With the 2020-21 NFL season now in the books, the focus will soon go towards the NFL Draft in April. That means more people will be reading and analyzing mock drafts from Todd McShay and Mel Kiper Jr. over at ESPN. This week, McShay released his second mock draft of 2021.
Before that was released on Tuesday, McShay joined Marty Smith on the Marty Smith’s America: The Podcast to talk about the Super Bowl as well as the path that got McShay to ESPN. Both Smith and McShay joined ESPN back in 2006.
Shortly after McShay got to ESPN, he got a call from executives in Bristol asking if he was interested in joining Mel Kiper Jr. on TV to debate the upcoming draft. The thing is, ESPN actually called him before they called Kiper.
Although the debates between the two about draft prospects can get heated on occasion, McShay mentioned how Kiper has been a major support system for him.
“The thing about Kiper and I, the real story is we get hostile with each other once-in-a-while. But it’s like with your buddy who you are having a legitimate fight with and two seconds later, you are over with. He has been probably the top 2 or 3 people at ESPN in terms of supporting my career throughout and nobody knows that. The bottom line is for as much bickering as we do back-and-forth, he has always had my corner from Day 1.
“He’s Mel Kiper. He’s the institution. He’s never had to worry about some young punk stealing his job and he’s acted with that confidence the entire time. He has always been in my corner and I will never forget what he’s done for me.”
McShay’s early claim to fame was when he was helping Sporting News with their draft guide as a part of The War Room. The one thing that put McShay on the map, he revealed, came in the early 2000s. Before the draft that year, he had a higher evaluation than most on a certain seven-time Super Bowl champion.
“I graduated in 1999. I got an internship in ’98 with this guy named Gary Horton (worked for ESPN for a long time). He had started this company called the War Room that turned into Scouts Inc. I was making 12,000 calls my first year coming out of college. For the first 2 years, I studied tape and we wound up doing for Sporting News, a draft guide.
“At the time, I gave him [Tom Brady] a 3rd round grade and said he was the most underrated player coming out of that year’s draft. That got attention and helped my career at that point. I thought he was better than people thought he was, but I still gave him a 3rd Round pick, so I can’t take a lot of credit.”
You can catch McShay on the coverage of Trevor Lawrence’s Pro Day at Clemson on Friday beginning at 10 a.m ET on the ACC Network.
