Nov. 26-Dec. 2
On Monday, we launched our Signings Grid, probably our most popular feature every year as it gives the football business a one-stop link to gather information on every signing, every all-star berth, every training location and, eventually, every combine invite for every member of the coming draft class. More than 20 years after we launched ITL in 2002, it’s probably the feature for which we are best-known.
· We’ve seen three substantial games (College Gridiron Showcase, Tropical Bowl and Hula Bowl) come alongside the three biggest games (Senior Bowl, Shrine Bowl and NFLPA Collegiate Bowl), giving a platform to hundreds more players than ever. All six games get significant NFL scouting presence. Perhaps more importantly, all six games have been around since at least 2015. That’s incredible sustainability given that we saw so many games (the Medal of Honor Bowl, Battle of Florida, Players All-Star Classic, Casino Del Sol and Raycom Classic among them) in the last two decades that quickly disappeared from the landscape.
· The barrier to entry for anyone hoping to create an all-star game used to be the cost of travel and lodging for about 100 draft prospects, i.e., around $100,000, which explains why so many games quickly came and went. However, the CGS and Trop boldly chose to go in another direction from the start, asking players (or their representatives) to cover their own travel and share in the cost of lodging. That used to be a no-no in the eyes of NFL evaluators, but both games have won over scouts and attract swarms of evaluators from all leagues, including The League.
· As we tweeted, social media has become a big, big part of the all-star game invitation process. Not long ago, invitations were a closely kept secret, but now, even the newer games are (a) announcing their invitees or (b) publicly confirming the invitees who post their invitations. It’s a fun part of the pre-draft season as long as you understand that all-star rosters, even for the top games, are constantly evolving. Injuries and decisions not to participate will considerably alter the look of rosters up and down the all-star schedule.
· The expansion of games has made scheduling a lot tougher. Not long ago, the CGS and Trop shared the first week of January and the Senior Bowl had the third or fourth week of January all to itself. The NFLPA Collegiate Bowl and then-Shrine Game, which often competed for the same players, shared the week prior to the Senior Bowl. This year, the CGS and Hula Bowl will both take place the second full week of January and the NFLPA game, Shrine Bowl and Senior Bowl mix together over the last week of January and first week of February. Teams will have to be especially agile to attend the key practices, get the necessary interviews, and otherwise provide the necessary coverage that comes with the January/February information-gathering process.
· The games (or, at least, one game specifically) have begun to rise up not just the next generation of NFL players, but their evaluators, as well. CGS founders Jose Jefferson and Craig Redd introduced CGSU last year, and more than 20 aspiring scouts took part in the process of helping out with interview sessions, weigh-ins and even on-field practices at times. They also got to hear from actual NFL scouts what it takes to make it. Other games have begun to introduce similar programs.
There’s more good news. Interest in the games among NFL teams is as high as ever despite some successful teams reducing their attendance at events and the rise of viable alternative leagues that give lower-rated players a platform. When we asked some scouts around the league if they saw their own teams pulling backs from all-star games to focus more on the XFL and USFL, they pushed back. “Everybody wants young guys that are cheap and easy to sign after draft,” said one. “I’m not sure if we’ll see a dramatic shift from that standpoint,” said another. Let’s hope that’s true.
We encourage you to follow along as the names, all-star berths, agent signings and everything else begin to grow on our big board. Before you do, however, check out our look at what else we saw, heard, read and said about the business of college and pro football this week.
Catching Up: Kevin Simon, 39, was hired by the Cowboys at the 2009 Senior Bowl, and he stayed with Dallas for eight drafts before he went to Atlanta for two seasons, one as a pro scout and one as a regional scout. These days, he has a new team, and he’ll be helping get members of the ’23 draft ready to work. We caught up with him this week.
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Where are you living and what are you doing now? “I live in Knoxville, Tenn., teaching physical education at Austin East High School here in Knoxville. I’m coaching the Linebackers at Knoxville Catholic High School this past year and additionally training athletes at Lee Smith’s brand new state of the art facility, Triple F. I’ll be working with the linebackers in this year’s combine class. It’s not like this for every one of them, but at some of the facilities, you’re just another number. But for (owner) Lee (Smith), he’s really putting himself into this thing. The past four years, I was at the University of Tennessee serving as Director of Player Development. Our mission for the player development program aims to serve our student-athletes growth by establishing a brotherhood that will be beneficial to our young men’s personal, social, spiritual and professional growth during their time at Tennessee and beyond. Additionally, I served as the assistant inside linebackers coach, helping with all aspects of coaching technique, fundamentals and schematics, as well as aiding (the staff) with the evaluation and recruitment of all inside linebackers on our recruiting board. In 2018, former Vols head coach Jeremy Pruitt hired me on his inaugural staff. Unfortunately, after three seasons, an NCAA investigation of recruiting violations under Coach Pruitt ultimately led to his departure from the university. In 2021, coach (Josh) Heupel came in and established an exciting brand of offense that re-energized our players and our fan base. After a season serving Josh in the same role I served Coach Pruitt, Josh felt like he needed his own guys in the player development role, which I respect, and I wished him the best moving forward. As an alumnus of Tennessee, Coach Heupel’s team has been a blast to watch this season! Additionally, I served as the pro liaison for four years, which was fun because I got to see a lot of familiar faces from my time in the NFL as a scout. It’s the pro liaison’s job to be the communication link, assisting all NFL scouts and coaches with the logistics of planning a visit with our staff . . . educating our players about the NFL draft process; agent education, which teaches our players the NCAA’s rules, regulations, and ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’ relative to their interactions with agents, maintaining the university of Tennessee’s college relations website, advising our players and managing the submission process for the college advisory committee, and last, but not least, managing and organizing our annual NFL Pro Day each spring. The player development role can pull you in a lot of different directions. You’re a jack of all trades at that position.”
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Do you miss the job? What do you miss most? “I would love to go back to scouting. To be able to work for my favorite team growing up, it was an unbelievable privilege. I think that first year in Atlanta, I spent 300 days out of the year in Atlanta. So the decision to go back to Tennessee, it was a family decision, especially for my sons at the time. But I’m excited for the next opportunity that comes. We’ll see how everything plays out.”
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Do you keep in touch with any of your former colleagues? “Yeah, for sure. Guys like Jim Abrams, really close with Jim, guys like Sam Summerville. Guys like Will McClay, Chuck Cook, Reggie McKenzie, Brian Hudspeth, Jeremy Breit, Mike Potts, Brandon Hunt – we actually played baseball together in San Ramon, Calif., when he was 12 and I was 11 -- Cody Rager, Mitch LaPoint, Mark Gorscak, Jon Salgi, John Mancini just called me the other day, Keith Butler with the Buffalo Bills, Ran Carthon, Ray Farmer is someone I rely on, Terrance Gray, Lake Dawson, Ian Cunningham and a whole laundry list of others, to name a few. But the thing that’s been nice for me, I was able to serve as pro liaison at Tennessee for four years.”
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Do you go to any live games (HS/college/pro)? “Yeah, I love watching football, so I try to go to as many games as I can. Obviously, I’m on the sidelines on Friday nights, and at Tennessee, I go to games, but the last pro game I went to was 2020. The Cowboys came to Atlanta. I was working at Tennessee at the time, but I was able to get tickets through contacts with the Falcons, me and my son went down there to see the teams. My son asked me who I wanted to win, and I’m a Cowboys fan, but I kinda wanted to see both teams win. You know a number of people on both sides, so I just said, ‘I want to see a good game.’”
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Are there any players you love to watch and/or feel close to due to your work in the game? “When you cross over and do pro, I did an advance on (QB) Aaron Rodgers and the Packers, and we did individual scouting reports for everyone on the roster. I mean, we did (Broncos QB) Russell Wilson and all those guys, so it’s fun to see them, or fun to see guys on the Cowboys. It’s a team (scouting) effort, but there were a lot of guys from my area who we drafted during my time with the Cowboys. Guys like (Cowboys OC) Zack Martin, (OH) Zeke Elliott, (OB) Jalen Smith and (OC)Travis Frederick. The Cowboys, we cross-checked by position, and my cross-check position was linebacker and then the last five years was defensive line, so guys like (DE) DeMarcus Lawrence. I definitely keep track of him. I’m not surprised by what he’s accomplished.”
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.
College Coaching Changes Grid: It was a very, very busy week of hiring and firing on the college head coach side. We saw hires at Arizona State, Auburn, Florida Atlantic, Georgia Tech, Texas State, UAB and Wisconsin. Those hires created new vacancies at Cincinnati and Liberty. We also saw openings created at Stanford, Tulsa, UNLV and Western Michigan. We’re working on running down the search firms who helped with the hires (and who are working with those still looking), plus we check in on the athletic directors running things and the agencies that are getting coaches hired on our grid. It’s changing rapidly this time of year. Check it out here.
Can you draft a physically tough roster?: One popular excuse for underperforming NFL teams is the problem of players getting hurt. When several key players can’t dress for games due to their injuries, can the coaches, front office, or even other teammates really be blamed when the team doesn’t win? It sparked a question that we posed to five former executives (Blake Beddingfield, Randy Mueller, Jim Lippincott, Doug Whaley and Jerry Angelo), which was, can a team draft a roster of players that are less susceptible to injuries, who feel a greater compulsion to play through the ills and injuries that are part of an NFL season? We got a variety of answers, but the consensus may surprise you. Read what they said and consider their answers in this week’s post at Succeed in Football.
Agent Changes (October to November): The second half of the season is usually when agent transitions slow down. Players are wearing down while, simultaneously, the playoff race is heating up for many and off-field matters lose importance. Or, at least, that’s how it used to be. This week, we finished our report for the October-to-November period, and things were different. We counted 14 players who found a new agent this term compared to the same term last year when we found only two. This month’s list was dominated by wide receivers as six of the 14 players on this month’s list catch the ball. Make sure you’re caught up on all the changes in representation over the last 10-plus years on our Master Agent Changes Grid page, which is here.
Zoom schedule: We’re still finalizing our Zoom schedule, and it’s going to be a busy month. We’ve got a Rookie Agent Zoom that will focus on training and trainers that is tentatively set for Wednesday of next week (Dec. 7, 8 p.m.). Sometime the following week, we’ll assemble several all-star game directors, again for our rookie agent clients. Later this month, we’ll have a night for aspiring NFL scouts when we’ll bring voices from the industry together to talk about their experiences. Stay tuned for everything that’s ahead. As always, if you’re an ITL client, you’re invited. All you have to do is ask, and we’ll send you the link. Stay tuned for more details soon.
Rep Rumblings: This week, we had three reports. Monday, coming off a weekend that saw plenty of head coach terminations, we ran down all we’d heard on search firms, agencies and openings. We also looked at a top combine trainer who’s changed addresses. Tuesday, we ran down all the latest all-star invitees, had signing buzz on a couple players and news of a recent personnel hire in the USFL. Finally, on Thursday, we had another coaching change update, plus we had lots more signing buzz. Make sure you’re all over our reports, going back ten years, here.
Next week: It’s all-hands-on-deck time. Here’s what’s ahead for us.
· Rep Rumblings will be a big part of the week. December is our busiest time of the year and we’ll have all the signings buzz, all-star invitations, coaching change updates and everything else.
· We’ll have daily updates on our Signings Grid, of course. Count on that.
· We hope to plot out our game-by-game all-star rosters so readers can find out where the vacancies still lie, position by position.
· If you are on our Next Wave rate, you’ll probably hear from us in the next seven days as we firm up our end-of-the-year Zoom sessions aimed at helping get you ready for the job search. Interested in joining us? Let us know.
· Our Zoom schedule will be filled in with all the details soon. Keep an eye on all our reports and your inbox.
· We’ll have a Succeed in Football post related to our Zoom schedule. Or perhaps something else. One way or another, we’ll be back.
That should do it. Get rested up for a big week. If you can sleep, that is. We can’t. So much to do, so much going on. Find out all about it by joining us.
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