March 26-April 1

Is it possible today’s NFL Draft hopefuls are setting aside the unrealistic expectations of recent years and beginning to understand how the market works? Maybe. It’s hard to get verifiable results to such a question, but based on the anecdotes we’ve heard so far, things might be getting smoother for today’s player representative.

We asked several agents this question: “Got any incredibly unreasonable ‘asks’ from players or their parents during recruiting? Got any kids who expected way more “stuff” once they started talking to others in the draft class? Got any other extravagant stories from guys you recruited and/or signed?”

Here’s what we heard:

  •  “This year I had a (Division II) player that is likely a free agent or tryout invitee at best reach out to me asking me to help them. I was straight with him, saying I didn't have a budget to help him with pro day training. I even talked to his parents explaining what I can and can't do. They said they understood and just wanted someone to be a voice for him, and so I agreed to help him. They agreed and decided to sign with me. Then a week later, he decided to terminate, saying he had a change of heart because he knows of other players similar to him (who) are getting financial help from agents. He has yet to sign with a new agent. . . This seems to be an issue every year now. Even more so in the last four or five years, I believe.”
  • “One of my guys’ car broke down and it was over $5K to get it fixed, but we already paid for his training about housing, so I told him no. I thought, ‘maybe I’m going to lose him because I won’t get it fixed.’ Turned out, someway, his family figured out how to get him a cash car for transportation.”
  • “One kid wanted to start training immediately after the holidays but was a few classes short of graduating and parents asked me to pay tuition, which I had to say no to.” “PFA I was going to recruit was offered this: full training, full housing for five months, three meals a day, a monthly $5,000 stipend, etc. We ran the other way.”
  • “(One player) decided that although he is (rated) a 999 kid on NFL Draft Scout and begged me to take a chance on him, he deserved training being paid for, a stipend and airfare. Fired me, then signed with a new agent . . . I lost a Big Ten lineman to an agent who promised him an endorsement deal if he signed. I said, ‘really?’ because I lost count of all the linemen in the NFL who have endorsement deals . . . .”

The players our sources have recruited are mostly Day 3/UDFA types, so it’s not so unusual that they would be humble in their requests . . . in any other business. The pattern we’ve seen over the last several years, however, has been that even lower-rated players have expected the same amenities and benefits that Day 1 prospects demand. Perhaps the market has finally righted itself, and today’s less-established contract advisors won’t face the same barriers to entry that previous classes saw. If so, it would mean a return to a more reasonable financial picture for player reps, and perhaps would signify a return to the best agents – and not the best-resourced – landing the players with the most promise. We’ll keep our fingers crossed.

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: Jerry Shay, 76, scouted with the Giants starting the year after he finished playing (January, 1973) and continuing until he retired in 2013, all with the Giants. We caught up with him this week.

  • Where are you living and what are you doing now?: “I live in Chula Vista, Calif., about two miles from the border. I’m about as far south as you can get. I can be in Tijuana faster than I can be in San Diego. I’m just totally retired right now, don’t do much of anything anymore, especially with this Covid stuff. It knocks down the traveling and everything else.”

  • Do you miss the job? What do you miss most?: “Every year I’m not in scouting, it’s easier not to scout. I’m getting to where I don’t miss it anymore. I don’t miss the travel, because I was on the road 250 days a year. I missed my kids growing up. Once I became college personnel director, I started traveling nationwide, and because of where I lived, it was easier to stay out longer than to come home every weekend. We had a policy where guys could go home every other weekend, but with me living way out west, it was easier to stay out, and not suffer that three-hour time change all the time.”

  • Do you keep in touch with any of your former colleagues?: “There’s a couple I keep in touch with. I keep in touch with Charlie Harper, my old teammate, and (fellow former Giants scout) Steve Verderosa. I keep in touch with him, and there’s another guy up in San Francisco I talk to, but usually, scouts, when they’re done, they’re done.” 

  • Do you go to any live games (HS/college/pro)?: “No, I don’t go to the games. I just watch them on TV. It’s easier to do that than to fight the crowds. I’ve fought enough crowds in my life. I used to get up on Saturday morning and go jog, then go to a game, and most times a night game, too, and usually try to hit two games a week. That’s a lot of wear and tear on you. Nowadays, I can’t even tell you 10 players on the Giants football team. Things are changing over so fast it’s unbelievable, especially the coaching changes. The Giants have had three coaches in the last 10 years, and the rosters all change, too.” 

  • Are there any players you love to watch and/or feel close to due to your work in the game?: I’ll watch 3-4 games on Sunday afternoon. I get all the NFL games. I don’t really have any favorites, to tell you the truth. I liked watching Brett Favre, and I live close to where (former NFL QB) Alex Smith is from, and I always took an interest in him. I hurt my leg in 1970 and I thought mine was bad, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as his.” 

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.

Scouts speak: Thursday, we had our monthly Zoom session for new agents, and as always, it was big. Two former NFL scouts, Kevin Cohn (Jaguars) and Rodrik David (Falcons), joined dozens of agents from the ’21 class to discuss NFL pro days, how to promote clients, the value of pay combines and plenty more. We went about an hour and got responses from both of them on a variety of topics relevant to late March and April, and everyone in attendance got plenty of tips on how to do their jobs better. If you missed it, we have five takeaways from Thursday on our blog, which you can access here.

Rep Rumblings: This week, we had a more robust series of reports than we’ve had in months, and it was due mostly to the growing buzz across the industry on coming scouting moves. We spent the early part of the week nailing down the local pro day slate, which we did on Monday as we passed along 10 new dates, which were all loaded into our NFL Local Pro Day Board. We also previewed Thursday’s Zoom, updated representation for three NCAA head coaches in our grid, and added two promotions in New England to our big board. Tuesday, we dove into the latest SRA update list provided by the NFLPA and got the answers to these questions: 
  • Which schools have the most players signed to SRAs? The answer is Georgia (17), followed by LSU and Ole Miss (16). 
  • Who are some of the smaller schools in the top 10 among SRA signings? Rutgers (ties for fourth with 14) and Appalachian State and Utah State, who are tied for fifth with 13 each.
  • Which sub-FBS school has the most players signed by agents? It’s South Dakota State with 10.

We also looked at a free, all-comers pro day slated for Dallas (and why it looks like a good deal) and had more NFL local pro day info. Wednesday, we had even more local pro day scoop, previewed the questions we’d ask in our Zoom session, and had the buzz on what two teams will do with their scouting departments post-draft. Thursday, we updated our NFL Head Coach-Agent Grid with the latest news out of Tampa Bay; we had whispers out of Jacksonville and New York; and updated the local pro day status in Denver. It was a busy week with lots of important news. Make sure to check out everything we heard here.

Next week: Pro days are wrapping up, we’re in the third wave of NFL free agency, the hiring and firing of college and NFL coaches is over (finally), and the USFL is right around the corner. That means, despite no games being played and the draft still almost a month away, there’s plenty to do. At Inside the League, our focus is on helping agents and scouts do their jobs. In the next seven days, we’ll do that several ways. First of all, we’ll have our Agent Changes for the February-to-March period, at last, on Monday. We’ll also have five Profile Reports (Akron, Alabama, UAB, Appalachian State and Arizona State) as we begin helping contract advisors figure out who to target for the ’23 draft, and we’ll continue hammering away at our Signings Grid, our NFL Local Pro Day Board, our Pro Day Grid and every other tool we provide to today’s contract advisor. For NFL scouts, we’ll continue to update our Scouting Changes Grid, which already has 31 names on its way to 150-200 by the time we get to August. But even more so, we’ll continue to pass along everything we hear about who’s going where, as we did this week in our Rep Rumblings. As for aspiring agents, we’re still a couple weeks away from our next Zoom session, but we’ll be updating our practice exams as we gear up for the pre-exam rush (check out all our products and services here). We’ll also have another post at our Succeed in Footballblog, though we don’t yet know which NFL community (or communities) this week’s content will serve. It’s going to be another busy week, for you and for us, and we’re ready to get it started. Let’s take the field.