> CHTV FEATURE: PREPARING FOR THE DRAFT
Here’s the way it works for most players who declare for the draft: in the summer, agents begin reaching out, hoping to lock in their client lists ahead of the following year’s draft. Some players entertain these calls right away, keeping their program’s Compliance Office abreast of conversations and developments. Other players choose to focus on their season and put any looming decisions about representation on hold.
Players can train for the combine at their university, or they can elect, through their agents, to train at an outside facility. A popular facility is EXOS in Pensacola, Florida, where nearly half of the first-round draft picks in 2019 trained, including five of the top 10. Most of the training costs will be covered by the agent; some may fall on the player. Some facilities can charge up to $25,000 per player in preparation fees, according to the NFLPA.
“I started looking into representation in mid-October,” says Joe Reed, wide receiver and special teams prospect out of Virginia who is on the Packers’ radar. “In the summer and early fall, I was just focused on being the best player I could be senior year, putting up numbers before I got to that point.”
The six-to-eight week combine preparation process is immersive. Prospects’ workouts, diet and sleep routines are completely overhauled to optimize their performance in Indianapolis. In terms of workouts, training for the combine is often different than players’ college regimens.
Reed’s former teammate Juan Thornhill, now a safety for the Kansas City Chiefs, is represented by Jon Perzley of SportStars. So when Perzley reached out to Reed, he asked Thornhill for some guidance and ultimately decided to go with the SportStars agent.
“It was more short-burst sprints, five or six seconds; in college we’d run 100-yard sprints,” says Reed, who prepared for the draft at XPE in Ft. Lauderdale. “Getting ready for the vert and the broad and the 40, we did a lot of lower weight reps; not nearly as heavy as I did in college.”
“Throughout the season agents kind of hit you up,” says Javon Leake, a running back out of Maryland whom the Packers may consider on Day 3. “Right after the last game is when agents really come at you, especially if you're a junior or a senior. It was kind of like recruiting again,” he recalls.
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...those workouts don’t exist, those visits don’t exist, that hype from the pro day doesn’t exist.
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If a player thinks he’s ready to declare for the draft, and he’s the requisite three years removed from high school, he can apply for an evaluation through the College Advisory Committee, through which professional and team scouts can give him an accurate idea of where (or if) he is likely to be drafted. If players declare, and if they are invited, they can then participate in college All-Star games to show off their talent to scouts. But it’s the next step in the process that looms large over everything top athletes in the pipeline do: preparing for the NFL combine.
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“They did change up the workouts probably two weeks out from the combine,” says Leake, who trained at EXOS. “A lot more stretching, stuff like that.” As for the meal plan, while no one is excited to overhaul their diet to eat grilled fish and green beans every day, players can’t argue with the results. Reed gained four pounds and lost body fat, feeling stronger overall. A sample day on the plan might look like this: for breakfast, two eggs and gluten-free pancakes; for lunch, a turkey burger on wheat and sweet potato fries; and for dinner, grilled chicken, rice and broccoli. The combine preparation program also includes media and interview training. While many college players have media experience, the stakes get a lot higher starting at the combine and moving forward. Scouts and executives confirm that players rise and fall on teams’ draft boards based on their combine interviews alone. “I would have FaceTime interviews with people who would help me out a lot, give me some tips, give me sample questions,” says Reed. “Throughout my training, I was able to pick up on things to do and not to do, and that helped me a whole lot as well during the combine. I thought the interviews went really well. I wrote down everything that they told me, and when I have interviews in the future I can just go over my notes.” Leake also credits his mom for the ways she has helped prepare him for the off-field elements of the NFL draft process. “In high school, my mother got me started on being professional when you talk to people, good eye contact in interviews,” he says. “Just doing that with my mom really helped me throughout
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