ITL Friday Wrap -- 9.24.21

ITL Friday Wrap

Sept. 18-24

As you know, we like to take periodic looks at the top draft services and their mock drafts leading up to the last weekend in April. It’s something we’ve done since the 2018 NFL Draft, and though it’s strictly a look at the media’s perception of things, we still find it an interesting exercise in gauging who’s up and who’s down in the draft class. We see it almost as a Real Clear Politics-like summation of the landscape, without the politics.

We always take our first look at the coming draft class the weekend after the draft, as we did in May of this year. This time, as we did last time, we looked at mock drafts from Pro Football Network, Pro Football Focus, CBS, The Draft Scout, ESPN, The Athletic and Walter Football. It’s worth noting that not all of them were mock drafts, per se; The Draft Scout’s Matt Miller, ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. and The Athletic’s Dane Brugler provided either Top 25 or Top 50 lists given the early date, but we included them here as if they were mocks.

With the housekeeping over, here’s a look at what the experts say about the ’22 draft class as we wrap up the first month of the season.

It’s unanimous: Only six players made all seven boards. They are Oregon DE Kayvon Thibodeaux, LSU DC Derek Stingley, Notre Dame SS Kyle Hamilton, Alabama OT Evan Neal, Oklahoma QB Spencer Rattler and Texas A&M DT DeMarvin Leal. At present, Thibodeaux is the pick to go first with four services (CBS’ Chris Trapasso, TDS’ Matt Miller, ESPN’s Kiper and Walter Football) tapping him at No. 1. The other three have him as the second pick. Pro Football Network has Notre Dame’s Hamilton as the top pick, while Pro Football Focus likes Liberty QB Malik Willis and Brugler likes LSU‘s Stingley.

NIL Watch: Per our NIL Grid, three of the six have NIL deals with NFL agencies. Rattler is with Steinberg Sports, while Stingley and Leal are with The Ballengee Group.

Standing on the table: Walter Football went farther out on a limb with its top-32 picks than we’ve ever seen. The service listed a full 13 players as first-rounders that no one else held in such high regard, including Florida St. DE Jermaine Johnson at No. 7 and Penn State DC Tariq Castro-Fields at No. 8. Furthermore, Walter is the only service not to list Ohio State receivers Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave; Purdue DT George Karlaftis; North Carolina QB Sam Howell; USC WO Drake London and Alabama OB Christian Harris as first-rounders. Hats off to WF for refusing to follow the groupthink.

This year’s Baker/Kyler/Joe/Zach: From the looks of things, there’s no outta-nowhere passer set to storm the top of the draft from the Day 3/UDFA depths. In fact, four passers who rated first-round grades by at least one service in May – Georgia’s J.T. Daniels, Florida’s Emory Jones, BC’s Phil Jurkovec and Cincinnati’s Desmond Ridder – didn’t make the grade this time. Maybe next time.

There’s plenty more to discover by checking out our big board o’ first-rounders, which we’ve posted at ITL. We’ll check out the rising and falling players in the eyes of these same seven services at the end of the season. 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.

Tips for new agents: So you passed the exam. Now what? It’s a question we get all the time, so we addressed it in this week’s post on our blog, Succeed in Football. Here are a few more tips:

Have a plan for NIL: Every player and his parents has this perception that there are piles of free money hidden under rocks, and the right agent will keep turning them over until he finds a big pot of gold. It's not true. However, it is true that you must have a plan for a player's marketing, you must know which players tend to be most marketable, and you must decide how you will approach endorsements as a player's agent. Again, make sure you are fluent on the current NIL landscape with our big board.
Have a reasonable budget: Every year, new agents tell me they have several kids they will sign, and all these kids are cool with training at their school or at some local no-frills facility. Two things -- if the kid truly has NFL bona fides, some more established agent is gonna recruit (and sign) him. Even if that doesn't happen, you're gonna have to outspend a more seasoned agent to sign the kids you think you have in your back pocket. Mark it down. Your floor, per player, should be $5,000 for training, and that's pretty conservative unless you get really lucky.
Use social media to contact players: In the old days, it was almost impossible to contact players you didn't know. Now, it's almost impossible not to as long as you have an Instagram account. Many (most?) players are willing to engage you, even if you're a new agent, in the hopes that you can bring them NIL cash or a plush training budget with ample stipends. That's especially true before, say, mid-October, when many players start to make their picks.

Want even more? Walking with agents through their rookie years (and every subsequent year, for that matter) is part of what we do. We’re here and ready to help. If you’re not already part of the ITL family, come check us out.

Class is in session: Next week, we will have our first of our monthly online classes on the CBA for those who will try again next year to pass the NFLPA exam. Cost is $50 plus tax, and the class is open only to those who purchased our exam prep materials. We’ll cover several troublesome topics based on the feedback we’ve gotten from test-takers, work problems and answer questions, and ITL clients will have the option of receiving the video recording of the session. It’s part of our plan to walk with everyone who came up a little short this year and make sure the news is better next summer. We hope you can join us. Got questions? Contact us for answers, or to recommend topics.

NFL Scouts by Area: This week, at long last, we updated our list of NFL scouts by region covered. We’re still not done, and some regions (Midwest, Southeast, Northeast) are more filled-in than others, but we’re getting there. We hope to have it completed sometime in the coming week. In the meantime, take a look at how things have changed for the ’21 fall schedule here.

Agents by Total Clients (September): This week, we listed the 147 active contract advisors with at least 10 active clients (53 or PS) in our monthly look at Agents by Total Clients. This month, to provide contrast to the August list, we also published last month’s totals for each agent on the September list. We found that two agents, Drew Rosenhaus of Rosenhaus Sports and Robert Roche of Roche Sports Representation, jumped eight clients in the last month per NFLPA rolls. Meanwhile, David Canter of GSE Worldwide (formerly DEC Management) jumped from No. 6 last month to No. 4 this month with 53 active clients. In all, there are 27 contract advisors with at least 30 clients and 64 with at least 20. Check out all the numbers here.

Catching Up: Steve Verderosa, 67, went to four Super Bowls with the Giants in his 32 years with the team, winning three. Add in his one year with the Bucs, and he spent a third of a century in evaluation. We caught up with him last week.

Where are you living and what are you doing now?: “I live right outside of Raleigh in Apex, N.C. We’ve been here almost 30 years. Once I got the southeast of the United States to scout, my former boss thought it would be great to live in the area, so we moved from Long Island down here. I raised all my kids down here in North Carolina. What am I doing now? Most of the time, I’m working on my house, on my classic car, I’m playing golf, and I do some radio work with Anita Marks, a pre-draft show for Pro Football Network on their digital network. Last year, we started right after the Super Bowl, and we went right up to the draft, and then did a post-draft show. But I am enjoying retirement. I totally redid a classic car, a ‘79 corvette, and I drive it every day if it’s nice. That’s one of my hobbies. I also like to drink wine, cook and eat, and so I work out every day. . . When you travel, you meet a lot of people, and I had the good fortune of meeting Sal Paolantonio a couple times, and he told me, ‘you need to write a book. I also have a friend who used to be a beat writer for LSU’s football team, and he also told me I need to write a book. So I’ve started writing stuff down. Sal gave me leads on different publishers and editors. . . People are dying for info, the combine is in prime time, the draft is in prime time, even the schedule is being released in prime time, and I have stories that only the people who’ve done it will know about.”
Do you miss the job? What do you miss most?: “Actually, I gotta be honest, the things I miss the most are the people, the guys on our own staff, the guys on other staffs. I’m pretty close to guys on other teams, so it was a brotherhood. There are 250-260 guys in the world who do what we do, and there are quite a few that I still stay in touch with. I was just on the phone with somebody else today, so at least once a week, someone touches base with me or I touch base with them. Some I miss traveling to, because these are people you enjoy seeing 2-3 times a year when you make your travels. I don’t miss the grind of airplanes and rental cars and getting from Point A to Point B. That’s the part I don’t miss. The timing of the pandemic was good for me. I was thinking about going one more year, but a year ago, when the draft commenced, we didn’t know if the pandemic would be two years or two months. My wife said, ‘do you really want to get on airplanes, get in a rental car, go to hotel rooms?’ Plus, the Giants had changed quite a bit. The timing was perfect. Do I have the energy that I could still do it? No one in the scouting department could outwork me, so I have that, and I had a few calls from other teams to see where I was at, but I’m content. I’m blessed.”
Do you keep in touch with any of your former colleagues?: “Yeah. Like I said, there are quite a few guys I talk to quite frequently, some of them still in the business and some retired, or in another walk of life. Some guys you get close to because you are doing the same things.”
Do you go to any live games (HS/college/pro)?: “This year, I am gonna go to games. I have the opportunity to go to an N.C. State game. I’m seven miles from N.C. State, and my middle boy, that’s his alma mater. And I’m gonna see South Carolina play at Texas A&M. Those are my own scouting assignments. I will do tape before the games, Louisiana Tech vs. NC State, and South Carolina at Texas A&M, and I will sit in the film room and watch the tape of both teams, and sit in the press box, and all those notes will be compiled for our pre-draft shows next spring. I’ll have first-hand information, and I’ve asked (North Carolina head coach) Mack Brown, as the season goes on, some of the colleges don’t want guests on campus, and I was all set to go to a couple practices at North Carolina. . . but they’ve tabled that for now. I still have my contacts.”
Are there any players you love to watch and/or feel close to due to your work in the game?: “I really would like to see (Giants QB) Daniel Jones have success, because, you know what? When he was playing at Duke, I saw him play three years live, and I know (Duke head coach) David Cutcliffe well, and (Jones) was throwing to a bunch of future accountants. He’s got the physical skill-set and intelligence to be a top-flight NFL quarterback. All eight offensive linemen on that team right now, (GM Dave) Gettleman owns. He brought in so my players. Daniel Jones, I just want to see him have success. Obviously, I want to see the Giants have success. The fans deserve it. They’re so loyal. There’s no place like it when you’re winning.”

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.

Don’t forget to vote!: If you’re an active member of an NFL scouting staff, we need a favor. In your inbox (just sent) is a link to a poll. We’re asking you to help us determine who the top 10 scouts are in each conference. You don’t have to vote for 10, but please vote for the ones you feel are worthy of praise. It’s our goal to bring some level of recognition to the best scouts in the business, and we’ll announce the winners of our first-ever BART List (honoring former Rams scout Danton Barto) next week. We’re seeking the scouts who are Bold, Articulate, Resourced, Thorough and Organized (B.A.R.T.O., get it?). Please don’t forget to vote!

Rep Rumblings: This week, we had two reports. On Monday, we looked at a couple of former NFL players who are working in scouting roles in New Orleans, plus we looked at a longtime all-star official who’s landed in Florida’s recruiting and personnel department and rounded up a few new NIL developments. On Tuesday, we looked at the slow progress of hiring for alternative leagues who plan on playing in 2022 and 2023, a longtime draft news service that is having success in NIL representation and more. Check out every one of our reports for 2021, 125 in all, here.

Next week: In the coming seven days, we’ll continue to reach out to people in the scouting community, we’ll try to catch up on a few overdue reports and fortify content we’ve already started, and we’ll launch our efforts to get some members of the ’21 NFLPA agent class ready for the ’22 exam. Voting on the BART List will continue, and we’ll be tabulating the totals and preparing to announce the winners next week. For a peek at who’s on the leaderboard now, check out Thursday’s edition of The State of Football. We’ll also be rounding up this summer’s test-takers for Wednesday’s tutorial on Zoom; one way or another, we’re going to help as many people as we can make their second stab at the test a successful one. Also, our Agent Changes lists are pretty far in arrears, and we hope we can remedy that this week before we get even farther behind. As for the rest of our content, it will be a rather normal week. We’ll have posts in our Rep Rumblings series and our weekly blog, Succeed in Football; we’ll have five more schools in our Profile Report series (Vanderbilt, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest and Washington); and we’ll stock and update our NIL Board, our College Coaches with Representation list (if there are more terminations), and perhaps even our Scouting Changes Grid if we uncover any last-minute moves. We’re trying to get chunk plays and move the chains in the business of football, and so are you. Let’s do it together.