June 22-28

As of today, we are 31 days – or one month – away from the 2024 NFLPA Exam, the toughest certification exam for contract advisors among the four major sports. That means it’s getting late if you’re trying to pass an exam that an estimated 75 percent of first-timers fail (and that about half of second-timers fail). 

As the leaders in NFL agent exam prep, we are getting lots of questions about how to get ready. Let’s tackle them one by one.

“I haven’t begun studying yet. Where do I start?:” We recommend the ITL Study Guide. There’s no better resource on the market for exam preparation as it focuses on the testable content and provides clear, easy-to-understand examples. It’s a 70-page PDF that you’ll get emailed to you within an hour of purchase. We think of it as the Cliffs Notes for the Collective Bargaining Agreement. It’s our most popular pre-exam study material, and most test-takers use it during the exam itself.

“When’s the best time to get ITL Practice Exam 1? How about Practice Exam 2?:” We believe it’s critical to see the questions on the exam before you sit for the exam. However, it’s also smart not to get them too early. Your best bet is to purchase Exam 1 when you feel ready to actually take the exam. If you do well, skip Exam 2. If you don’t, go back, study up, and take Exam 2. 

“Can I take the practice exams just once?:” Nope. Take them as many times as you’d like.

“This is my second try taking the exam. Do you have anything new this year that can put me over the top?:” Glad you asked. Generation Sports Group’s Shane Costa and Christian Kranz are teaming up to provide a service that continues through the end of the month, providing daily content. The package includes one Zoom/Google meetup per week with Christian and/or Shane (Wednesdays or Thursdays); a Slack channel where Christian and Shane moderate and answer exam questions and explain materials (must have purchased ITL exam guide); an end-of-July exam review session; and a Daily Subtext with one exam topic explainer per day (M-F). The program continues through the end of July, and you get all of it for $250 plus tax. “Shane is unbelievable,” offered one subscriber, unsolicited. “So helpful. So glad I got involved with his mini-course. Always has the time in the day to help answer questions.” Ready to sign up? Click here.

“I’m more of a visual learner. Do you have anything especially for me?:” Of course. Starting in February, we began offering hour-long Zoom sessions with our instructor, Ian Greengross, who’s not only encyclopedic on the CBA but who also has two decades of player representation under his belt. Pick up all five of them for $250 plus tax here. Once you pay, make sure to pass along the email address you use to log into YouTube by emailing it to nstratton@insidetheleague.com. We’ll get you set up immediately. 

“When is your next Zoom session?:” Ian is back Thursday, July 11, at 9:30 p.m. ET. He’ll discuss substances of abuse (testing, sampling, the program, dates, participation, stages, discipline); alcohol; non-alcoholic substances of abuse; computation of fines, suspensions and other related issues; performance-enhancing drugs; unknowing ingestion of drugs; levels of punishment per violation; and Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE). Cost is $50 plus tax, and we’ll begin registration for it next month. 

“What about the nuts and bolts of being an agent? Where do I learn that?:” We got you. We’ll have an extensive series of Zooms that will directly address all the pertinent topics of NFL player representation. We will go very in-depth, help you make key contacts, and provide guests who answer all your questions. All our Zooms will be hosted by ITL’s Neil Stratton. There will be a separate cost for the program, but all of these details will be covered once the exam is over. Bottom line, we got you. For now, just focus on passing the test.

“How much time do I need to study?:” This is a tough question. Normally, we recommend 60 days to get ready for the exam, but we’ve seen people pass the exam with just 30 days of study. Lots of people study for eight hours per day, treating it almost as if it’s the bar exam. It’s not too late to start, but you need to get going. Yes, the exam is multiple choice. Yes, you can take your notes into the exam. Yes, you may have already passed the bar exam, maybe even multiple times. There’s still a really low rate of passage, especially if you’re taking it for the first time. Get going. Trust us. Further procrastination puts you in jeopardy of disappointment. 

Test-taker, you have five weekends left, counting this one, to make sure you’ve got a handle on a lot of information that can be pretty complicated. We want you to achieve your dreams and pass the exam. We are here to help. Please let us. Got questions? Respond to this email and we’ll get going. 

Now let’s run down the latest scouting developments in a mostly quiet week.

• After eight seasons in Jacksonville, Brian Squeglia, an area scout covering the Northeast, has moved on.
• The Jets made Nick Sabella their Senior Director of Football Administration (in response to overtures from another team, we’re told). 
• The Broncos promoted Robert Simpson to Football Administration and Strategy Coordinator.
• Scott DiBenedetto, a former scouting assistant with the Browns, signed on with FantasyPoints.com. 
• The Commanders finally made official the various moves new GM Adam Peters has made this spring and summer. Most of the scouting-related hires were previously reported by ITL.
• Per his LinkedIn, Jordan Fox is now a player personnel analyst for the 49ers. He was an intern with the Jets for the past two years.
• Finally, Azzaam Kapadia was promoted from player personnel intern to player personnel assistant in Seattle, per his LinkedIn.

Make sure to track all the scouting changes this offseason here.

We went in-depth on the number of changes at several different strata of the scouting industry last week. Here are a few more thoughts on staffing changes this offseason from a team perspective.

• So far this offseason, the Bengals are the only team that hasn’t hired or promoted at least one scout or executive. Cincinnati is also the only team not to have made a move last year. 
• The most active team that didn’t make a GM change is the Browns, who’ve hired or promoted 16 front office staffers. Most moves have been made at the scouting assistant (four), pro scout (three) and analytics (three) levels. 
• The Bears weren’t far behind with 14 hires or promotions. In contrast to Cleveland, 10 of Chicago’s moves were in the college scouting department.
• The third-most number of moves by a team with the same GM was Philadelphia (13). Of the 13, eight were in the college scouting department. 
• Interestingly, the Eagles promoted three staffers to vice president; no one else made such lofty appointments. Only the Ravens had two, and fewer than 10 named anyone a vice president. 
• Seven teams made two or fewer promotions/hires in their respective front offices. Of the seven, five (Chiefs, Seahawks, Packers, Rams and Texans) were among teams mentioned in the June 14 edition of the Wrap as among the best franchises in the NFL. 
• Though the pace of replacing pro directors was slow early on, we’ve seen a general expansion of pro departments this offseason. Five teams – the Bears, Browns, Bucs, Patriots and Ravens – either hired or promoted three pro staffers this offseason. In our last survey of scouting departments in October 2023, the average number of all pro staffers per team was 3.09. 
• In terms of which teams built out their analytics departments the most, three teams hired or promoted three analytics staffers: the Browns, Ravens and Vikings. On average, as of October 23, NFL teams had 3.5 members of their analytics departments (the Browns, of course, led the way with nine). 
• It’s not surprising that mostly big schools send members of their personnel and recruiting staffs to the NFL. This offseason, just one sub-FBS school (John Carroll) was represented; there were 14 total. Last year, Furman, Princeton and Wilmington College had hires (there were 17 all told).
• Last offseason, four people were hired from non-football businesses into the NFL (Goldman Sachs, KEF Robotics, Zelus Analytics and the law firm Miller Canfield). This offseason, we saw only two (PFF and the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs).

For even more analysis, make sure you check out this week’s Succeed in Football blog. We look at which teams were best at promoting their scouting assistants; which teams changed out their combine scouts; which colleges produced the most scouting assistants this cycle; and plenty more. 

The scout talk doesn’t end there. This week in the Scouting the League podcast, Rodrik David and ITL’s Neil Stratton spoke to KPRC’s Aaron Wilson, who is the leading beat writer for the Houston Texans. Wilson answered the following questions:

• Is Houston GM Nick Caserio one of the top GMs in the league? 
• Did head coach Demeco Ryans or QB C.J. Stroud have a bigger impact on the Texans’ success last season? 
• How long will Bobby Slowik be the Texans’ offensive coordinator? 
• What kind of impact will Stefon Diggs have on the team’s offense? 

That’s just a taste of Wilson’s thoughts and insights. Don’t miss any of his observations on what’s ahead in the Bayou City. Check out this week’s podcast here.

Here’s a look at what else took place in the business of college and pro football this week.

Catching Up: Darrell Moody, 75, spent about a decade and a half in scouting, serving with the Chargers, Bills and 49ers before spending five years at North Carolina. We caught up with him last week.

• Where are you living and what are you doing now?: “I’m living in Chapel Hill; I retired at the end of January. I’m now embarrassed to say this, but I’ve tried to take laziness to a different level and probably doing as well as I can with it.” 

• Do you miss the job? What do you miss most?: “I came back to North Carolina my last five years in athletics, and I probably would have stayed in scouting if it hadn’t been for the travel. It was starting to wear on me. I enjoyed evaluating players, and I enjoyed going to the schools, and most of the schools, I was dealing with people I knew before, and it was good to renew friendships with them. But the travel and everything, the wear and tear, was getting old for me.” 

• Do you keep in touch with any of your former colleagues?: “Yeah I do. I keep in touch with (longtime NFL executive) Buddy Nix, who got me into (scouting) to start out with, and I still keep in contact with him. The job I had at North Carolina, I dealt with the scouts when they came in, so I kept friendships with the scouts and visited with them when they would come visit. The scouting fraternity is a pretty close group. The ones that have got any sense don’t burn any bridges, because you never know when your next job will come open. The younger scouts, when they first get in, they’re probably leery of getting close to other scouts, but the older scouts have relationships with other scouts and they travel together, and everyone forms their opinions on who can play and who can’t play, but it’s always good to have someone to eat with when you’re out on the road.”

• Do you go to any live games (HS/college/pro)?: “I haven’t gone to a live game since I was scouting. At North Carolina, to go to a live high school game, you had to be one of the 10 that could go on the road. I was not one of those 10, but I was at all our games. But when you’re scouting, you’re at a game basically every Saturday, and sometimes Thursdays and Saturdays. Once a year, when I was in scouting, they’d bring all the scouts back toward the end of the evaluation season and we’d see our team play.”

• Let’s say you’re watching a game on a Sunday afternoon. Who are you rooting for?: “I think you may root for people that played for you, the team they’re on. You’re probably more apt, now, to root for San Francisco because that’s the last pro team I was with, and I know more people that are still there. I think your friendships are always important and you’re always wanting people that have been good to you to be successful. You’ve got more of those at the team you just left. There aren’t many left in Buffalo, but a lot more in San Francisco than the other players, but I have good memories from all three places.”

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.

Agents by Total Clients: It’s always a much longer list of the contract advisors with at least 10 clients on NFL rosters in June, and that was reflected in this week’s count. With most draft picks and UDFAs under contract now, there were 130 agents that made the list this month. Ten had 40 or more; 19 had 30 or more; 49 had 20 or more; and 84 had at least 15. Find out who made the cut in this Monday’s report.

Agent Changes: We counted 15 players who switched representation this month, the exact same number aslast year at the same time. This month, defensive tackles (4) led the way, along with the usual positions wide receiver (3) and cornerback (3). As you know, we’ve been tracking these things for more than a decade. Go here to review all our previous posts.

Next week: We honor our nation’s independence next week, and we hope you get a chance to celebrate with your family Thursday. We will, too, but the work continues. Here’s what’s ahead over the next seven days. 

• NFL international scout Mark Dulgerian joins us for the Scouting the League podcast. If the global search for the next pro football superstar interests you – and it really interests the NFL – you’ll want to listen. It’s coming next week. Mark’s work, and insights about how the league identifies and polishes up the best international prospects, make next week’s edition a must-listen.
• The Succeed in Football blog rolls on. Our focus, as always, will be on scouting, player representation, the portal, or other such topics. With the agent exam just around the corner, we may use next week’s post to further outline our schedule for the next four weeks. We also may use it to provide advice on passing the exam from the people who took it last year. Still thinking. 
• We’re finally caught up on our Agent Changes and Agents by Total Clients. That doesn’t mean we’ll be doing the next editions of either next week; we’re just excited that we aren’t behind anymore.  
• On the other hand, we are far behind on our Profile Reports. In the last two weeks, we published three when we hoped to publish 10. We’ll get down to business. At the least, we’ll bring you Iowa, Iowa State, James Madison, Kansas and Kansas State. We hope. 
• Will there be a lot of front office changes announced next week? Probably not, but whatever breaks will be covered on our Twitter, in our Rep Rumblings, and on the Scouting Changes grid.
• As for the agent exam, we’ll be on 24-hour call. Whatever you need, we’re available. Reply to this email if you have any questions about our pre-exam materials. We are here when you need us. Especially now. Keep this email as your handy reference to what we have, costs, etc. 

It’s the summer. Relax . . . unless you’re taking the agent exam, in which case you can save the relaxation for later. We’re on the job. We’ve got what you need.