The NCAA transfer portal has exploded into an annual free agency frenzy with players jumping ship for bigger and better financial opportunities at different schools.
While they chase the dollar signs as supposed amateurs, that decision could come back to bite them when it becomes time to join the pros. Well, at least one NFL team has said as much so far.
The Denver Broncos selected seven players in the 2025 NFL Draft. Six of those seven didn't transfer once during their college careers. The only exception was their seventh-round selection Caleb Lohner, a tight end who played basketball at BYU and Baylor before switching to football at Utah.
"It's not by accident," Broncos coach Sean Payton told ESPN. "There might be some coincidence in there, but in the overview, it's not by accident. Not at all."
Broncos are sending a strong message to college football transfers
After the 2024 college football season, 4,059 total players entered the transfer portal. That's over 1,700 more than the amount that did the same in 2022. Of those in the portal, roughly 61 percent have found a new home, per On3.
Denver's front office clearly isn't a fan of the transfer portal and what it may say about the character of players who leave a program at the first sign of adversity.
"I think maybe they like guys who stayed and worked through things at one place," wide receiver Pat Bryant, selected in the third round by Denver, said. The 22 year old played 46 games at Illinois from 2021-24.
"[Transfers] are part of the evaluation — like before — but the environment around them has changed," Broncos general manager George Paton said. "You get the information as part of the process, you look at it, you talk to the player, but it's something that is so common and you look at it like you do everything else."
While other teams aren't explicitly admitting their draft evaluation involves mapping a player's journey from school to school, the Broncos are making that loud and clear. It could work out for the benefit, especially if Payton's goal is to build a locker room culture centered on perseverance.
"The inside info -- who they are, that's important to us," Payton emphasized. "We say tough, smart, good teammates, we say those things, but to find it, to really find it ... that's what you want. In this group, we found it in players who had stayed and played where they were for longer than a lot of guys."
If there were ever a training camp that should've been picked by HBO's "Hard Knocks," Denver may have been the best choice. Fans would get a glimpse into the kind of guys you don't hear much of because of the big, flashy names that switch colleges on a yearly basis. Only time will tell if Payton's strategy will pay off for him and his draftees in the long run.