles they are up for (director level), that’s not as important. Hell, some of the names who are scouts that get interviewed aren’t qualified, and we’ve seen some colossal flame-outs as well.”
• “I see it like Hollywood going to war. No more rubber bullets (fans and viewers). Now the bullets are real (owners). (Former Lions GM) Matt Millen might could answer the question from similar experience!”
• “In the end, I would like to think that there are worthy candidates already in the profession, but that being said, being a scout doesn’t necessarily prepare you for leading people or an organization.  Oftentimes the clubs want a smooth, media-friendly guy to be the face and those guys have that.  I would think the hard thing is the learning curve…you only have 2 or at most 3 years to get it right so learning on the job is a hard ask.”
• “There are others that have been promoted to GM positions that have been shockers, either because their agent has strong influence, or the media has them as the next up-and-coming person because that individual has struck up a personal relationship with the media and being pushed. I question the owners’ ability to make consistent informed decisions, but that is just me. What would be interesting is to see how much the turnover has been in GM positions in the last 20 years.  The age of GMs getting the position and age they are getting fired. The owners have put in their rule that you must have permission to interview to move up except for the GM position which keeps very capable individuals stuck without the ability to better their lives just so they can save money yet from what I see lately are guys unqualified getting the jobs and fired early, which costs the owners more in the long run. More, as in the millions.”

Naturally, not everyone saw the bright side of the broadcasters-to-scouts trend. Some were outraged, while some were more nuanced. You can read their responses in today’s Friday Wrap, which comes out in less than three hours. The Wrap is our weekly review of the pro and college business, and it comes out at 7:30 p.m. ET every Friday. You can check out last week’s edition here, and you can register for it here.

We hope you can join us. You won’t regret it.

This time of year, we are pretty active on Twitter publishing the scouts getting hired and fired by NFL teams. There is always plenty of misunderstanding of how this works and why it’s done, which we try to clear up along the way.

I thought I’d discuss a few archetypes in NFL scouting departments as well as some that are unique, for various reasons. I’ll be talking about this further with Matt Manocherian and Aaron Schatz on the Off the Charts Podcast this week.

Also, note that last summer we counted the members of each NFL team’s staff that had “scout” in the title, and we totaled it all up on our home site. We’ll draw on those numbers as we look at a few teams in the subsequent paragraphs.

Browns: The Browns are unusual in that they have more scouts and scouting assistants than anyone in the NFL (17 as of our count last summer). Most of this is a hangover from Sashi Brown’s days as GM, when the team was focused on a total changeover to analytics. That said, GM John Dorsey has been with the team for two offseasons now and he hasn’t reduced the size of the department, so apparently this is the Browns’ direction. By our count last year, only six teams had as many as 14 employees with “scout” in the title. Strengths: No one has cracked the analytics code, and with so many scouts on staff, Cleveland has as much chance to do that as any team. Weaknesses: Having so much redundancy makes for a fat payroll, and anyway, how many scouts is too many?

Patriots: New England is at the forefront of a model that’s gained serious traction in the last 10-15 years. Head coach/GM Bill Belichick and a couple selected confidantes sit at the top of a pyramid, and for the most part, the area scouts aren’t expected to come back with opinions. They’re expected to do the work that the combines, National Football Scouting and BLESTO, would normally do, i.e., bring back facts — injury histories, arrests and suspensions, heights and weights. Then Belichick & Co. do the rest. As we’ve seen teams (Lions, Falcons, Bucs and Titans among them) hire former Patriots officials as GMs, this philosophy has spread around the league. Strengths: The team has excellent continuity in its drafting philosophy between coaching staff and personnel department. Weaknesses: Though they have respected evaluators, Patriots have not always been as consistent on draft day as other teams, and must excel on the pro side.

Colts and Seahawks: Indianapolis and Seattle have gained a reputation of being the anti-Patriots, as they pride themselves on leaning on and trusting their evaluators, which is more of an old-school philosophy. Despite this, Chris Ballard (Colts) and John Schneider (Seahawks) both have excellent reputations and are seen as some of the best in the business. That’s why people like Ed Dodds, Dan Morgan, Trent Kirchner and Scott Fitterer, who all cut their teeth in Seattle, regularly get interviews when GM jobs come open. You’ll start to see the same happen in Indy as Ballard builds his team in Indy. Strengths: Talented people who have the trust of their GMs make for talented teams. Weaknesses: This structure keeps the pressure on the GM to constantly seek and hire talented executives as he inevitably loses some to other teams. Also, a couple bad hires can set the team back immensely.

Bengals: Cincinnati has always been known as a team that counts its pennies and checks them twice. This is why the team doesn’t employ a traditional scouting department, per se. Instead, the team tends to lean on its coaches to make the major personnel decisions, and though the team is slowly expanding its scouting presence, evaluators have to mold their opinions to coaches, instead of vice versa. Strengths: The Bengals may not be perennial Super Bowl contenders, but they have been remarkably consistent over the past 10-15 years. Weaknesses: The Bengals have been burned by character risks more than once; is that because they are more risk-tolerant, or because there are things they miss?

Others:

• The Broncos and Texans were historically teams that toyed with the Bengals model, giving their coaches more input than other teams, but subsequent GM changes have muddied the waters there.
• The Cowboys have had incredible continuity over the years with a rather lean department; given their turnover this year, it will be interesting to see if they adjust their philosophy at all.
• Green Bay has historically put a lot of value on hiring former players, especially those with Packers roots, but that seems to be changing under new GM Brian Gutekunst.

Check out Inside the League for more discussion of scouts totals, areas, hires, and team philosophies. You can also register for our Friday Wrap, which is a weekly wrap-up of what’s going on in the football industry. Also, listen in as Matt, Aaron and I discuss scouting departments in the Off the Charts Podcast this week.

As we roll toward the 2019 NFL Scouting Combine — now less than two weeks away! —  we thought it was time to take a look at what the biggest voices in #DraftTwitter are saying about the first round, which is a little more than two months away.

It’s the third time we’ve checked out draft experts’ picks heading into the 2019 selection meeting. Our first look was published in our Friday Wrap in July, followed by an update just before Thanksgiving, also posted in our weekly Friday Wrap. Here’s a look at the complete composite grid from July (sorry, it’s a pay link), and here’s the grid from November.

As usual, we surveyed seven major draft experts, all of them (except one) posted in the first or second week of February: Tony Pauline at Draft Analyst (Feb. 4); Pro Football Focus (we used their most recent mock, written Feb. 5 by Mike Renner, though normally we use Steve Palazzolo’s work); Dane Brugler at The Athletic (Feb. 5); Mike Miller at Bleacher Report (Feb. 4); ESPN’s Todd McShay (Feb. 7); Sports Illustrated (normally we use Albert Breer, though their most recent work was published Jan. 29 by Kalyn Kahler); and Walter Football (Feb. 13).

Obviously, surveying Draft Twitter doesn’t give you specific answers about who’s going where, but it’s an interesting look not only at the top players as the media sees them rising and falling, but it’s also fascinating to look at the various experts and see who’s most accurate and which ones are willing to go farthest out on a limb.

Anyway, based on our grid, a few thoughts.

• It’s interesting how little the field of possible first-rounders has shrunk since November, while at the same time seeing a number of players dropped and picked up simultaneously.
• For example, at least one of the seven services rated 55 players as first-rounders in November, while today, it’s just 52 players. On the other hand, 15 players who got first-round acclaim last fall — Stanford WO J.J. Arcega-Whiteside, Wisconsin OC Tyler Bladasz, Auburn DT Derrick Brown, Notre Dame IB Te’Von Coney, Alabama DE Raekwon Davis, Auburn DC Jamel Dean, Alabama DC Trevon Diggs, West Virginia QB Will Grier, Oregon QB Justin Herbert, Oregon OB Jalen Jelks, Buffalo WO Anthony Johnson, Missouri TE Albert Okwuegbunam, Texas A&M TE Jace Sternberger, Georgia OB D’Andre Walker and Michigan DE Chase Winovich — no longer show up in any of the seven mocks. Of course, Bladasz, Brown, Davis, Diggs, Herbert and Okwuegbunam all stayed in school, but apparently the needle is pointing down for the other seven.
• Among the 12 players they claim now look like first-rounders are Delaware DC Nasir Adderley, West Virginia OT Yodny Cajuste, Washington St. OT Andre Dillard, Louisiana Tech DE Jaylon Ferguson, Iowa TE T.J. Hockenson, Alabama OH Josh Jacobs, Mississippi WO D.K. Metcalf, Oklahoma QB Kyler Murray, South Carolina WO Deebo Samuel, Vanderbilt DC Joejuan Williams, Miami (FL) DT Gerald Willis and Old Dominion DE Oshane Ximines.
• There’s not a lot of variation on the first-round quarterbacks. All seven services see Ohio State’s Dwayne Haskins as a first-rounder and the first QB off the board, and all agree that Murray is a first-rounder, though Sports Illustrated sees him going at No. 27 and Matt Miller at Bleacher Report has him going highest (No. 7). Only ESPN’s Todd McShay sees neither Duke’s Daniel Jones or Missouri’s Drew Lock as a first-rounder.

We’ll have plenty more in today’s Friday Wrap. If you read our blog, you should read our Wrap, as well. Go here to register.

You follow the game, so you know that Thursday the NFL announced the names of the 338 players invited to the combine later this month. As always, there were a few surprises and a some big-name snubs, plus a few interesting trends that we observed.

Here are five thoughts on the combine list from a football business point of view.

• The agency with the most clients at Indianapolis? It’s Irvine, Calif.-based Athletes First with 25. Coming in second are two firms with 24 each: Nashville-based CAA and New York City-based Sportstars. Philadelphia-based Octagon Football and Los Angeles-based Wasserman Sports each tied for third with 15 each. For what it’s worth, there are two players (Oklahoma’s Kyler Murray and Washington State’s James Williams) for whom we have no agent listed, so these totals aren’t written in stone.
• One thing not widely known about the combine is that the number of players at each position changes with each class. For example, it’s mildly surprising that this year, only 17 quarterbacks were invited (and we’re still not certain Murray will play football). Last season, 19 quarterbacks were invited.  In 2017, only 15 came to Indianapolis, while there were 19 passers in 2016 and just 15 in 2015.
• Here’s a handful of players that were the next ones on the list for invites (it will be interesting to see how many of them are drafted before those who did get invites): Auburn OB Darrell Williams, Cincinnati DT Cortez Broughton, Maryland IB Tre Watson, Ohio WO Sefuan White and Nevada OB Malik Reed.
• In all 936 seniors were part of the voting process before they were whittled down to around 250 for the first wave of invites. Some made the cut as part of the second wave.
• Of the 936 players submitted to voters, 251 received no votes from any of the 32 teams and another 123 got just one. What’s more, 529 players got five votes or less. That seems to indicate that there’s pretty wide acceptance of which players are draftable, though opinions may vary on what order and which ones are at the top vs. the bottom.

We take a longer look at the combine list as compared to previous classes (plus other things we found interesting) in today’s Friday Wrap. As you know, it’s completely free and read by about 5,000 people from all walks of the football business. Here’s last week’s edition.

If you’re interested enough in “the game behind the game” to read our blog, you’ll find our weekly newsletter interesting, as well. Sign up for it here.