March 12-18

Everyone reading this remembers the week before this year’s combine when trainers, agents and players came together to force the dismissal of Covid protocols that would have placed major limitations on player movement. It was shortly after this that we started hearing rumors that major agencies might come together to force even more changes.

What if the major agencies came together and had their own broadcast workouts? No longer would players be asked to bench in the morning, then run, jump and take part in drills later that day. Interviews would be less rigorous – maybe even scrapped altogether – and medicals might even be less rigorous. Obviously, this would take a major shift in collegiality between agencies that were competing furiously just weeks earlier, but it could be possible. However, with so many variables already, could it be a realistic possibility for 2023?

Who knows? Maybe. However, despite the buzz we heard in Indy, things are still very, very preliminary. “It has legs, but I think there are a LOT of things that would have to go ‘right’ for it to be a real possibility,” said one established contract advisor who’s in on the talks.

Based on the conversations we’ve had with people in on the conversation, the event would take place in roughly the same time frame. Presumably, the workouts would still take place in primetime, because sponsorship and broadcast rights would be a big part of the event. The NFLPA could play a role, though it’s less likely that they would be the major drivers of such a workout. Instead, this would require major buy-in from not only the top 10-20 agencies, but several middle class agencies, as well. 

Presumably, firms would not want to preclude teams from conducting medicals; perhaps they would allow teams access to their clients well in advance (all of February) of the actual workouts. Another option might be to allow for a more aggressive checkup protocol for all players invited in for team visits in April. Presumably, teams would fight this, as it would cut way back on the time teams would have to digest the injury info they uncovered. On the other hand, trainers would have provided much of this information in January, so perhaps delaying in-person medical evaluations wouldn’t be a deal-breaker. Another option might be to make more aggressive medicals a bigger part of the all-star process.

It’s also possible multiple events could be held, hosted by the major training facilities. If workouts were held in South Florida, Dallas and Phoenix, it would vastly minimize the amount of travel athletes would have to endure, and maybe even eliminate cost of lodging. Given that so many scouts are already located in these areas, it might make for favorable conditions for NFL scouts, as well. Presumably, smaller agencies might begin scheduling workouts for their clients around these bigger events, though this would require relaxing of current pro day rules. If workouts become more agent-oriented, this could alleviate the tendency of some schools to put up brick walls to players from smaller schools, as has been widely discussed on our Twitter account this week. 

Bottom line, we’re a long ways away from any major changes in the way the NFL conducts its business when it comes to the combine. At the same time, we’ve got a year until next year’s event, so there’s a lot that could still happen. We will continue to monitor the situation and pass along what we learn. In the meantime, here’s a look at what we saw, heard, read and said about the college and pro football industry this week.

Catching Up: Mike Phair, 52, scouted for six years with the Bucs and Seahawks (three years each), and coached defensive line in the league, as well as in college. We caught up with him earlier this month.

  • Where are you living and what are you doing now?: “We’re in the Phoenix area, actually Peoria, to be exact. I volunteered at Stanford last year on the defensive line. We came back out here on the West Coast, and it was great. Phenomenal. It ended in January, so I’m looking now.”

  • Do you miss the job? What do you miss most?: “I loved scouting. It was great. It really taught you how to evaluate, put the team together, all those different things. To say I don’t miss it . . .  I just enjoyed going out to workouts, pro days, interviewing coaches, getting to see all different types of ways that people do different practices, ways that guys structure practice, and that helped me as a coach. I enjoyed it. It’s funny because even the travel . . . I did the West Coast, and we did everything by car, so we drove everywhere. To say the travel was bad at times, it was tough, but I enjoyed it.”

  • Do you keep in touch with any of your former colleagues?: “Yes. Gosh, I have a handful of guys I talk to every couple weeks, sometimes once a week, sometimes once every two weeks. I really developed some close relationships with those guys, being on the road, guys that helped me along the way. I try to keep in contact with all those guys.”

  • Do you go to any live games (HS/college/pro)?: “As far as just watching the games and attending, gosh, not really. Obviously, this last year I was at Stanford, and then before that, with Carolina, so this is the first time I’ve not had a job right now. I think back, and I used to take my boys when they were at home. I’d take them to high school games, wherever we were at. I always just enjoyed watching football.” 

  • Are there any players you love to watch and/or feel close to due to your work in the game?: “People always ask me who I enjoyed coaching the most. I loved them all. I genuinely enjoyed coaching, from college to pros, just loved coaching them all, so there’s no one particular person that I will sit there and watch. I enjoy watching the game, coaching the game and teaching the game, in the end. I have a lot of coaches that ask me about my scouting days, and that’s why I say, I would do it again. It helped me learn the game and learn how to evaluate. I thought I could evaluate a QB until I had to do it, and being in that profession, you learn how to do that. It’s more than just watching tape.” 

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.

Turning to the exam: The combine is over, and we’re almost caught up on everything we’ve fallen behind on. That means it’s time to start getting people ready for the ’22 NFLPA exam, especially after last summer’s especially challenging test. As you know, we offer a number of study aids, but we’ve got a new service that we debuted last year, and we’re pretty excited about it. The best news is that not only is our service the best, but we offer the entire package for about half of what our competition charges. We lay everything out in today’s post at Succeed in Football. Got other ideas? We’d love to hear them. Just respond to this email.

Agents by Total Clients (February): There are 114 agents with at least 10 active clients as of last month. Or at least that was our count this week as we posted our Agents by Total Clients list for February. Also of note: every agent in the top 10 has been certified at least 10 years; only eight agents have more than 40 active clients; only 15 have 30 or more; and only one (Miami Beach, Fla.-based Drew Rosenhaus) has more than 80. Make your own observations about the leading agents in the business by checking out our list.

Signings Grid: In the past, we’ve sort of left behind our big board once the NFL Combine invitees were announced. This year, we’re going to keep hacking away at it. We resumed working on the list this week as we updated all the combine invitees and their representation, plus a number of other previously unlisted players. We’ll keep at it. Take a look at the latest update of our big board here.

Rep Rumblings: This week, we had three reports. On Monday, we discussed the latest hip-hop artist making designs on representing players; we expanded on the news we broke on Monday of Trey Koziol’s departure from KC for the Bears; and we passed along a few new NFL pro day dates. Wednesday, we passed along a few details of our coming Zoom conversation with XFL Senior VP of Player Personnel Doug Whaley, in which he will discuss all the particulars of how the returning league will do business, especially as it relates to player representation. We also added several NFL local pro day dates and compared the total number of NFL agents with the number of player reps at other leagues. Finally, on Thursday, we had several new NFL pro day dates, looked at one team that’s not holding one, and had other notes. As always, our entire library of reports this year can be found here.

2022 Profile Reports: It’s almost time to get started on our team-by-team breakdowns of the top prospects at every school in FBS football. We’ll kick things off in two weeks, on April Fools Day, when we take a look at Air Force, followed by Akron, Alabama, UAB, Appalachian State and Arizona State the following week. Though we don’t do a lot of ranking and listing prospects at ITL, we feel good about our first looks at the best players on every team that we provide every summer. See how we’ve done – we’ve had hit and misses, just like NFL teams – by checking out our previous work (13 years’ worth) here.

Next week: OK, we get it: pro days are what’s happening right now, and this week, prospects at Iowa (Monday); Mississippi State, Nebraska, Nebraska, Texas A&M and Virginia Tech (Tuesday); Ole Miss, Ohio State and Virginia (Wednesday); Cincinnati, Oklahoma State and SMU (Thursday); and BC, BYU, Missouri, Notre Dame and TCU (Friday) will take the field for scouts. It’s a key week, with even more pro days coming the following two weeks (check out all the dates here). Still, there’s more to know. Namely, when NFL teams are having their own local pro days, which return this year after two years of being barred by the league office. We’ll keep running them down and posting them. We’ll also round up the scouting moves – we don’t expect many with pro days under way – and load them into the Scouting Changes Grid. There’s also our Agent Changes from the January-to-February term, which we hope to post next week. By the way, we could also have Agent Changes for the February-to-March period plus the Agents by Total Clients list for the same time period next week; let’s just focus on last month’s overdue work first, however. By the way, with Bryan Harsin safe at Auburn, it’s time to finally revamp our NCAA Coaches and Agents board for 2022, which we’ll do next week. All of that is in addition to our regular features, like our Rep Rumblings, our Succeed in Football blog post and whatever else our clients need. Just like we always do. Come see for yourself. Have a great weekend and see you Monday.