Dec. 4-10

One question we regularly get this time of year is, do you have a breakdown of draftees by all-star games? It’s a legitimate question given the preponderance of all-star games this year and the number of decisions today’s prospects have to make in the lead-in to April’s draft. Tired of running out of good reasons why we couldn’t provide such information, we decided to bite the bullet and run down the numbers. They’re in the grid above.

Keep in mind that the numbers are not quite bullet-proof; we gathered them rather hastily today and there may be a draft pick here and there that we missed, or a player we gave to a game who actually withdrew pre-contest. However, if there are mistakes, they are honest ones, and whatever the case, we think we’ve captured a sense of the caliber of players that each game attracts. One more thing before we begin: we only counted game participants if there was actually a game, so though the East-West Shrine Bowl and NFLPA Collegiate Bowl provided an online platform and some form of instruction to their invitees, they never actually got on the field. Therefore, we didn’t count them. There’s no offense intended, and, hopefully, it’s just a one-year anomaly. 

With those disclaimers out of the way, let’s take a look at the numbers.

Senior Bowl: With almost 400 draftees since 2018, the game in Mobile is far and away No. 1. The number of first-rounders the game has attracted has held steady over the last four years at right around 6-7 each year. Though the trend is that fewer first-rounders are choosing to play in January, Executive Director Jim Nagy deserves credit for steadily expanding the number of underclassmen invited to the game. If your client is fortunate enough to get invited to the Senior Bowl, you know he’ll get a platform that will allow him to improve his status. 

East-West Shrine Bowl: The NFLPA Collegiate Bowl has made strides in its decade-plus in existence, but the Shrine Bowl remains the clear No. 2 game. Despite not having a game last year, the EWS has had nearly 100 draftees in the last four years. Though the game has had a second-rounder (in ‘2018) and three third-rounders from 2018-’20, it remains a primarily Day 3 game; of the 93 draftees we count since ’18, 83 went in rounds 4-7. We’ll see if that changes under new Executive Director Eric Galko.

NFLPA Collegiate Bowl: The NFLPA game is gaining momentum under Executive Director Dane Vandernat, but the unpredictable nature of evaluating players available after the first two days of the draft means most invitees wind up as undrafted free agents. Still, the game has landed a second-rounder and two third-rounders in the last four years, a good indication of the eye for talented exhibited by Vandernat and his team. 

College Gridiron Showcase: The 2021 event was a big one for Jose Jefferson, Craig Redd and their team 12 draftees, including a third-rounder. Despite not covering travel costs as the Senior Bowl, Shrine Bowl and NFLPA Bowl do, the game continues to attract not only hundreds of NFL prospects among its multiple rosters, but hundreds of scouts, too. Sunday of game week has become legendary for the interviews teams can conduct with the help of the CGS’ army of interns who serve as runners. 

Tropical Bowl: Like the CGS, the Trop has its share of Day 3 picks, but is more a home for undrafted free agents fighting for a place on a 90-man roster. Executive Director Michael Quartey wisely holds both of his games (the FCS Bowl is under way in Daytona Beach this week) in Florida, which, like Texas, is home to boatloads of local college talent. The game consistently draws scouts and a handful of directors, as well. 

Obviously, this year, there are a number of games (Hula Bowl, Cajun All-Star Bowl and HBCU Legacy Bowl) with less than four seasons as part of the all-star landscape, and each of them could provide their own launching points to the league. However, with invites going out furiously these days, it’s important to know the track record of each game. Depending on where a prospect fits into the prospect picture, any of these could be a real opportunity for a player, depending on his draft status. 

Incidentally, Inside the League’s Neil Stratton will have a presence at six of the games. They are, in order the CGS, Tropical Bowl and Hula Bowl, Shrine Bowl, Senior Bowl and Cajun All-Star Bowl. We also might make a trip to New Orleans for the HBCU Legacy Bowl. For exact dates, stay tuned to Inside the League. 

Here’s a look at what else we saw, heard, read and said in the business of college and pro football this week. 

Big week: Since the world came to know Zoom a couple years ago, we’ve used it as a platform to bring members of the agent and scouting communities together, respectively, in an effort to make them better. However, we’ve never brought together three active NFL executives with people who hope, someday, to fill their shoes. This week, almost 40 of our Next Wave clients (most of them grad assistants and other members of the recruiting and personnel class) joined 49ers VP of Player Personnel Ethan Waugh (Tuesday), Vikings Director of College Scouting Mike Sholiton (Wednesday) and Chargers Director of College Scouting Kevin Kelly (Thursday). We even had a session with USFL President of Football Operations Brian Woods, who had plenty of insights on the way the new league will be run – it will be much more than just The Spring League on steroids. We don’t believe any service has ever provided an opportunity for aspiring scouts to hear first-hand how three NFL franchises handle their hiring practices, and the feedback we got was incredibly gratifying (“Just wanted to send a note of thanks for bringing Ethan, Mike, and Kevin on as guests to speak with us. I took a ton of notes and definitely got a lot out of it, so I really appreciate you organizing that for us”). We look forward to continuing to offer similar experiences to members of the ITL team. In the meantime, if you couldn’t make it, make sure to check out this week’s blog at Succeed in Football, in which we give a brief paragraph with our summary of each of our speakers. Stay tuned to ITL for more on what’s ahead.

Catching Up: Matt Manocherian, 35, spent five years scouting for the Saints and Browns before transitioning into modern evaluation outside the NFL with Sports Info Solutions (SIS). We caught up with him this week.

  • Where are you living and what are you doing now?: “I live in New York, NY, which is where I grew up, and I work for SIS, where I’m the VP of Football and Research. SIS collects deep data in baseball, football and basketball, and I led the building of the football department there starting in 2016. We now work with six NFL teams as well as media providers, like we’re the official college football advance data provider for ESPN.” 

  • Do you miss the job? What do you miss most?: “Yes and no. I certainly miss working for a team that’s trying to compete to win games the most. The biggest thing I miss is it’s us against the world, competing to win a championship, and the teamwork and camaraderie across the organization that comes along with that. That’s the thing that I miss the most for sure. There’s also things that I don’t miss. At my current job, I actually feel like I have the ability to be more impactful for teams than I was when I was actually with a team, and now I get to work for lots of teams that are competing and try to help them. So there’s some cool stuff about kinda being in the position that I’m in, too, where I don’t have the shackles of working with that one team and that one singular purpose.”

  • Do you keep in touch with any of your former colleagues?: “Yeah, I keep in touch with people from the Saints, the Browns, and from other teams that I saw on the road, too. I interact with some of the same people in organizations in my current job and I interact with people in new, emerging roles, as well, so it’s very fun for me to have that crossover between the sorts of people you see all over the organization.” 

  • Do you go to any live games (HS/college/pro)?: “I see at least one Rye Neck Panthers game, my alma mater, every year, and I enjoy going to games when I can, both pro and college, but it’s probably just a handful of Saturdays and Sundays each year.” 

  • Are there any players you love to watch and/or feel close to due to your work in the game?: “I root for everybody that I worked with that is playing or coaching or scouting that treated me well. That’s the vast majority of them. I root for (Saints GM) Mickey Loomis, I root for (Bears GM) Ryan Pace, I root for (Falcons GM) Terry Fontenot. I obviously worked closely with all three of those people. There’s a pretty good Saints in Atlanta between Terry Fontenot, (Falcons Assistant Director of College Scouting) Dwaune Jones and (Falcons BLESTO scout) Ben Martinez, as well, then, from a player perspective, there’s no better man than (Falcons punter) Thomas Morstead, so I root for him. What changes when you leave the league is, you root for people instead of ‘the color of the laundry,’ so the people that are good people, that’s who I root for.”

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: It’s always a busy week for rumblings in December. On Monday, we had news on the NFLPA conference that normally takes place at the combine, signings and signings buzz, coaching whispers and more. Tuesday, we looked at the progress so far on a new all-star game in the ’22 cycle, made a correction, updated readers on our Zoom slate for the week and more. On Wednesday, we reviewed the NFL Pipeline document that was released about a year ago this week and sorted out the hires since. Did the document help? Was it accurate? We also had an agent change for an SEC head coach, posted the dates for the 2022 NFL Combine, and had more signing buzz. Finally, on Thursday, we took stock of the search firms to decide which ones are leading the way this coach change season, recapped one key Zoom session, had signing buzz and more. Don’t miss any of it. Click here for all our reports this year. 

Next week: As we ready for the last two weeks before Christmas and prepare for bowl season, we’ll ease back on the Zoom schedule and focus more on tracking all the signings and invites as the pace quickens. The Signings Grid is expanding quickly and closing in on 300 names, and slowly, we’re adding agent signings and training locations to the numerous all-star invitations and NIL deals that are already part of the board. Also, there are still a number of schools without head coaches, and of the schools who have filled their vacancies, we’re working hard to find out which search firms were used and who represents the new hires. All of our findings will go into the College Coaching Search Grid. As far as our Zoom schedule, there’s nothing on the docket for the next seven days, though we’re considering posting some of this week’s content on our YouTube page. We’ll keep everyone up to date on what we decide via Twitter. There will be more, of course. We’ll have plenty of good stuff in our Rep Rumblings, which are brimming with news and information in December and January, and is daily reading for people in the industry. Finally, we’ll also post something in our Succeed in Football blog that will give you a leg up on the competition. It’s going to be another busy week. Make the most of it by giving yourself a subscription to ITL. It beats a fruitcake.