'A moving target': NFL front offices adapting to transfer portal, NIL era

Published 16 April 2025 Cam Ward, the frontrunner to be the No. 1 pick by the Tennessee Titans in the 2025 NFL draft on April 24, attended three schools over the course of his five-year college career. In another era – one without college athletes maintaining the ability to earn money based on their name, image and likeness and the transfer portal – the quarterback’s journey from Incarnate Word to Washington State and, ultimately, Miami (Fla.) would have been highly unlikely, if not impossible. Instead, the new rules are the biggest driver of why Ward will likely hear his name called first by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell next week. For executives, coaches and scouts throughout the league, it’s a new reality. One that’s constantly changing and evolving – the Nico Iamaleava saga at Tennessee serving as the latest example of the uncharted territory college football and its participants find themselves occupying. And there are pros and cons to it all. “The system is failing them in that regard but at the end of the day the coaches that get these players...these guys are a lot more NFL-ready,” Todd McShay, NFL draft analyst at The Ringer and Spotify who hosts "The McShay Show," told USA TODAY Sports. Compared to decades prior and broadly speaking, rookies now enter the league more experienced. Transferring and earning money matures them. “When you get to the NFL, and it’s much more likely that you’ve played more ball, played a higher level of ball...you’re more of a veteran football player who had to deal with the journey and moving so when you get to the league it’s not quite as much of a culture shock in terms of the talent level and the experience and even just the day-to-day life stuff,” McShay said. “For a lot of these guys with the NIL, it can be a positive thing of learning how to manage money and handle fame and fortune.”