March 19-25

Does today’s NFL prospect truly get a fair shot? Do the powers that be really care about players as people, too? And do the best players really make it to the league, or is there a considerable number who are ignored in the face of a callous league that is more interested in counting its millions than serving the players and the fans?

These are the questions that seem to have developed this week as a number of scouts reached out to us to defend themselves in the face of social media controversies that arose in these heady days of on-campus workouts, mock drafts and top prospects race to see who the No. 1 pick in the draft will be. 

We at Inside the League are caught in the middle. We’ve heard the stories from agents of hyper-selective pro liaisons who set up a wall to pro day outsiders, and we’ve seen for ourselves how schools have asked for more and more verification before allowing a player in. At the same time, as the NFL Draft has gone from a cult fascination to a cultural phenomenon, the pro day spotlight has gotten brighter and the demands on scouts have become almost prohibitive. 

As the conversation gets more heated and battle lines are drawn, we feel there are a few points to be made. Here are a few common misconceptions that just aren't accurate.

Scouts are lucky to have their jobs, should be thankful to have them, and should go to every length to vet players: Very often, people on the outside fall into the trap of thinking scouts are entitled and highly paid, and should simply be thankful for their places in the game. There are exceptions to the rule that fit this description, but they are a significant minority. Having worked with scouts for more than two decades, we at ITL know that they are simply interested in doing their jobs and giving opportunities to as many players as is humanly possible. Today’s typical scout is making somewhere in the range of $60,000-$80,000, working 70-80 hours per week during the fall, seeing his family far less than he’d like to, and facing an uncertain future as teams hire younger and younger. The people who do this job are passionate about it, however, and the main reason is their love of the game and their love of the people who play it. 

Scouts are too selective and don’t let players into pro days: First of all, as unkind as it sounds, there’s no feasible way for scouts to work out every single player who’s draft-eligible. Even with an average of 20 scouts (college AND pro) on all 32 teams, there’s simply not enough manpower to be everywhere all the time. Evaluators have to make decisions on how they spend their time. Second, often, players get into pro days, then don’t take advantage or have a misplaced sense of entitlement. One scout we spoke to attended this month’s workout at Colorado, which allowed several Northern Colorado players to take part. Despite being given this opportunity, more than one UNC player opted not to participate in all the drills due to “choice.” When scouts are giving their time to players, players have a duty to honor evaluators’ efforts by completing the workout. One other note: Jackson State had its pro day this week, and 14 Tigers worked out for scouts along with 20 from other schools (mostly from Alcorn State and Mississipppi Valley State but also from a half-dozen other schools in the state). Compare that to five (5) players working out for scouts at Mississippi State’s pro day. Sometimes the biggest schools are guarded, but there are other opportunities if you look hard enough. 

The narrative is always correct: The NFL Network’s Bucky Brooks chided scouts for their perceived apathy following the mid-pro day Achilles tear suffered by Michigan’s David Ojabo. His comments started a firestorm on Twitter, and the fans were flamed by PFT’s Mike Florio. However, here’s a quote from one scout who was on site: “The moment it happened, there was complete silence across the entire field for about 10 minutes. One scout said it just deflated the whole pro day. There was even discussion of ending the workout. The reason the pictures looked like David was alone was because we all know the protocol. As soon as someone gets injured, we all cleared out of the way to let the medical professionals in. The coach who was running the drills that day was near tears. He even gave his card to Coach Harbaugh, and told him anyone who had questions about the workout could call him.” 

Said another member of the personnel community: “The story that no one is writing is that Michigan didn’t have any medical professionals on the field. There were hundreds of personnel people, but no trainers or anything. The reason the kid sat there alone for so long is because everyone kept waiting for a trainer to come check on him, and there weren’t any around.”

Maybe, just maybe, the scouts were as alarmed and empathetic as everyone else, and those 10-20 seconds of the young man writhing in pain were incredibly sad but not necessarily due to scouts’ unwillingness to help. 

For what it’s worth, agents often get the same rap. The unknowing fan sees contract advisors as greedy and unsympathetic to what their clients need. The truth is that this description applies to maybe two percent of the agent population, and to virtually none of the agents at the bottom of the industry who are walking and working with the players from smaller schools who are struggling to be discovered and, often, left out of pro days. 

If you’re reading this, you are part of the industry or hope to be. You already know that the people who make up this industry are not vile, unscrupulous, uncaring people. We do, too, but sometimes, someone has to say that. We’re proud to represent the people in this industry, flawed as they are, imperfect as they may sometimes be. 

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

The Big Story: This week, we broke the news that Mike McCartney, Jaymeson Moten and Kyle Dolan (and their substantial client list for the 2022 NFL Draft) would be transitioning from Chicago-based Priority Sports to New York City-based VaynerSports. It’s a big move for a lot of reasons, including the agents involved (McCartney is one of the most skilled and reputable contract advisors in the business and Moten and Dolan are talented recruiters), the players involved (six players, all of them expected to be drafted, including two who should go top five) and the timing, just five weeks before the draft. To look at all the angles – the history of the trio at Priority, Vayner’s prior efforts to build a major player representation brand alongside their NIL supremacy, a look at the players who are heading east, and more – check out our post Thursday. We see this move as one of the first major reactions in the traditional representation space to the new era of name, image and likeness (NIL). It’s not likely to be the last, and we examined it further in this week’s post at Succeed in Football. Check it out if you want to know where the world of agents and players is today, and where it’s going. 

Catching Up: Mickey Berce, 35, spent six years in the NFL, spent a year as an intern with the Lions before joining the Chiefs for three years and the Colts for two more. We caught up with him earlier this month. 

  • Where are you living and what are you doing now?: “I live in Toledo, Ohio, and I work for Eli Lilly. I’m in sales.” 

  • Do you miss the job? What do you miss most?: “I miss, obviously, watching film and evaluating players. One of the cool things I was able to do, having played quarterback in college, I was the quarterback for the workouts and I would throw to positon groups before games, so I did a lot of on-the-field stuff. But I don’t miss the amount of wasted hours, or anything that has to do with being in the office because the boss was in the office, to kill time. Work smarter, not harder. I don’t necessarily miss any of that. I do miss the camaraderie, and how the teams were built, but I don’t miss the hours, then the little bit of break we had in the summer. You don’t get a chance to be at home for Christmas or Thanksgiving, and that was one o the driving forces of not trying to continue being in the NFL. My dad was a driving force in my life and I wanted to be able to coach my kids and have that work-life balance. (Working in the league) was not conducive to my long-term goals. If you want to be a dad or good husband, it’s not as flexible as you might think. But hats off to the guys who do it, and I admire them for following their passion.” 

  • Do you keep in touch with any of your former colleagues?: “Yes. I have a pretty broad network, having worked for three teams. I was really friendly with a lot of the players, and just trying to be a human, I’d always say ‘hello’ and smile and be nice, and one of my best friends I came across is (former NFL offensive lineman) Gosder Cherlius. He is one of my good buddies. He was at Detroit when I was there, then the Colts, so we built a good friendship. I visited him in Tampa, and met up with him at the Super Bowl in Atlanta, and last time I was him was at (former Lions WO) Calvin Johnson’s Hall of Fame induction, and it was obviously mind-blowing to think this goofy sales rep from Toledo, Ohio, was there. I was a college quarterback, and I threw with Calvin before games, so he remembered me. I worked for (Browns GM) Andrew Berry, who I don’t communicate with a lot, and then (new Bears GM) Ryan Poles as well. Also, (Bengals QB coach) Dan Pitcher was a desk mate. I worked with a lot of great scouts and mentors, like Jim Nagy, who’s running the Senior Bowl now; Matt Terpening, who’s one of the senior scouts with the Colts; and Jon Shaw and Kevin Rogers, both with the Colts, and they’re really high up in their organization. Not only great people but mentors, and you could have a great conversation with them and they’re great overall guys.”

  • Do you go to any live games (HS/college/pro)?: “Actually, yes. What’s kind of cool is, my sister, Meredith, is essentially a marketing director for the south with Gatorade, and she’ll call me and tell me, ‘I’m gonna be at these games,’ so my wife and I went to Titans-Colts, then Tampa Bay  played the Bills, and I went to Cleveland to see the Raiders play the Browns. I went to the Lions Thanksgiving Day game. I’ve always been an NFL fan. I love going to NFL games because it’s the best of the best. I’ll go to the random high school game because I know the coach, and some college games, but mostly to Lions games. I’ve always just loved the NFL game. When you see it live and in person . . . watching it on TV, it doesn’t do it justice to see the speed of these guys.”

  • Are there any players you love to watch and/or feel close to due to your work in the game?: “I mean, whenever there’s a good quarterback duel, I always love watching those games. Those are the games that stick out to me, like the (Chiefs QB Patrick) Mahomes-(Bills QB Josh) Allen playoff game, when they were going back and forth, or (Rams QB) Matthew Stafford when he’s playing well, any good QB you want to tune into. It’s such a quarterback-driven league that if you don’t have one, you don’t have a chance. It’s amazing what the Broncos gave up to get (former Seahawks QB) Russell Wilson, but now you can see them going to the Super Bowl. Now, I don’t love the TV angles, and wish they gave a better angle for the fans, and it would be great if they had a higher-up camera so you could see the safety movement. It would make it where you could see the routes develop and the depths of the route. I think that would be great instead of the same angle they’ve been showing for so long.”

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.

ITL Profile Reports: After next week, we’ll be starting up our annual summer of Profile Reports. All 130 schools (we’ll add James Madison this year) will get the full treatment, with the top 10 NFL prospects, regardless of class/eligibility, reviewed. It’s our 14th year handicapping the best players at each school, and the second year we’ve gone to a new, easier-to-read format. We look forward to our series kicking off a week from today.

NCAA Head Coaches with Agents: A couple months later than we’d like to have, we’ve finally built our grid for the 2022 season. It’s here. We still have a few blanks to fill, but we wanted to get it updated with what we have before any late-breaking spring vacancies appear. We published our list of NFL head coaches and their counterparts in February.

Agent Changes (January to February): We’re still a month behind our usual pace, but we caught up some with this week’s report. In it, we uncovered 22 switches during that important month before free agency begins. It’s four players fewer than last year, when 26 players transitioned to new representation before new contracts were at hand. Make sure to check out all the changes going back ten years here.

Agents by Total Clients: Every year, when free agency starts, the numbers get weird on our monthly list. Some agents’ totals are cut by almost half as the new league year dumps a lot of free agents on the market. Oh well. Despite the change in numbers, the order rarely changes much. Check out the top agents by active players here.

Next week: We are almost caught up, but not quite, on a few features. The main one is our Agent Changes for February to March, which we hope to deliver sometime in the next seven days. We’re also looking at dates to bring you the news on how the XFL will operate with respect to the issues agents care about – salary, roster sizes, eligibility for release to other leagues, a draft, etc. – with Senior Vice President of Player Personnel Doug Whaley. Soon, we’ll have that date for you, and every ITL client will be invited. It will be posted on our YouTube page as soon as it’s done. That’s not all: we are also working on a Zoom for ITL clients who got certified last summer, and we’ve written March 31 in pencil for that session. We’ll look at what you should be hearing from scouts with pro days winding down, and what it means if you’re not. By the way, here’s our Pro Day Grid, if you still need a workout for your client. Speaking of pro days, we’re also going to be tracking NFL local pro days (which we’ve already been doing). We’ve got about half of them so far. With the pro day calendar near its end and Top 30 visits ratcheting up, we’re not far from that time of year when scouts get hired and fired. You can check out which ones are already in or out in our Scouting Changes Grid. We’ll have more buzz from around the game in our Rep Rumblings, and we’ll provide our take on what’s happening in our weekly blog, Succeed in Football. But hey, you know what we do. Or maybe you don’t, in which case, it’s a great time to find out.