Nov. 13-19

Will the Bucs repeat? That’s the question the media was asking as we entered the 2021 season with Tom Brady and virtually the entire Tampa Bay roster intact. At Inside the League, we were asking the same question, but for a different reason. 

As you know, the Bucs were the winners of the 2020 Best Draft Award, which we presented to GM Jason Licht, V.P. of Player Personnel John Spytek and Director of College Scouting Mike Biehl (virtually) the week the NFL Combine would have been held in February. Now that we’ve reached midseason, we’re getting a clearer look at whether or not Licht and Co. will take the podium again in ’22 for their efforts on draft day last April. Today, with half the season behind us, we take a look at the five finalists for the award if voting began today. As always, we’ll ask all active NFL scouts, executives and administrators to vote on the award in January and February before the entire league descends on Indianapolis. 

Here are several teams we’re looking at as contenders for the ’21 award from which we’ll pick five for a vote in the new year, in alphabetical order:

  • Bengals: Jamarr Chase (1/5, LSU) has been setting receiving records and making midseason All-Pro teams these days, and though he’s clearly the brightest light in the Bengals’ draft class, he’s made such an impact that he, alone, might land Cincinnati among the finalists. 

  • Broncos: Denver has gotten help on both sides of the football as OH Javonte Williams (2/35, North Carolina) has earned a reputation as a load to bring down, while DC Patrick Surtain (1/9, Alabama) has pretty much played as billed.

  • Browns: Cleveland looked to the defense in its first two picks last year, and both seletions have delivered. The Browns went cornerback first with Greg Newsome (1/26, Northwestern), then got lucky when IB Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah (2/52, Notre Dame) fell into their laps in the second round. Both immediately made the Browns’ defense better.

  • Chargers: You could argue that Los Angeles drafted the best rookies at two key positions, tackle (Rashawn Slater, 1/13, Northwestern) and cornerback (Asante Samuel, Jr., 2/47, Florida State). 

  • Chiefs: Everyone who watched the Super Bowl knew Kansas City had work to do on its offensive line, and from the looks of things, mission accomplished. Both OC Creed Humphrey (2/63, Oklahoma) and OG Trey Smith(6/226, Tennessee) were under-drafted based on their play so far this season. 

  • Cowboys: Linebacker Micah Parsons (1/12, Penn State) has been one of the breakout defensive stars of the season and is a major reason Dallas is 7-2, but don’t forget about DT Osa Odighizuwa (3/75, UCLA), who’s shown a lot of promise, as well. 

  • Patriots: A team that finds a franchise quarterback in the draft – especially after four other passers have already been drafted – is always going to garner consideration. No rookie quarterback (and few veterans) is hotter than Mac Jones, whom the Pats snagged at No. 15 out of Alabama last spring. DT Christian Barmore (2/38, Alabama) has been no slouch, as well.

  • Raiders: Day 3 draftee DC Nate Hobbs (5/167, Illinois) has been a revelation, while SS Trevon Moehrig (2/43, TCU) has combined with him to give Oakland a much-improved secondary. 

The season is far from over, so there’s still time for this season’s rookies to assert themselves during the stretch run. Still, while these are all solely contenders at this point – and it’s possible even the Bucs could make a strong second-half run on the backs of DE Joe Tryon (1/32, Washington), OT Robert Hainsey (3/95, Notre Dame) and KR Jaelon Darden (4/129, North Texas) -- there’s a good chance one of these teams will be hoisting the trophy in February. 

In the meantime, here’s a look at what else we saw, heard, read and said about the business of college and pro football this week.

Zee these?: We hope you were part of this week’s Zoom schedule, which was full as we’ve ever offered in this new era of cyber-meetings. We chronicled it all in this week’s post at Succeed in Football, but if you missed it, Greg Linton (HOF Player Representatives) and Alex Campbell (Ajax Sports Agency) joined ITL’s Neil Stratton Tuesday for a breakdown of agent expenses and how to avoid spending your way out of the business in Year 1; Dynamic Talent’s Trevor Swenson joined Stratton Wednesday for a truly mind-blowing two-hour discussion of how to build out an NIL infrastructure for your client; and Thursday, seven of the eight all-star directors jumped on Zoom to pitch their games, talk about when to arrive, the progress of their rosters, and plenty more in an hour-plus session. If you are an ITL client, you were invited Tuesday and Thursday (there was a small fee to be part of Wednesday’s session), and if you have questions about the industry, we hope you made it for at least some of our five-plus hours online. Our next ITL New Agent Orientation will be in December, with the topic still TBA. We expect to focus on aspiring scouts in December. Stay tuned for details on what’s just around the bend.

Catching Up: Conrad Cardano, 73, retired this spring after 37 years in scouting, 34 of them with the Vikings. We caught up with him this week.

·      Where are you living and what are you doing now?: “I live in Eatonton, Ga. It’s a golfing community on Lake Oconee, I’m about an hour south of Athens, Ga., and I try to stay active and do a lot of fishing, and so I’m here at the lake and I try to stay active in a couple of church groups.” 
·      Do you miss the job? What do you miss most?: “I tell you what, you end up missing -- and maybe a number of scouts you’ve interviewed have said this -- you miss the camaraderie. You spend a lot of hours with them, working hard, doing your best to come up with the best results, and those are hard-working hours. They’re long. But you go out with the guys after, you have dinner, and you miss the people. That’s what you miss, and you know what? (I) miss a lot of the coaches I’ve known all these years. If you stay in something long enough, I mean, I’ve got coaches I scouted when they were players, and even their sons. Those are the relationships that you develop over time, and there are so many. No one in particular, but the group you work with, the Vikings group I came into when I started, the guys over time, the group that I’ve been with the last 15 years, it’s a bunch of great guys. Now, the long hours and reports, they are down the line (of being missed).”
·      Do you keep in touch with any of your former colleagues?: “Yeah, the guys like (former Vikings executives) Jerry Reichow and Frank Gilliam when he’s around, and all the guys I just got finished with, (GM) Rick (Spielman) and (former Vikings executive) Scott Studwell, a dear friend, and guys from other teams from time to time. Not on a consistent basis like you did when you’d run into them at schools, but I do stay in touch with them, yes.”
·      Do you go to any live games (HS/college/pro)?: “No. Right now, I have not. But I find that I am watching more football on TV than I’ve ever watched, pro and college, but from a different standpoint now. It’s more enjoyable watching it to see who pops out at you, or what team and how they are developing their game plan. It’s not having to look at this and that guy, and having to make decisions about them, and here in Georgia, we do get high school games on TV, and I’m always amazed at the football they play in high school here in Georgia. There was a school that did a study of per capita players that go into D1 (football) programs, and Georgia had the highest per capita. We have a lot less population than the Californias and the Texases and those kinds of places, but it showed that per capita, there are more D1 players here in Georgia than anywhere else.” 
·      Are there any players you love to watch and/or feel close to due to your work in the game?: “You know, to be honest, no. Mainly, (I) watch the teams, and obviously, we get Georgia games all the time, and I’m watching Georgia and Alabama and the SEC, and I don’t know those kids or scouted them personally. I like the quarterback at Auburn and those two defensive players inside at Georgia, and I always enjoy watching Georgia and Alabama. Having gone through those schools so many times, and watching how Nick Saban runs his program, I enjoy watching those Alabama teams, but as far as particular ones, I can’t say that I have any.” 

Review the latest from other former NFL scouts and executives by accessing our Catching Up archive here. Want to hear from a former scout, or know someone who may be interested in being interviewed? Let us know.

Rep Rumblings: Things got a little busier this week with news of head coaches getting the axe, players moving closer to signing SRAs and all-star games sending out invitations. 

·      Monday: We discussed what’s ahead on the coaching front at Washington and FIU, plus we looked at a top-five pick who seems to have made his agent pick, all-star invitees and plenty more. 
·      Tuesday: We had more agent signing buzz, plus we dove into what we’re hearing on the search firm front and the NFL’s special interest in a few of January’s all-star games.
·      Wednesday: We had USFL buzz, a look at a Seahawks front office change we missed, and more signing buzz.
·      Thursday: We were pretty much all-day, every-day on signing buzz for some of the better players in the ’22 draft.

As always, you can review almost a whole year of Rumblings here.

Next week: It’s a holiday week, with Thanksgiving less than a week away, but we won’t be slowing down much. We’ll have our popular Agents by Total Clients list, and we’ll shoot to have Agent Changes done this week (and on time, for once). We’re also expecting a big week of transitions on campuses to go with those we’ve already tracked in our College Coaching Changes Grid, and we’ll be updating our Head Coach-Agent Grid to add and subtract as necessary. We’re also gaining momentum in our Signings Grid, and we are very close to adding our first players who’ve signed SRAs for the ’22 draft to the Big Board. Of course, as some activity fires up, other activity winds down, and we’ll be wrapping up our Know Your Scouts series next week with the final two teams, the Titans and Vikings (we profiled Washington, New Orleans, Seattle, Pittsburgh and Houston. As for our Zoom schedule, we’re taking the week off after a pretty wall-to-wall last few days. We’re weighing putting some of our content on our YouTube channel, but so far, we haven’t made any decisions. By the way, if you’re desperate for football and not into the Macy’s Parade, ITL’s Neil Stratton will be on The State of Football (as usual) on Thanksgiving Day at 9:40 a.m. ET. You can check it out here. We’ll also have our weekly post in Succeed in Football and our Rep Rumblings. REMEMBER: there’s no fear of controversy or awkwardness around the Thanksgiving table when discussing the search firms handling the most job openings so far this season, how NIL dealsmight influence agent signings next month, and which scouting assistant hires were snuck in by what NFL teams. No, really, it’s true. See for yourself.