Though mock drafts are red meat for the NFL fans and draft junkies who voraciously follow the league's offseason, it's not just football enthusiasts who read them. They're quick, fun to compare to each other, and easy to digest. What's more, it isn't just fans that read them; many team officials will peruse the most popular mocks just to make sure they don't miss anything. But what can the most popular mock drafts tell us (or purport to tell us)? More importantly, what can we learn from reviewing the metamorphosis of each of the draft services' mocks? Having dissected the work of seven leading draft 'experts' in May 2017, then comparing them to the same services' looks a month ago, we checked in one last time before the draft. So what did we learn? Well, we had eight observations in today's post on our blog, Succeed in Football, but there's plenty more to learn. For example, speaking generally, the seven services say USC QB

	Several top draft services are unusually united on where Georgia OB Roquan Smith fits into next weekend's draft.

Sam Darnold and Penn State OH Saquon Barkley are locks for the top five picks, with Notre Dame OG Quenton Nelson not far behind; Georgia OB Roquan Smith should go at either No. 10 or 11; Ohio State DC Denzel Ward will be the first corner off the board, going somewhere in the 7-9 range; Louisville QB Lamar Jackson will go somewhere mid-round despite skipping the 40 and generally taking an unusual pre-draft approach; and Wyoming QB Josh Allen could go first overall (three services) or top five (five services), or could be at the very end of the first round (Pro Football Focus has him at No. 31). Looking for surprises? Among the players that garnered first-round consideration from just one service, Florida State DE Josh Sweat is the pick; Bleacher Report was the only service that liked him in the first round, and B/R liked him a lot, slotting him No. 13 to the Redskins. Among other players seen as first-rounders by just one service are Arkansas OC Frank Ragnow (No. 23, PFF); Stanford FS Justin Reid (No. 28, NFL Draft Scout); Oklahoma DE Ogbonnia Okoronkwo (No. 27, Bleacher Report); LSU DE Arden Key (No. 31, The Athletic's Chris Burke); and Ohio State OG Billy Price (No. 21, Walter Football) and DE Sam Hubbard (No. 23, Walter Football). There's plenty more to be gleaned from the predictions and you can make your own deductions by checking out today's report. In the meantime, here's a look at what else we heard, saw, read and said last week in the world of pro and college football.

 

The ITL Scouting Department: One of our popular annual features involves our connecting former NFL scouts with agents who help them strategize, make sense of phone calls and texts, and otherwise figure out how and where to place clients who go undrafted. The past two years, we've begun these assignments on the first day of the draft, hoping it gave contract advisors enough time to familiarize scouts with their clients and come up with a game plan. This year, we thought, why wait? If you're an agent with several players and not quite sure how to best give them a chance to be drafted, signed, or at least invited to a tryout, you might want to have a former NFL scout in your corner. Not sure it's the right fit for you? We have several scouts at the ready, and we're happy to put agents on the phone (no obligations) to see if there's a comfort level. Let's get to work! Contact us today and let's start figuring out how to get your guys on rosters.

 

Speaking of scouting: In today's Profile Report on Arkansas State, former NFL scout Ryan Hollern (Bills, Saints) checks the film on ASU passer Justice Hansen, who set the Sun Belt mark for single-season touchdown passes (34) in '17.  Hansen, who once shared the quarterback room with expected top-five choice Baker Mayfield at Oklahoma in 2014, has plenty of arm ("the kid can sling it," Ryan writes) and "outstanding" size (6-4, 218) but a "funky" delivery. So what does Ryan think about Hansen's pro prospects going into his senior season in Jonesboro? Click here to find out. And remember, we'll be adding individual scouting reports each week to our Profile Reports, and we're playing requests. Got a player you'd like us to write up? Please, let us know.

 

2019 Contact List: Though we're wrapping up the 2018 draft season, people in the business know that the war for the top prospects in 2019 is already raging. We know that the University of Texas has already scheduled its agent day for mid-June, while other schools are starting to set their calendars, as well. Want to make sure you don't fall behind? Pick up our 2019 Contact List, which will be out in six weeks or less. We'll have confirmed contact info for the parents of most of our ITL 250 players, plus (for the first time) selected members of the ITL 100 list, as well. We're still working on a price point, but it will not exceed last year's price ($500) even though we'll match and exceed last year's content, and will hopefully have several more confirmed numbers. Need more info? Hit us up.

 

The ITL Practice Agent Exam: If you read our Rep Rumblings report on Thursday, you know there wasn't a lot more information on the celebrated re-test for veteran contract advisors at this week's NFLPA Seminar in New Orleans. No answers on when, exactly, the test will be held; the exact consequences (Suspension? No?) for failing the June test; how many questions on the test; and other specifics. Perhaps that doesn't surprise you. Either way, the 'continuing education' exam is coming, and it's about six weeks away. Though veteran agents have plenty on their plate right now, it's not a bad time to start studying so as to avoid embarrassment later this summer. As always, no matter when you buy, you can take the practice exam as many times as you want to and whenever you want to.

 

Profile Reports: This week, we took a look at four other schools in addition to ASU. They included Appalachian State, Arizona, Arizona State and Arkansas. In all, we featured seven members of the ITL 250, plus three members of the ITL 100. We hope you're enjoying our new format, which is expanded to include all players three years out of high school by the end of next season, along with a brief bio and, of course, detailed scouting reports in some instances, along with contact info for parents where available. Next week, we'll have Auburn, followed by Ball State, Baylor, Boise State and Boston College. It will be another big week filled with snapshots of top prospects and avenues to reach their parents. You can review all our reports so far here.

 

The ITL Rising Contract Advisor Newsletter: Last week, we had four reports of an encouraging nature for new agents. Monday and Tuesday, we tried to provide a reality check for contract advisors and a few ideas on what to do in the weeks leading up to the draft, no matter what kind of attention an agent's clients have earned. Wednesday, we talked about private workouts, what they are, and how they happen, and on Thursday, we had one last pep talk for nervous contract advisors. This Monday, we'll have notes on talking to teams - what to say, what not to say - and on Tuesday, we'll start a three-part series that drills down on the undrafted free agent process, hopefully giving our clients a few valuable tips on what to do in those essential 45 minutes following the completion of next Saturday's draft. It's going to be another week of essential reading, and if you're part of the ITL team, you'll receive all four. If you're not, it's not too late to be added to our distribution list. Start here.

 

Rep Rumblings: This week, we had three reports in a surprisingly busy week for news and notes. On Monday, we touched on the latest teams having local pro days, the emerging buzz that changes may be coming to the Raiders' front office in the wake of the Jon Gruden hire, and several late-in-the-season agent changes among top '18 prospects. On Tuesday, we had even more agent changes, plus we discussed The Spring League and also passed along a job lead for aspiring scouts. Finally, on Thursday, we ran down everything we've heard about the NFLPA Seminar in New Orleans earlier this week, plus we had rookie minicamp dates for a handful of teams; wrapped up team pro days, and had a scouting change that had eluded us. Check out all the reports from this week, as well as everything we've published Rep Rumblings-wise this year, by clicking here.

 

Next week: It's draft week, and we have a little work to do. First of all, we had planned on getting the Coaches by Alma Mater report ( here's last year's) done this week, but that didn't happen. It will next week. Promise. We'll also have our Agents by Total Clients report for April, hopefully early (Monday or Tuesday). There's more work to do on our 2018 Signings Grid and blanks to fill in on our 2018 Combine Grid. In addition, we hope to continue a popular interview series of interviews on the UDFA process; in the past, we've interviewed Jeff Bauer (formerly with the Jets), Mike Murphy (now with the Giants, then ex-Dolphins), Cal McCombs (ex-Broncos), Aundrae Harris (ex-Cardinals and Chiefs), Jon Kingdon (Raiders), Matt Manocherian (Browns, Saints) and even one other scout who was willing to talk if his name was kept confidential. We've got a couple prospects and we hope to have interviews done by the end of the week. We're also sweeping up on the latest SRA list published by the NFLPA, and we're studying it to ferret out the trends (and surprises) to see how agents work, make decisions, and otherwise deal with a changing industry. We'll have our findings in our Rep Rumblings reports. Also in our reports, we'll continue to gather information on rookie minicamp dates for our grid, though it's looking like most teams will bring rookies in the weekend of May 11-13 and not the first weekend post-draft. Of course, there's also the 2018 Scouting Changes Grid, which already has 32 names and is getting ready to grow significantly if changes in Cleveland, Houston, Oakland, New York and other teams take place as we've heard they will. We'll be plugging names into the board very soon, and perhaps even before the draft arrives. Make sure to follow us on Twitter as we break news related to the scouting industry. We've also got plenty to pass along on the ITL Rising Contract Advisors Newsletter, including last-minute tips and advice, trends, and whatever we can come up with to help our clients (and by extension, their clients) next weekend. We'll also have a new blog post at Succeed in Football - perhaps comparing the actual first round with the mock drafts provided by the seven services we've been monitoring - and we'll continue to work with veteran agents as they ready for the re-test by using the ITL Practice Agent Exam as well as our study guide. In addition, our work continues on the 2019 Contact List, one of our most popular spring features. And don't forget - the power and resources of the ITL Scouting Department stands at the ready if you're an agent who's not sure about draft weekend and wants to do everything possible to get clients on rosters. Just email us and we'll make the necessary connections. Time is running out. Please join us!