Senior Bowl president explains how transfer portal helps team chemistry

Jim Nagy, the president of the Reese’s Senior Bowl, has become one of the most recognizable figures in the transitional period between college football and the NFL draft. His connection to both college and professional coaches, players and staff makes him a valuable source of knowledge on the latest sentiments of the evolving game of football.

While he has remained busy sending out invites to this year’s Senior Bowl festivities, Jim Nagy has also taken time to connect with a coach who expressed an interesting opinion on the transfer portal. He posted the culture building idea on social media.

“Spoke to a Power Five head coach who made (an) interesting point that (the) transfer portal is actually helping team culture,” Nagy tweeted. “Pre-portal, players could know right away they weren’t a good fit at schools, but kids felt stuck there for four years. The coach felt plenty “addition by subtractions” helped his team.”

While the primary focus of the transfer portal has been upward transitions like running back Jahmyr Gibbs going from Georgia Tech to Alabama, or marquee freshman entries like Quinn Ewers and Caleb Williams, the bulk of college football’s transfers involved slight upward or downward moves by players who feel they never belonged in the spot they landed.

Rather than spend three or four seasons in a system which does not fit their skillset or an area of the country they do not feel comfortable, players can now make a move that helps their lives on and off the field. As far as team chemistry, it allows teams to remove negative energy and add more positivity and better fits to the roster.

More on the Reese’s Senior Bowl

The Senior Bowl started in 1950, offering four-year college football players an additional pre-draft showcase to impress scouts outside of the NFL’s scouting combine, school pro days and individual workouts for teams. Jim Nagy has served as president of the event since 2018 after a successful scouting career with the Seattle Seahawks.

Each year, two NFL franchises bring their coaching staffs to Mobile, Alabama for a week of practice and a showcase game while hundreds of coaches, scouts and media members watch the players go through a variety of drills against other NFL prospects.

This year’s event will again feature top NFL prospects expected to go high in the 2022 NFL Draft. The game will take place on Feb. 5 at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.