June 25-July 1
The USFL plays its championship game Sunday (7:30 p.m. ET, Fox), concluding the return of a league that last took the field in 1985. Like anyone who loves the game and the opportunities it provides the young men who play it, we’re pretty excited that there are now two viable alternative leagues with the XFL set to kick off next spring. Let’s take a look at the “goods” and “bads” of the first legitimate, full season of minor league, outdoors football in the United States since the United Football League pulled the plug in 2012.
First, the relative lowlights.
New league, old-ish players: Perhaps as a nod to the league’s owner, Fox Sports, the USFL’s players skewed a little older than some NFL scouts might have liked. For example, the 2022 All-USFL team was dotted with players who are at least five years out of college; after a cursory look at the honorees, we counted at least seven players from the 2017 draft class and two from the 2015 draft class. NFL pro scouts we spoke to noticed. “The (AAF and XFL of 2020) seemed like they had younger traits guys. while the USFL (this year) appeared to go after a little bit of an older, more experienced group that had seen some sort of NFL action,” he said. “Some guys will likely get additional opportunities out of it, but I don’t think it will be similar to the numbers we saw signing to 90-man rosters at the end of the XFL/AAF seasons.” Another had similar thoughts: “I thought the talent level was as expected. I didn’t feel like there were any surprises or standouts at any position. . . Overall it was an entertaining league, but the level of play was as expected.”
Ratings, attendance a work in progress: A league played entirely in one location, Birmingham, Ala., was going to face challenges keeping the stands full. Indeed, camera shots that strayed from the field often showed sparse attendance, especially late in the season. Similarly, TV ratings were up and down, symptomatic of a league with teams whose identities today’s viewers still didn’t know.
On the other hand, there was a lot of justified excitement, for several reasons.
Solid talent: Though players were longer on experience than potential, no one, from coaches to referees to the players themselves, needed to be ashamed of their respective performances. “Strongest positions (were) probably WR and RB and weakest (were) OL and QB,” said one NFL evaluator. “It’s hard for these leagues with a short training camp and all-new rosters to play consistent football right away.” Said another: “Definitely a pleasant surprise. As an evaluator, I appreciated that they kept it about the game. It wasn’t overly gimmicky and it allowed a great showcase for players who may not have gotten a lot of opportunity at our level.” Said a third:
“The positive is a lot of these guys who will be on emergency lists going into camp have updated film and are in playing shape. . . There’s still been some ripple effects on no preseason film from 2020, so it’s nice having new film on these guys.”
A proven platform: With one game left, the USFL has made it to the gate without any public disagreements over player payments, game tickets, etc. Players spurned by the NFL, young or old, don’t have to rush north to find another place to continue their NFL pursuits. Likewise, the NFL finally has two developmental leagues the likes of which it hasn’t had since the days of NFL Europe, which developed players like Kurt Warner, Jake Delhomme, Brad Johnson, Scott Mitchell, Adam Vinatieri and others.
Polished production: It’s probably no surprise that the league’s broadcasts were seamless with Fox on board to carry the games.
One more note: We’ve tracked Brian Woods going back to his initial venture into the upper reaches of football with the Medal of Honor Bowl in Charleston, S.C., in 2014-15. Since then, his projects have included the FXFL and The Spring League, which evolved into the USFL. It’s been a bumpy ride at times, but Woods hasn’t quit. There’s a lesson for everyone seeking to succeed in football in his story.
We’ll be watching Sunday evening, and we encourage you to, as well, especially if you love football (and we know you do). 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: Josh Washburn, 34, got his start with the Titans after the lockout in 2011, but has worked with several teams (including the Redskins) and leagues in the years since as he helped take care of his ill father, now deceased. We caught up with him last month.
· Where are you living and what are you doing now? “When Washington put me on the road as an area scout, I moved to Charlotte, N.C., and have been here ever since. For the past two years since stepping away, I’ve been a ‘mercenary,’ so to speak, evaluating draft-eligible players for various entities. Most recently, I had a cup of tea with the USFL, helping their operation get off the ground by setting up personnel and teaching scout schools. As for now, though, we ended up losing my dad, so I’m making strides to get my foot back in the door.”
· Do you miss the job? What do you miss most?: “Of course. You’ll hear a lot of guys talk about how much of a grind scouting is, with all the travel and having to comb through hours upon hours of film, but honestly, that is what I miss the most. I miss the grind of being on the road, going from school to school, and then just sitting in a meeting room or my office watching film. Hard to beat a career that lets you travel and watch football.”
· Do you keep in touch with any of your former colleagues?: “I do. I have been very fortunate to cross paths with a lot of people I consider friends and keep in touch with, which is another perk of the profession. I’ve learned a lot of football from the Shanahans, (Rams head coach) Sean McVay and (Rams defensive coordinator) Raheem Morris, but I have also made lifelong friends since breaking into the NFL. I met one of my best friends while covering the southeast, and now we work out together just about every day at a YMCA here in Charlotte. Another good friend and I were hired by Washington at the same time, and have been texting back and forth ever since. I have also been fortunate to have (Colts Chief Personnel Executive) Morocco Brown as a mentor since he hired me in Washington, and he’s a guy I turn to for advice or to talk about the latest blockbuster movie. It has been a rough year with everything going on with my family, but those three guys have stuck by me and kept me going.”
· Do you go to any live games (HS/college/pro)? “I don’t think I’ll ever lose that itch to watch football at any level, but here lately, it’s been mostly college games with a few Panthers games mixed in since I live a stone’s throw from the stadium. I have been to quite a few North Carolina games, having played there and them always opening the door for me to come back to campus. I also have a good relationship with the guys at Charlotte to swing by for a visit.”
· Are there any players you love to watch and/or feel close to due to your work in the game? “There are a lot of good athletes in football today. (Chargers QB) Justin Herbert and (Colts OH) Jonathan Taylor are fun to watch just with how they approach and play the game. (Panthers DE) Brian Burns was one of the last guys I remember going into a school to watch and being really impressed by his athletic ability. (Eagles WO) Devonta Smith was the last player who really jumped off the film for me as well. (Former NFL WO) Steve Smith was one of my favorite players to scout, and I was beating the drum for us to sign him when we found out he was going to be a free agent. However, going back to my days in Washington, I like seeing (Vikings QB) Kirk Cousins do well because I know how hard he works. (Former Redskins OH) Alfred Morris was also one of the most genuine guys you’ll ever meet so I always wanted him to do well. Lastly, I kept an eye on (Texans DE) Mario Addison after we let him go (in Washington). I was eating lunch with Coach (Mike) Shanahan when one of Addison’s highlights from a Carolina game was on ESPN. Coach shook his head and muttered, “should have never cut him. Need to find who signed him and give him a raise.” Unbeknownst to him, I brought his name to Morocco when he got let go after the preseason. Truthfully, no scout ever really discovers a player and I never really cared about getting patted on the back, but that gave me confidence as a young scout in my first full-time role and helped me believe I could have a future in this. Or maybe he was just messing with me. Who knows?”
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.
This week’s scouting changes: Every week, we expect things to slow down across NFL front offices, and each week, the moves keep coming. Here’s a look at who got hired, fired or reassigned in the league since last Friday.
The number of names keeps swelling in our Scouting Changes Grid. We’ll keep adding them. More to come, we’re sure, though the NFL personnel community is in full vacation mode these days. Stay tuned.
Get studying: We are now just 19 days away from the 2022 NFLPA Exam. Two-and-a-half-weeks. You already know about our study guide and our two practice exams, but don’t forget about our five videos, which is a new part of our product line for 2022. Here’s a quick rundown of what we offer:
· 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.
· June ($50 plus tax): RFA tenders. PPE. Fifth year option. Minicamp rules. Reporting dates. Offseason workout rules. Option bonuses. Five-day acclimation period.
Remember, you can purchase all five videos for $35 each (plus tax) if you buy them all at once. All-in cost is $189.44, not a bad price if you’re a visual learner. For a rundown of all our products and services, click here.
Our next pre-Agent Exam Zoom: It’s this Tuesday, 9 p.m. ET, the day after Independence Day. In it, Chicago-based Ian Greengross will spend the full hour on exam-relevant topics related to drug policy and behavior/conduct/fines. The hour will not be as heavy on math but very focused on the issues the NFLPA normally tests on, and if you’re serious about passing the exam, we hope you’ll join us. Tuesday’s content will be like nothing we’ve covered so far in our monthly sessions. If you’re an ITL client – i.e., a monthly subscriber paying $29.95/month – cost is $20 plus tax. If you’re not, it’s $50 plus tax. Obviously, everyone who joins us will also be sent the video. Enjoy the holiday, then get back to work with us Tuesday night.
The ITL Rising Contract Advisor Newsletter: We were about four weeks late, and it happened with little fanfare, but we brought back our popular pre-exam newsletter this week. We use it to introduce the members of last year’s rookie agent class and tell the stories of those we’ve worked with who got a player on a 90-man roster this year, which is a monumental achievement. Each edition offers a quick rundown of how each agent came to certification, the agent’s tips on how to pass the exam, lessons learned in Year 1 and more. This week, after a quick introductory edition on Monday, we featured George Holley Tuesday, Jason Donnell on Wednesday and Philip ‘Red’ Miller on Thursday. Next week, we’ll feature four more stories of success. If you’re getting ready to take the exam later this month, you should be receiving (and reading) our Monday-through-Thursday emails. If you’re not, and you’d like to, let us know by responding to this email.
ITL Summer School: Countless members of the NFL scouting community are seeking professional development, but given a scout’s schedule, how do you do that, exactly? We decided to try. Several weeks ago, we asked former Vikings GM Rick Spielman if he’d spend an hour with active NFL scouts and executives answering several insider-type questions from ITL’s Neil Stratton, and he graciously agreed. What resulted was a robust discussion about how to build and manage a team from the GM’s chair. Here’s what Stratton asked:
· How did the Vikings use analytics and what would you do differently?
· What’s the worst thing you can do in a job interview? The best?
· How do you “fix” a bad scout, and is it possible?
· How do you get past the party line to gather sensitive information?
· When you’ve missed on a player, what was most often the reason why?
· What do you look for in your scouts when identifying future directors/execs?
· What’s the best scouting innovation of the last five years?
· Will there be pro days in ten years?
· What will the combine look like in ten years?
· Can a scouting staff be too big? What’s the perfect number needed to cover the country?
About 30 NFL scouts and executives listened in, and we provided a few highlights of the hour in this week’s post at Succeed in Football. We’re working on our next edition with another highly regarded former NFL executive, which we hope to bring to the NFL scouting community this summer. If you work in the league, and you want to hear perspectives from someone who’s had success in the business, we hope you’ll join us. More details to come.
Next week: If you’ve read the Friday Wrap for several weeks, you’ve gotten used to looking at this part of the newsletter as an educated guess rather than gospel truth. We urge you to continue that practice. Still, here’s our best shot at what’s ahead in the next seven days.
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We’ll have five more editions of the Profile Reports, looking at Miami (Ohio), Michigan and Michigan State, Middle Tennessee and Minnesota.
· We’ll have four more more editions of the ITL Rising Contract Advisors Newsletter, with more success stories from people who were nervously preparing for the exam at this time last year but who represent active NFL players these days.
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Our NFLPA Exam prep materials are ready when you are. You can order our study guide and our practice exams here. For a refresher on what all we offer, click here.
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We’ll have more of what’s going on in the game in our Rep Rumblings.
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The Succeed in Football blog will come at you once again, as it always does, with information related to scouting, player representation, name/image/likeness or some other topic designed to make you better.
· In next week’s Friday Wrap, we’ll talk to Dax Nollenberger, who spent four years in the Browns front office. He’ll be the subject of our Catching Up feature.
Have a great Fourth of July! We hope you get a moment to step away from your busy schedule and celebrate the greatest country the world has ever known with your friends and family this weekend. Of course, while you’re standing over the grill, sunning yourself or getting ready to set off a bundle of fireworks, don’t forget to keep up with the game by checking out ITL.
