Brian Hudspeth has been the Detroit Lions director of collegiate scouting for the last three draft cycles. He's been involved in evaluating NFL Draft prospects for over 20 years, but that job and process has undergone a radical change in the era of collegiate name-image-likeness (NIL) and the transfer portal.
In an interview with Lions staff media member Tim Twentyman, Hudspeth reflected on how the game has changed thanks to NIL.
“The downside of NIL for us is the NIL entices these kids to stay in school now," Hudspeth stated. "So there’s a lot less depth in the draft."
The proliferation of now-legal payments to the top college athletes has made it less enticing to leave college for the NFL. Some players might even earn more while continuing to play college football than jumping early to the NFL, something that was not true even three years ago.
Hudpeth continued,
"Generally at the peak of underclassmen coming out, you had about 120 to 130 players. Now, it’s down to 55 to 70. So you’ve lost essentially two rounds of players in some regards. That’s making the assumption that they were all going to be in the top rounds, and they generally were, but you’ve kind of lost some depth. So the NIL world has changed us a little bit that way."
NIL change
The NIL era has coincided with the liberalization of transfer rules. The transfer portal changed the way the Lions scouting staff approaches the research into players behind the scenes, Hudspeth explained.
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"You have guys that have never solidified themselves on the depth chart, so you’re constantly wondering what happened at the previous place," Hudspeth said. "It causes us to have to do a lot more research and a lot more vetting of the multiple stops before, and the story can always change so you have to find those relationships that you really lean on.”
It's an interesting point from Hudspeth on just how different the stigma of transferring has been altered with the recent changes. All NFL teams are now dealing with the divergent workload and more variables introduced by the transfer portal's rapid expansion.
