College football is a whole new world these days with the addition of NIL deals and the growing popularity of the transfer portal. The latter is rapidly changing the game and affecting the way that NFL teams scout players. Going into the 2025 NFL Draft, there were some players who had played for up to three different colleges. How do you scout them?
Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell was on the LiucciCast with Texas A&M writer Billy Liucci over the weekend, and he was asked to explain how the transfer portal has affected the way the Lions scout players.
Campbell says that he can understand the portal in some situations. He talked about how maybe you’re at Alabama, Texas A&M, or LSU, and you have two guys in front of you who are All-Americans and are likely to be first-round picks, and you just want to be able to start your senior year.
The Lions seem to be ok with that kind of player. They’re ok with the guy who is looking for an opportunity to start somewhere and get his name out there. While he didn’t say it, it’s probably safe to assume that they don’t mind a player like Isaac TeSlaa who transferred to a Division 1 school from a Division II.
Where they have a problem is with the guy who transfers a bunch and just doesn’t seem to be happy anywhere.
“This doesn’t look like it’s going my way. And I don’t think I’m gonna start. I’m just leaving, and then you go to the next place, and it just looks like it may not be going where you want to Okay, well then I’m going to leave that school too, or I’m leaving this spring to go somewhere else. Well, we don’t want those guys. I mean, you’re looking at guys that transfer two or three times. Like, to me, you’re scared of competition. So we just, I don’t want to say with every one of them, but we just get them off the board. It’s not worth it.”
That says a lot for sure. Campbell notes that the Lions are looking at the player first, and it’s not always the case that they would look past someone who has transferred a lot, but they’re definitely going to be picky about it. They want guys who want to compete, and they want guys who aren’t going to give up or ask out when they’re not winning those competitions.
It’s something to keep in mind going forward when you think about who the Lions might draft. If he’s played for a bunch of different schools, that could be a problem.
The thing is that your work now doubles a bit because you have to wade through all those players to find out which ones are transferring for opportunity and which ones are transferring because they’re afraid of competition. This year, over 3,200 players entered the transfer portal. That is a lot of different players, and you have to think that the number of guys that the Lions don’t want is growing year by year. We’ll see just how picky they get in the near future.
