Join us for a night of celebration and networking at the InsideTheLeague.com Indy Combine Seminar and Open Bar Awards Show
Ric and Neil invite you to meet us at the Combine Awards Show
Draftniks,
The 2023 USI Insurance Holdings ITL Combine Seminar presented by American Tens is Weds., March 1, at 6:30 p.m. in Room 125 of the Indiana Convention Center. Open bar begins at 6 p.m. Registration is not required – just show up. We hope to see you there.
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As I write this, I am traveling to attend the 2023 NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, and I couldn't be more thrilled to witness the future of the NFL up close and personal.
For those of you attending the Combine, we invite you to join us for our largest gathering of the year. Be prepared to meet a plethora of football industry professionals upon your arrival, including front-office executives, agents, trainers, and various media.
Below is your invitation and I hope to see you @InsideTheLeague Combine Seminar Presented By American Tens - Wed. March 1, at 6:30 pm (Room 125) of @icclos
I also wanted to let you know about the new ITL initiative, The Inaugural ITL Pro Liaison of the Year Award. These individuals play a crucial role in helping college prospects with pro football ambitions, serving as a conduit between prospects and NFL scouts to obtain pertinent information for player evaluations. Starting in 2023, ITL will honor the top Pro Liaison of the Year Award, given to the liaison who exudes professionalism by consistently providing great access and resources to pro football scouts during campus visits, as voted on by NFL scouts.
DM me your suggestions for The Inaugural ITL Pro Liason of the Year Award
The 6th Annual ITL Best NFL Draft Award
The Best Draft Award is presented to the NFL organization determined to have selected the most impactful rookie draft class, as chosen by their front office peers. Previous winners include 2021 - Denver Broncos (Accepted By George Paton Staff), 2020 - Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Accepted By Jason Licht), 2019 - San Francisco 49ers (Accepted By John Lynch), 2018 - Indianapolis Colts (Accepted By Chris Ballard & Staff), 2017 - New Orleans Saints (Accepted By Jeff Ireland). Candidates for the 2022 award include the Detroit Lions, Kansas City Chiefs, New York Jets, and Seattle Seahawks. Who will emerge as the sixth award winner? We’ll find out in just a few days.
The 5th Annual ITL Eugene E. Parker Memorial Award
The Eugene E. Parker Memorial Award honors the distinguished pro football agent who has dedicated a lifetime of service to the agent community. Previous award winners include 2022 - Angelo Wright, 2021 - Mike Sullivan, 2020 - Ray Anderson, 2019 - Ralph Cindrich.
The 4th Annual ITL C.O. Brocato Memorial Award
The C.O. Brocato Memorial Award honors the distinguished pro football evaluator who has dedicated a lifetime of service to the scouting community. Previous award winners include 2022 - Mark Gorscak, 2021 - Alonzo Highsmith, 2020 - Jeff Shiver.
The 2nd Annual ITL Bart List Awards [Pro Tier | College Tier]
Last year, ITL created ‘The BART Awards,’ to recognize the top scouts within the NFL community. The award is in honor of former Rams scout Danton Barto, who passed away at the age of 50 due to complications from COVID-19. All NFL scouts who have been active in the league for at least five of the last six seasons are eligible to vote for their scout brethren. This year, ITL is proud to announce that ‘The BART Awards’ will be expanding, in order to recognize the top scouts from the collegiate ranks—an addition that we felt was only appropriate. You can find the winners of the inaugural 2021 Bart List Award winners, here.
The Inaugural ITL Pro Liason of the Year Award
There is an extraordinary amount of additional work that a college coach takes on when accepting the role of pro liaison. The pro liaison serves as a conduit for college prospects with pro football ambitions and is the lifeline for NFL scouts to obtain pertinent information when compiling a player evaluation. These individuals rarely get highlighted or talked about, until now. Starting in 2023, ITL will honor the top Pro Liason of the Year Award, given to the liaison who exudes professionalism by consistently providing great access and resources to pro football scouts during campus visits; once again, as voted on by NFL scouts.
Again registration is not required, and the open bar will begin at 6:00 pm. Below is your invitation and I hope to see you there @InsideTheLeague Combine Seminar Presented By American Tens - Wed. March 1, at 6:30 pm (Room 125) of @icclos
Ric’s perspective headed into the #Indy319
As always, the Indy combine is a time for top prospects to showcase their skills in front of NFL coaches, general managers, and scouts. This year's event promises to be one of the most exciting yet, with a talented group of players set to take the field.
NFL scouting departments are in the process of finalizing their big boards. Since 1982, Indianapolis has been home to the NFL Combine, which has become the ultimate apples-to-apples comparison for talent evaluators, year after year. Surely there will be plenty of moving and shaking after the 319 participants from this year’s class pass through Lucas Oil Stadium. In the meantime, here’s a look at the NFL Draft Bible Big Board, as we make our way to ‘The Crossroads of America.”
I’m also excited to be speaking at the Sports Management World Wide: 2023 Football Career Conference JW Marriott Indianapolis - March 2-4, 2023 (Save $150 w/ promo code 𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐛𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞𝟐𝟑) If you want a career in football this is where to start…
Editor’s Note: The NFL has signed a contract with the city of Indianapolis to host the annual scouting event through 2024.
Ric’s Big Board headed into the #Indy319
Click on the "DRAFT PROFILE" link to view the scouting report of your favorite 2023 NFL Draft prospect. You can also toggle between positions to view updated rankings.
Big Board | QB | RB | FB | WR | TE | OT | OG | OC | DT | DE | OLB | ILB | CB | S
These are just a few of the top prospects who will be participating in the 2023 NFL Scouting Combine and that we will be talking on Twitter spaces. There are sure to be plenty of Diamonds in the rough that will catch my attention and the hearts of the other scouts I will be watching with. Bringing the Draftniks the intel on Twitter spaces and Substack. Keeping my eye on a mountain of a prospect in Dawand Jones.
This year NFLDB is leveraging more from NGS and Reel Analytics, an AI-powered sports tech & data company analyzing video to measure athleticism so coaches can evaluate talent more accurately.
I'll be sure to keep you all updated on the latest news and notes from the combine live from Indianapolis. It's certainly going to be an exciting week, and I can't wait to talk about prospects with you and how these prospects perform on the big Indy stage.
In other recent developments from across the football universe…
XFL Kickoff Ratings: The 2023 XFL season kicked off to much less TV fanfare than we saw during their previous reboot attempt while focusing on creating a large social media imprint. On television, the ABC broadcast season debut game between Vegas and Arlington generated 1.54M viewers, down from 3.3M during their initial ABC debut broadcast in February of 2020. The night game on FX drew just 918,000 viewers. In comparison, the first watched XFL game that fell below 1M viewers in 2020 did not occur until week five of the regular season. On a positive development, the XFL league and team social media channels had very strong fan engagement, generating 45M impressions and over 5M video views, per the league site.
USFL Draft: In their latest attempt to fortify a professional football career alternative, the USFL held a draft on Tuesday for the second consecutive year. However, this one was a bit different than the 50-plus round extravaganza of a year ago. Instead, the 2023 USFL Draft featured an eight-round format, with players who were only draft-eligible in this year’s draft class. At the very least, it provided 80 players in the 2023 NFL Draft Class a fallback alternative, should they fail to make an NFL roster. Unlike the CFL negotiation lists, the USFL has opted to be completely transparent in terms of informing fans which teams own future player rights.
CFL Air Raid: In another interesting USFL development, QB McCLeod Bethel-Thompson of the world champion Toronto Argonauts has decided to leave Canada and join his former QB coach from the Philadelphia Eagles John DeFilippo, who is now the head coach of the New Orleans Breakers in the USFL. Much has been made about the XFL vs USFL player recruitment rivalry. We are now seeing that effect trickle up north of the border as well.
Until next time Draftniks,
Draftnik Ric
You also may be interested in reading
New: Draftmetrics posted to All Access on Substack
Talk Draft w/ Ric live from the Indy Combine on Twitter Spaces at 8 PM Est Tuesday night
Ric talks DL depth, Crowd Asks Ric Q&A. Register on spaces to ask a Q.
New NFLDB prospect timings added to NFLDB Player Profiles on Sports Illustrated
Be sure to keep it locked to NFL Draft Bible for our Combine Confidential series and tune in @NFLDraftBible for our Twitter Spaces throughout the week. Reserve your copy of the Official 2023 NFL Draft Bible prior to the combine and save 25%!
