June 11-17

One of our longest traditions at ITL is our post-draft breakdown of all the picks not based on which teams did best – and really, who can know that the month after the draft anyway? – but based on which agencies and training facilities excelled. Rather than giving our opinions, we try to break everything down by the numbers, using former Cowboys head coach Jimmy Johnson’s points grid for every selection. 

Here’s a look at the week’s work.

Agencies by Value Points (Monday) – After breaking CAA’s stranglehold on this title in 2020, Irvine, Calif.-based Athletes First took home its third straight award, this time winning by a little less than 1,000 points after a nearly 2,000-point win in ’21 and about 5,000 points in ’20. A1 also led all firms with five first-rounders. Coming in at second place was Dallas-based Klutch Sports Group, which had 5,956.3 points on 13 picks, three of whom were first-rounders. Also worth a mention was VaynerSports, which made its first appearance on the leader board as the firm took third place. Vayner was one of only three agencies who scored 5,000 points this year. Taking fourth place was CAA (4,330.5 points), with WME Sports landing in fifth place. When it comes to pure total draftees, New York City-based Sportstars was all alone in first place with 25 selections; Sportstars finished eighth in draft points. The only other firm with at least 20 picks was Athletes First (21).

Trainers by Value Points (Tuesday): As it does annually, EXOS led the field handily, whether you count each of its four combine prep locations individually or if you put all of the training service’s output under one heading. We always choose to break each out individually, and EXOS still shines. This year, EXOS’ Frisco, Texas location set the standard with 12,687 points, including 29 draft picks and six first-rounders. Coming in in second place was EXOS’ Arizona location, which actually edged Frisco with 33 total draft picks but which trailed in value points by more than 3,000. In all, EXOS’ four locations (Texas, Florida, Arizona and California) had just under 100 selectees (96 to be exact). Also shining was Athletes First’s proprietary academy in Irvine, which turned out 18 draftees and five first-rounders totaling 6,646.8 points. Also notching top-five finishes were Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based Sports Academy (5,527.4 points on just five draftees) and OL Masterminds in Dallas, which came in fifth with 4,175.1 points. We’re especially proud to partner with 11 of the top 13 firms in this year’s race.

Undrafted Combine Invitees (Wednesday): Sometimes when you cast a wide net, not all of your catch is keepers. Sportstars, which annually signs more clients than any of the other top agencies in the industry, had seven clients overlooked on draft day. Atlanta-based SportsTrust Advisors had six and Hattiesburg, Miss.-based BC Sports had four. Seven firms tied with three. 

Non-combine draftees (Thursday): Perhaps this list should be named for Branford, Conn.-based JL Sports. Not only does Joe Linta’s firm lead the way this year with 49.4 draft points (the only agency to have two fifth-rounders snubbed by the combine), but the firm has become a staple of the list. Since 2010, when we started keeping this list, only twice did Linta miss out on this feature, and most years, he has two clients on the list. In 2014, he had three, a true rarity. Maybe there’s something to be said for longevity in the game as, this year, four of the top five firms in this category are headed by an agent certified before 1992.

Next week, we’ll have our big board of agencies by value points going back to 2007. Here’s a look at the standing going into this year’s draft. 

Sorry for the delay in running down this year’s numbers, but an unusually busy scouting changes season hampered our progress; more on that later. In the meantime, here’s a look at what else we saw, heard, read and said in the business of college and pro football this week.

Catching Up: Jim Lippincott, 72, spent 20 years in scouting, all of it with the Bengals. We caught up with him last month.

  • Where are you living and what are you doing now? “I’m living in Cincinnati. I live in a northern suburb called Mason. For those who know Ohio, I can look out my backyard and see King’s Island. We’re in the northern part of Cincinnati, and we’re here 65 percent of the time, and then we’re down (in Florida) about 20 percent of the time, and we have a son who lives in Las Vegas, and we go there a couple times of a year. But our home is in Cincinnati. I am playing golf and I play 60-75 rounds a year, and then, obviously I enjoy coming down here (to Florida). But (in Cincinnati) we have three grandchildren who live a mile-and-a-half or two miles from us, so my wife and I do a lot of driving them here and there. If we knew grandchildren were this much fun, we would have had them first. We’re very fortunate. God has blessed us.” 

  • Do you miss the job? What do you miss most? “I do miss it. I miss the hunt, the research, the planning, the meetings, everything I did for (Bengals owner) Mike (Brown). I miss the people, and I still have contact with some of the people. Many are gone. Only one person in the personnel department left, the young lady who was my assistant, we have lunch together every couple months or so. Coaching staff-wise, I think there are only three people left, and player-wise, just the long-snapper and the punter. But I miss Sundays, you miss the draft weekend, and I always thought draft weekend was long and slow. The thing that chased me out of it was travel. I thought TSA was an embarrassment, and I’ve told them as much, and for 19 years, the NFL did business with one car rental company, and they never got anything wrong, and the last year, they switched to another one, and they never got anything right. And then I lost track of how to talk to people. I used to be friendly, but I spent so much time by myself that I lost track of how to talk to people. And then a high school coach I knew developed Parkinson’s Disease, and we wanted to try to coach together one more time and see if we could win it. So all of those things combined led me to leaving.”

  • Do you keep in touch with any of your former colleagues? “If it’s a simple answer I’d have to say no. (Former Giants scout) Steve Devine and I are friends and occasionally I’ll reach out to him. (Bears scout) Jeff Shiver, I’ve heard from him, but I can’t say I’ve been good about keeping up with the other guys. (Raiders scout) Shemy Schembechler for a little while, too, because my son coaches with the Raiders, so it was natural. I haven’t been very good about that part of it.” 

  • Do you go to any live games (HS/college/pro)? “No. I went to one high school game last year, there’s a very young head coach at Withrow High School I’m quite fond of, and I went to his first game last, year, and that was the only game we’ve gone to. As for NFL games, the parking is free in my garage, my chair is really comfortable and the beer is really cold. Some of it’s laziness, because it’s only 20 miles to get downtown, but no, I don’t go to many games.”

  • Are there any players you love to watch and/or feel close to due to your work in the game? “The defensive end/pass rusher for the Bengals, Sam Hubbard. He played safety for me in high school. He was a 6-5, 220-pound safety who could run like the wind and was extremely bright, and I do take an interest in Sam. He’s active in the community, never says the wrong thing, nor will he ever. When he was a junior, he was a lacrosse prospect, and he had committed to Notre Dame to play lacrosse, and this was 2012, so we started practicing football, and I told him if he needed to practice lacrosse and miss practice, that was OK, and then he came to practices and football started to be more important to him. Before the season, I said, ‘Sam, if we’re ever in a game and something comes up unexpected, you have my permission to call timeout, no questions asked. Just make sure we have one left.’ This was in July. So it’s Thanksgiving weekend and we’re in the state semifinals, and the opponent is driving to tie it, and they’re on the 3, and the QB goes in motion to an empty, and Sam called a timeout before I could. I’m fond of Sam and I’m fond of his parents. During Super Bowl week this year, we were here in Florida and the number of ex-Bengals players that reached out either through social media or text or calls, there had to have been 45-50, and they were all rooting for this generation of Bengals to pull off what we couldn’t. Every team talks about family and community, but it was really impressive to me to see the former Bengals rooting for this generation of players to pull this off.”

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.

How to NIL – now on your schedule: Many of you missed Peter Schoenthal of Athliance, who gave an excellent overview last week of how to make NIL work for you if you’re a player representative. For those who couldn’t make it, we have great news. Peter’s team has made the video available on YouTube. It’s an hour-plus of gold if you’re still trying to figure out how to make the new name, image and likeness era work for you. We encourage you to give it a listen. 

This week’s scouting changes: Things slowed down a bit this week on the scouting front, as we expected, though several teams revealed their new front offices. Here’s a recap:


We've counted more than 200 moves up, down or out since the end of the 2021 season. Check them out here.

Zoom time: Thursday, we’ll have our monthly session for this summer’s NFLPA Exam participants, and it’s going to be a big one. Why? Well, it will be our first session inside of 30 days until the big day, July 20. Also, we’re going to try to cover several topics we haven’t covered in our first four months. Here’s what we’ll try to get to Thursday:

  • Calculation of fine for player suspended for example for six games due to positive drug test. How is the fine calculated as it relates to signing bonus, P5 salary and option bonus?
  • Rookie/agent regulations regarding communication and signing. 
  • RFA tenders and salary calculations. 
  • Fifth-year option salary calculations. 
  • Minicamps and preseason camps and rules regarding payment and mandatory reporting. 
  • Option bonus contract example and how it’s counted against the cap vs. a roster bonus
  • Qualifying offers again for restricted free agents

Want in? As always, it’s $50 plus tax if you’re not an ITL client, $20 plus tax if you are. Also, if you’d like to check out any of our past four sessions, here’s what each covered.

  • February ($50 plus tax): Given a signing bonus and Year 4 cap number, calculate rookie salary. Also, June 1 rule and agent fee calculation when a player terminates his representation mid-contract. 

  • March ($50 plus tax): Difference between accrued, credited for benefits and credited for salary, and what each of these designations mean for the purposes of free agency, etc. Split-salary contracts. Exclusive rights free agency (zero, one or two accrued seasons), restricted free agent (at least three accrued seasons), transition tag, franchise tag, exclusive franchise tag. Minimum salaries based on credited seasons, when you are counted as active based on what day you get, when a player goes to waivers when he’s cut. Workman’s comp offsets. Termination pay and pay for players who get cut. Veteran salary benefit.

  • April ($50 plus tax): Calculating minimum tenders for franchise and transition players. Preseason split and in-season split, types of splits, definition, etc. Calculating contracts with up/down amounts. Calculating payment to a player on practice squad. Extended injury protections and worker’s compensation offsets. What is the rookie salary given signing bonus and cap number for Year 4?

  • May ($50 plus tax): Veteran salary benefit. Termination pay. Injury grievance. Proven Performance Escalator. Draft signals. Agent fee calculation. Split contract calculation/IR. Practice squad salary computation. 

Got questions? Just email us and we’ll get everything straight. We want to help.

Exploring (and exploding?) the narrative: It’s something we’ve been talking about for about a year now. With so many players skipping the ’21 draft and taking their “Covid year” as allowed by the NCAA, this year would represent a bounty of riches for teams seeking bargains on Day 3 and in undrafted free agency. It just makes sense after such a lean 2021 draft class, right? Well, maybe. We asked several NFL agents if this was born out by their view of the talent at the bottom of the draft this year, and we had adamant voices on both sides of the issue – as so often happens. Check out what NFL evaluators had to say about how the 2022 draft shook out in the latter rounds and beyond in this week’s post.

Next week: We’re moving closer to being a month out from the NFLPA Exam, and that’s important, but that’s not all that’s on our minds. Here’s what’s ahead:

  • We’ll round out our analysis of agencies going back to 2007 based on value points; we don’t expect a change at the top, but the leader’s lead is getting smaller. How much? Find out next week. Also possibly on the docket: our first look at the 2022 NFL Draft by the Numbers, which provides a rundown of players drafted, signed as UDFAs and invited in for tryouts. 
  • We’ll have our June Zoom session for this summer’s test-takers on Thursday. If you’re taking the exam this summer, consider joining us. It’s $50 plus tax if you’re not an ITL client, $20 plus tax if you are. We’ll cover as many key topics as we can in an hour. 
  • Also, we’re slowly updating Exam 1 for everyone preparing for the 2022 NFL Agent Exam. We’ve added a question and revised a couple that had problematic wording. We’ve got a few more tweaks in store, but for now, it’s ready to roll. We’ve got a little work to do on Exam 2, as well, but we’re trying to wrap up Exam 1 first. 
  • Succeed in Football will be back as we celebrate our eighth year of weekly pieces on the scouting, agent and other football business communities. 
  • We’ll have five more schools in our Profile Reports series (LSU, Louisiana Tech, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe and Louisville). Still 78 to go.
  • We’ll be back with four more Rep Rumblings reports; while we expect scouting moves to slow down, there are still a few tweaks to go and we’ll have all the developments. Of course, make sure you’re following us on Twitter as well.
  • Our Agents by Total Clients feature will be back, with numbers shifting upward slightly for many contract advisors as draftees sign. Hopefully, we’ll be able to make up some ground on our Agent Changes reports, too. We’re running further behind than we normally are in the summer.
  • In next week’s Friday Wrap, we’ll profile former Texans pro director Larry Wright, who’s still in the Houston area and giving back to his community.

Whether you’re a scout, an agent, a trainer, a marketing professional, a member of the college personnel and recruiting community, or someone who hopes to be one of these people, we think you’ll agree our service provides must-have info. Give us a shot today.