The era of the name, image and resemblance (Nile) in university football was upset in the functioning of the NCAA, but it also has a deep impact on the way in which the NFL teams approach the project. With university players, not able to take advantage of their resemblance and win millions of dollars even before entering the NFL, it has a training effect through the league.
During a podcast with the journalist of the Detroit Lions, Tim Twentyman, the director of the university scouting lions Brian Hudspeth gave a very good answer on the way in which Nile had a direct impact on his department – and this can give a clue to what the Lions can do this week during the draft of the NFL 2025.
“You have lost, essentially, almost two players of players”
Hudspeth’s most interesting point concerned the newly shrunken group of subclasses prospects. With much more motivation to stay at university now, fewer and fewer subclasses are making the NFL jump. Hudspeth shared some breathtaking statistics.
“There is much less depth in the project,” said Hudspeth. “Because, in general, at the top of the subclass who came out, you had around 120 to 130 players (per project). Now, it’s 55 to 70 years. So you have lost, essentially, nearly two rounds of players in some respects. Now, that’s what they lost.
Could this mean that lions are less likely to use their late choices with less depth perceived in the class? We know that the Director General of Lions, Brad Holmes, was not afraid to exchange it – by doing it four times last year.
Won a large piece of the characters’ evaluation puzzle
According to Hudspeth, a positive aspect of the Nile era is to determine how money can change a player. For many of these college prospects, the NFL would have been the first opportunity to gain generational wealth. And while the League has many support systems in place to manage this wealth, poor decisions are sometimes made. The Lions did their best to understand how some of their prospects would react to this money that changed life, but now this part of the equation is fundamentally known.
“One of the questions we have always used when we crossed the schools is: How is this kid when he gets money?”
Portal transfer and negative portal
Twentyman has raised a good point on how with so many transfer prospects, sometimes, the scouts may have the opportunity to see a player playing in several different patterns and positions. But Hudspeth said it could be a drawback for some players, because it can turn up on their development, which makes it difficult to spot this player.
“This affects certain positions,” said Hudspeth. “You have a quarter-Arrière who has been in three different systems in three years. You have guys who have never solidified on a depth painting. So you are wondering constantly:” What happened to the previous place? “It makes us do much more research and much more verification of several spots.
You can look at Twentyman’s interview with Hudspeth (and Daniel Jeremiah) below:
