The landscape of college football has undergone a seismic shift in recent years, and it’s largely due to one three-letter acronym: NIL. With student-athletes now able to profit off their Name, Image, and Likeness, the collegiate game has entered an exciting era filled with opportunities, but also unforeseen consequences. And according to Eagles star Cooper DeJean, one of those consequences is the declining visibility of NFL talent from smaller schools.
Advertisement
In the latest edition of the Exciting Mics podcast, hosts Cooper DeJean and Reed Blakenship sat down alongside Quinyon Mitchell to discuss everything Philadelphia.
It is while delving deeper into their guest, Mitchell’s college football days, that Cooper DeJean opened the portal to NIL discussion. And he didn’t mince words when talking about NIL’s long-term impact on talent discovery, something he seemed unhappy about.
“I feel like it’s gonna become more rare to find NFL prospects from smaller schools,” DeJean said, explaining how the NIL-driven environment has altered traditional recruitment and development paths.
Digging deeper, the logic behind the former Iowa star’s claim is pretty straightforward. As NIL deals increasingly tilt toward programs with bigger brands, more national exposure, and deeper donor pools, talented players at smaller schools are either lured away by lucrative offers or simply overlooked in the draft process.
For instance, Quinyon Mitchell, who rose from under-the-radar Toledo to become an NFL-calibre prospect, echoed this dynamic. “My last year they hit me in the Twitter DMs… but I stayed loyal,” he recalled, referencing overtures from larger programs attempting to poach him through backchannel NIL deals.
And while his loyalty paid off in the form of personal growth and exposure, not every small-school standout chooses to stay.
But most importantly, Mitchell’s story also shows how rare that path is becoming. As he put it, “Some people got to transfer… you know, just like chasing the bag and stuff like that.”
That chase, while understandable, often robs smaller schools of their elite players, leaving behind rosters that are less competitive and athletes who are less likely to get NFL attention.
Eagles safety Reed Blankenship, who played at Middle Tennessee, underscored how wild things have gotten from a veteran’s lens. “Dudes are coming to the NFL with more money than I’ve made in four years,” he said, calling it “crazy” but also “just what it is.”
Though Cooper DeJean and Blankenship clarified that they aren’t anti-NIL, they also see the fallout. The allure of cash is real, and the trade-off for many athletes is leaving the underdog programs that once served as critical springboards to the pros.
But will it be fair to call this new system broken? Maybe yes, maybe not, but what’s certain is that it’s different. So sadly, if Cooper DeJean’s observation holds true, the days of uncovering hidden NFL gems from overlooked college programs may soon be history. We may never have another Terry Bradshaw from Louisiana Tech type of situation.
