For the second straight year, we at Inside the League have monitored seven top draft services as they've tracked prospects for the '19 NFL Draft. As you know, we include  Tony Pauline at Draft Analyst (his top 25 picks, not a mock draft, with no time stamp); Pro Football Focus  (March 7); Dane Brugler at The Athletic ( April 8); Mike Miller at Bleacher Report ( April 12); ESPN's Todd McShay ( April 9); Sports Illustrated ( April 10); and Walter Football ( April 10).

 

Here's a look at their most recent mocks.

• According to the seven services, these 16 players will go somewhere in the first round: Ohio State DE Nick Bosa, Alabama DT Quinnen Williams, Kentucky OB Josh Allen,

  	Will Massachusetts WO Andy Isabella be a first-rounder? Pro Football Focus says so.

  Oklahoma QB Kyler Murray, LSU IB Devin White, Houston DT Ed Oliver, Ohio State QB Dwayne Haskins, Florida OT Jawaan Taylor, Iowa TE T.J. Hockenson, Alabama OG Jonah Williams, Clemson DT Christian Wilkins, Florida State DE Brian Burns, Michigan IB Devin Bush, Mississippi WO D.K. Metcalf, Clemson DE Clelin Ferrell, Washington DC Byron Murphy and Mississippi State DT Jeffery Simmons. The NFL seems to agree, as 13 of the 16 players the prognosticators like are among the 23 players invited to Nashville for the draft. 

• Except for Pauline and Miller, Ohio State DE Nick Bosa has moved solidly ahead of Williams in the eyes of the draft services. As a matter of fact, all seven mock drafts have Bosa as the No. 2 pick in the draft. 

• There's general agreement on picks 3 and 4, as well. Williams is the consensus No. 3 selection, with an average draft slot of 2.71, while Allen will go fourth (average draft slot 3.42). 

• There's still plenty of time to make changes, but with two weeks until the draft, kudos to Draft Analyst's Pauline (17) and Bleacher Report's Miller (13), both of whom have gone against the grain and slotted Murray closer to the middle of the first round. Whether or not they turn out to be right, we salute Pauline and Miller for going it alone, to some degree. Both have Alabama's Williams as the top talent in the draft.

• Of course, as always, Pro Football Focus (the first service to declare, unapologetically, that Oklahoma's Baker Mayfield would be No. 1 last year) has gone farthest out on a limb. This year, PFF is the only service to call Kansas State OT Dalton Risner (18), Stanford WO J.J. Arcega-Whiteside (20), Penn St. DC Amani Oruwariye (24), Michigan State DC Justin Layne (26), Massachusetts WO Andy Isabella (30), Mississippi St. OC Elgton Jenkins (31) and Boston College's Zach Allen (32) first-rounders. No other service "went solo" on more than two prospects. 

• Once you get past Murray, the passers have lost their luster. Only one QB, Ohio State's Dwayne Haskins, is still a first-round talent in the eyes of all seven services. Two (Pro Football Focus and ESPN's McShay) have him as the No. 6 pick. Bleacher Report's Miller has him going the latest, at 19. Meanwhile, it wasn't long ago that it was universally accepted that Missouri's Drew Lock was headed to Denver. Now, however, only four services see him as the No. 10 pick, while three others (Pauline, PFF and Miller) don't even have him in the first round. Then there's Duke's Daniel Jones, who has become almost an afterthought. Two services (The Athletic and Walter Football) have him as the No. 17 pick (Giants), while Sports Illustrated sees him going No. 27 (Raiders). No other services have him in the first round. 

 

By the way, if you'd like to compare this week's mock draft results to our analysis of last year's draft, click  here for last year's newsletter from April 20 and  here for our complete mock draft grid. In the meantime, here's a look at what we saw, heard, read and said about the college and pro football business last week.

 

Profile Reports: Every year, we get several questions about how early our team-by-team FBS reports will be available, and usually, we disappoint them with a late start. This year, unfortunately, was no exception. Though we got a late start this week, at least we got started, rolling out  Akron and  Alabama, which is annually one of our biggest reports. Next week, we'll have  Alabama-Birmingham, Appalachian State, Arizona and  Arizona State, and  Arkansas. As always, we're providing all the relevant information we can dig up on the best prospects for each player, including their parents' phone numbers (confirmed if printed, unless specifically noted). We've also added heights and weights after omitting them last year. We're still working on partnering with a couple of services in an effort to shape and improve for 2020, but for now, we're mostly status quo. Check out all our reports going back 10 years-plus  here.

 

Welcome back: While many (including us) are still disappointed by the failure of the Alliance of American Football, there is good news. We'll be welcoming back many of the scouts, including  Ryan Hollern (Salt Lake)  and Bob Morris (San Antonio), who were part of AAF front offices, as well as possibly others. Of course, we could see them return to the NFL, land XFL posts, head all-star games, or even move to NCAA personnel departments. However, if that doesn't happen, we'll have our whole gang back together to deliver quality scouting reports on players in the 2020 draft class and beyond as part of the ITL Scouting Department. Got a prospect and need a report? Drop us a line. We're ready to go.

 

Next Wave: We want to extend our appreciation to  Peter Carton, Director of Sport Management and Clinical Assistant Professor at SMU, for being invited to  speak to the sports management practicum class Tuesday in Dallas. It was a blast to meet so many enthusiastic future members of the football business community and to tell them about two tracks in sports (NFL scout and NFL agent). We even got to meet several members of the Mustangs football team and even pass along a little direction on agent selection. We hope to have complete video of our presentation up within a week. Got a class, panel, or other community of young football students eager to learn more about the business? We'd love to help out.

 

Opportunities in scouting: Starting today, Sports Info Solutions (SIS) begins training its Video Scouts for the 2019 season, and the company is  looking for candidates. It's the second straight year that SIS, the national leader in sports analytics and a partner of numerous MLB, NFL and other teams, has canvassed for new employees. The entry-level position pays $8.75/hour and/or college credit, and successful applicants must be able to work in Lehigh Valley, Pa. Interested?  Apply here. Got questions? Hit up  Matt Manocherian of SIS on Twitter  here or email us.  

 

Going up, going down: We hear plenty about the changing tides among veteran agencies and how player tastes, corporate investment and market forces are reordering the world of contract advisors. But what does it all mean? Which agents are growing, despite the negatives, and which ones are faltering? To find out, we took client totals five years ago (March, 2014) differed from those last month. What we found were some pretty stark realities on both sides of the ledger.  Here's a look at the agents who have added the most active players in the last five years, while this is a look at  those with the biggest losses. We think both lists make for a very interesting look at the names and firms that are gaining momentum versus those which are struggling with the reality of the modern business climate. 

 

Agent Changes: At long last, after completing our  January-to-February and  February-to-March reports, we're caught up on our backlog. We counted 18 changes (including four running backs and three wide receivers) in our February report and 28 (oddly enough, eight of whom were linebackers) for March. It was a slightly more transitional  March report over last year, though far, far less volatile than last year in February, when  more than 40 players made changes. Make sure to take a look at all our reports going back 10 years  here. 

 

The ITL Rising Contract Advisor Newsletter:As we move closer to the draft, we'll continue schooling first-year agents on what they need to know, especially as it relates to the undrafted free agent process. We'll look at the 'five teams' strategy for matching your clients with opportunities, the value of position coaches in the draft process, a few tips about private workouts, and what to do to kill the time during those tedious days before the draft arrives. As always, of course, if you think of a topic that we haven't covered, but should have, let us know. Though we've been doing this a long time, like anyone else, we have blind spots. We're eager to get you the answers. 

 

Next week:The countdown is under way. By this time in two weeks, we'll already know which 32 players get to be called first-rounders, and we'll be on our way to Day 2. We'll be working on the features we need before the draft this week, like our  Draft Class by the Numbersgrids. We'll drill into the football business world and produce the things we find in our  Rep Rumblings(just one report this week, but we'll be back to our normal schedule next week). We'll get going on our  Profile Reports, putting out five reports and maybe even catching up a bit. We'll have four editions of the  ITL Rising Contract Advisors Newsletter, an edition of the  Succeed in Football blog, and whatever we uncover that goes in our  Scouting Changes Grid for 2019. And by the way, after the draft, we'll dive right in, grading everything: the firms that had the best weekend, the trainers with the most draftees, the firms whose players went to the combine but who weren't drafted, and those whose clients were snubbed by the combine but got selected by an NFL team anyway. Check out the results over the past several years on our  All-Star and Draft Grids Collection page. And for those who aren't agents yet, but who will be taking the exam this summer, we have our  agent exam prep materials. It's a lot of work, but hey, the football business isn't for the lazy, right? We're all in this together. Why not join us and we'll figure things out side by side.