Dec. 18-24

At Inside the League, we are fully focused on working with and helping improve the college and football industry. Still, it’s fun to geek out every once in a while, and why not add to the seasonal mirth by doing it around Christmas? Or at least, that’s our thought process. Anyway, let’s proceed. 

Here’s the full grid of all seven services we track and their most recent mock drafts, sorted by player. Give it a look. Here’s what we noticed.

We have a new No. 1: Just by a nose, Michigan’s Aidan Hutchinson is our new consensus top pick in the draft. His average draft position, 1.43, is just .15 lower than Oregon’s Kayvon Thibodeaux. In clawing his way to the top in the last seven weeks, Hutchinson moved past Alabama’s Evan Neal (average draft slot this week of 4.14), LSU’s Derek Stingley(5.29) and Notre Dame’s Kyle Hamilton (8.0) in addition to Thibodeaux. Pro Football Network’s Alex Buck, Pro Football Focus’s Trevor Sikkema, CBS’ Chris Trapasso and ESPN’s Todd McShay like Hutchinson as the first pick, while Matt Miller of The Draft Scout, Yahoo!’s Eric Edholm and Walter Football have Thibodeaux at the top slot.

The rest: In addition to Hutchinson, Thibodeaux, Neal, Stingley and Hamilton, the remaining 10 players on all seven boards are Purdue’s George Karlaftis (7.86); Pitt’s Kenny Pickett (8.29); NC State’s Ikem Ekwonu and Mississippi State’s Charles Cross (both 11.71); Mississippi’s Matt Corral (12.14); Michigan’s David Ojabo (14.0); Ohio State’s Garrett Wilson and Iowa’s Tyler LInderbaum (16.0); Alabama’s Jameson Williams (18.0); and Ohio State’s Chris Olave (24.14). The “narrowing” of the field is in line with last year at the same time, when 16 players were on all seven boards for our Christmas Day Wrap review last year. 

Just missed: Six players were on six boards each, but not all seven. Texas A&M DT DeMarvin Leal (not listed by PFF), Georgia DT Jordan Davis (snubbed by CBS Sports’ Chris Trapasso), Arkansas WO Treylon Burks (Matt Miller), Cincinnati DC Ahmad Gardner (Edholm) and USC WO Drake London and Georgia OB Nakobe Dean (Walter Football) came up just short.

What, no QBs?: For the first time since we started tracking mock drafts leading up to the 2018 selection meeting, there are no quarterbacks in the consensus top seven picks. When last we checked on the ’22 draft class, Liberty’s Malik Willischecked in at a consensus No. 6 slot (average 8.43), the previous low. This time, Pickett comes in at No. 7 (average 8.29), while Willis is only listed on five of seven boards. 

The Mayfield/Burrow/Murray/Wilson Award: From the looks of things, for the first time since we started tracking mocks, there won’t be a quarterback who rises to be selected top-two despite not being listed on any of the seven boards the previous May. Pickett has the best chance; of the five passers who made at least one board, he’s the only one who wasn’t included on any immediately after the ’21 draft. He’s now the highest rated of the five. 

New in town: Several players made their first appearance in a mock draft this week, and two not only made their debut, but also landed among the 15 on all seven boards (Ekwonu and Ojabo). Others who made their introductions this time were Penn State SS Jaquan Brisker (three boards), Central Michigan OT Bernhard Raimann (two boards) and Georgia DT Devonte Wyatt, La.-Lafayette OT Max Mitchell and LSU OB Damone Clark (one board each).

Shown the door: Seventeen players who appeared on at least one board last time were jettisoned by all seven this time. Hardest hit was Georgia, which saw DE Adam Anderson, FS Lewis Cine and DC Derion Kendrick dropped. Better luck next time, guys.

Outliers: As so often happens, Walter Football went farthest out on a limb with seven players no one else listed in their top 32. LSU’s Clark (No. 16), Oklahoma DT Perrion Winfrey (20), Virginia Tech DC Jermaine Waller (23), Texas A&M TE Jalen Wydermeyer (26), Alabama DC Josh Jobe (27), Kentucky WO Wan’Dale Robinson (29) and Purdue WO David Bell (31) made Walter’s list but no one else’s. On the other hand, for the first time ever, we had a service that had a mock draft with not one outlier: Pro Football Network. 

There’s plenty more to note among the work of the seven services, and we encourage you to review them all here. 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 Christmas week. 

Clip and save: This time of year, we are hit up by several aspiring NFL draftees who have questions about how the combine works, how to get an all-star game invitation, what to look for in a good agent, how to know what scouts think about them and plenty more. As a member of the football business, maybe you do, too. Given that it’s an incredibly busy time of year, we don’t always have the time to fully explain how the draft process works and answer all the questions, so this week, we provided six points (get it?) on the NFL Draft process as this week’s installment of our Succeed in Football blog. Is it totally comprehensive? No. You’ll have to read our book, Moving the Chains, for that. However, if you don’t have a few hours to read through it (it’s a fast read, by the way, and really compelling for draft fan and prospect alike, we’re told), check out this week’s blog. We also recommend you save the link somewhere so next time a well-meaning draft prospect has questions, you can just share the link. That’s what we’ll do. Here it is again. 

Catching Up: Lloyd Richards Jr., 48, spent seven seasons in the NFL in scouting and football operations, working for the Bucs, Washington and the Texans over that time. He later spent eight seasons at Illinois and Maryland in football ops.We caught up with him last week.

  • Where are you living and what are you doing now?: “I currently reside in the Washington, D.C., area. I spent the 2019 and 2020 seasons in college football as the Assistant AD for Football Operations for the University of Maryland, but I am currently exploring other opportunities. I started an event management consulting LLC back in 2011 and focused on that type of business for eight years before returning to team sports. I worked on five Super Bowls in a row, seven Final Fours and a number of other NCAA Championships fan festivals.”

  • Do you miss the job? What do you miss most?: “I miss certain aspects of scouting for sure. I worked both as a pro scout and college scout and really enjoyed both. As far as what I miss the most, I would say being a part of the team and the collective effort to get either the current college class or the league free agents evaluated and rated. It was exciting to be a part of the process to gather the necessary player data and background info and to see the information utilized to make the decisions that best fit the organization. I was fortunate to be able to work in football operations and then event management with my LLC, so although I miss certain aspects of scouting, I definitely get a chance to broaden my horizon and gain a diverse and broad set of skills and experiences throughout my career after scouting.”

  • Do you keep in touch with any of your former colleagues?: “Not really. It has been a number of years since my scouting days. A number of my former bosses and co-workers went on to be general managers, so it was exciting to see them all have their opportunities to run scouting departments.” 

  • Do you go to any live games (HS/college/pro)?: “One of my Illinois college teammates is a very successful high school coach in Houston, Texas, so I go to his games whenever I am able because his family and mine are very close. Also, the high school my kids attended was very good and ended up going to state two years in a row and winning their second year going, so that was a fun ride. Other than that, no other high school games. Working at Maryland, obviously, I was a part of that scene for two years. I occasionally go to NFL games now with my son or friends, but nothing more than one or two games per season.”

  • Are there any players you love to watch and/or feel close to due to your work in the game?:
  • “Not anymore. Now most, if not all, of those players have completed their playing careers and some are announcers, so that shows how old I am!!” (laughs) 

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.

The ITL Scouting Department takes a break: This has been our busiest year ever for scouting reports, and we are abundantly grateful for your business. However, like so many of you, we will be taking a break to celebrate the birth of Our Savior. With that in mind, we are still accepting orders, but might need until Monday or Tuesday to fill them. We will do our best to turn our reports ($100 plus tax, any player in America) as quickly as possible. We know it’s the fourth quarter and you need information fast. Got a report request? Send it here.

ITL Signings Grid: We are just under 500 players on our big board. It’s not all signings, not all all-star berths, not all marketing deals, but all of these are examples of what you’ll find in our list. Today, we’ve updated statuses of USC’s Drake Jackson, Florida State’s McKenzie Milton, La.-Lafayette’s Max Mitchell, Central Michigan’s Bernhard Raimann and several others, and we’re just getting started. If you care about what’s going on in the busiest time of the year for people in the football business, you need to be checking out our board daily. Start here. 

Next week: While fans watch bowl play and track the playoff chase, we’ll be digging into the signings race in our last week at ITL HQ before all-star travel begins. Speaking of all-stars, we’ll also update our grid with invitees from the Senior Bowl, Shrine Bowl and NFLPA game. Our Rep Rumblings will be bountiful, too, as we discuss the latest happenings across the football landscape, and we’ll look ahead to what’s on tap for our January travels in our Succeed in Football blog. We look forward to making new relationships and renewing old ones as we touch down in Fort Worth, Orlando, Las Vegas, Mobile, Beaumont and New Orleans over the next five weeks. Still need more? Don’t forget about our books, our Youtube page, our podcast series and our Twitter account. We hope you have a wonderful Christmas Eve and a blessed and safe Christmas Day with you and yours! Joy to the world! The Lord is come! 
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