The Team

Roy is a regular contributor to Steelers’ 247 Sports website, Steel City Insider, under the guide of the exceptional, Jim Wexell. He is also the mastermind behind the Prospect Encyclopedia, and has formulated the idea over a ten-year span to the product it is today.

A graduate of Sports Management Worldwide’s Football Scouting and General Manager course in 2016. After completing the course, Roy was then invited to join mentor, Russ Lande’s company GM Jr as a college scout. He held that position for many years until finding his way to a football company called Blitzalytics. While with Blitz, he worked his way up from being a content creator and scout to the post of Director of Scouting, where he was responsible for assigning, editing, mentoring, and managing a staff of over a dozen talented evaluators. Under his guise, the department flourished and became the backbone of the company. He also regularly contributed as a podcast host alongside the talented duo of Robert Robinson and David Connors on the playful, “Pick 6” podcast.

He then pitched the idea to the managing members of Blitzalytics to help him achieve his dream of the Prospect Encyclopedia. With the help of a talented staff, the first edition was sold in 2020. He has since had the pleasure of evolving the idea with some of the best up and coming talent in the football world, and is excited to see where this project can grow throughout the years.

Roy is 31 years old and currently resides in Rockwood, Pennsylvania with his beautiful wife, Melissa, two sons, Silas and Ezekiel, and his mother Betty. He is also a licensed lay pastor and seasoned veteran of working at Laurel Hill State Park by taking care of the 70-mile Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail.

ROY A. COUNTRYMAN

Cody is an experienced football analyst in the football industry who has spent the last 4 years doing everything he could get involved with. As an original managing member of Blitzalyics, he held the role of the Director of Content & Social Media. In addition to his management duties, he would create scouting reports, articles, and host a few podcasts. He recently joined USA Today’s ColtsWire as a Contributor to help provide written content.

It all started as a young child when he was introduced to the sport and immediately fell in love. He would become a fan of watching the game. Whether it was the local high school team, college gamedays on Saturdays, or heading straight for the TV after church on Sundays. He started tackle football in 5th grade and played all the way into his senior year. During his time on the field, he would play all 22 positions on offense and defense to find his role on the team. Not the greatest athlete, but his time figuring out each position would lead to helping him as an analyst later in life.

His passion for the sport led him later in life to chase the dream of working in the industry. He spent 4 seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a Team Lead role in the Guest & Member Relations department. During his time there, he won the Difference Maker of the Year award in 2017. He met people within the organization, played a part in an NFL game day, and was at the 2017 College Football National Championship Game. That was his best live football experience.

During his journey of working in the industry, one of his proudest moments is being part of the inaugural Prospect Encyclopedia. A brilliant idea by Roy Countryman that he got to help make come to fruition. This helped establish him as a co-author in a project that wasn’t done by others inside the industry.

A Midwest kid born in Huron, South Dakota, grew up in Southwest Wisconsin and lived in Springfield, Missouri. He currently lives in Tampa, Florida. An avid fan of the Indianapolis Colts and Wisconsin Badgers, but ultimately enjoys watching football regardless of who is on the field. Cody holds a Football General Managing & Scouting Certificate from Sports Management Worldwide, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Sport Management from the University of Tampa.

While he has spent time working in the industry on the media side, he still has his eyes on helping build championship rosters at the pro or college level. His door is open to new opportunities that will help him grow as an evaluator and take the next step towards his goals.

CODY MANNING

Devin is an experienced sports writer, content creator and scout who began his career shortly after graduating college in December 2017. He has spent the last two years writing and scouting college players with Blue Chip Scouting, and creating draft profiles with Steelers Depot since September 2020.

He was raised in Georgia, although his family has roots in Louisiana. As long as he could remember, he would be tuned into football games at all levels and divisions, from local high school football games, FBS and FCS Football, as well as NFL games. He grew up playing multiple sports, including football, basketball, baseball, and ran track in high school. After not playing football his freshman and sophomore years of high school, he would join the football team as a junior and be part of a team who went to the State semifinals in Georgia as a junior and state quarterfinals as a senior.

He would accept a scholarship to attend Lindenwood University as a football player, and study Mass Communications, with a Broadcast Emphasis. During his time at Lindenwood, Devin did play-by-play broadcasting for the basketball teams, played all four seasons on the football team, and landed an internship at WDSU in New Orleans the summer of 2017.

The experience he gained in college helped prepare him for a career in journalism. In March 2019, Devin joined WTAJ News in State College, Pennsylvania, where he covered both news and sports, including coverage of Penn State’s football program. His contract recently ended and is looking for his next opportunity to take the next step of his career.

Since he started scouting players for Blue Chip Scouting and Steelers Depot, Devin has compiled over 300 reports that include strengths, weaknesses, overviews and round grades from the 2020 and 2021 classes. In addition to reports, Devin has sat down with future NFL Draft picks including Jonathan Cooper, Camyrn Bynum, Janarius Robinson, among others, to talk about their journey to NFL, their best traits that will translate to the NFL, and truly getting to form connections and relationships with each player. He has also sat down with coaches, including Al Washington, Ohio State’s linebackers coach.

Devin currently resides in Pennsylvania as he searches for his next opportunity in the sports industry. He continues to write for both Steelers Depot and Blue Chip Scouting, and co-hosts two different podcasts (Big Shots NFL Draft Podcast, Draft Nut Podcast) covering the NFL and the NFL Draft.

He aspires to one day work for a large network, whether it be ESPN, Fox Sports, NFL Network, traveling the country, learning and telling the stories of potential professional and college athletes across all sports. A career in scouting would also be something Devin would like to pursue, as long as it allows him to tell the stories of prospective NFL players.

DEVIN JACKSON

Jack is an NFL Pro Personnel Analyst for the NFL Draft Bible on Sports Illustrated. After graduating from Washington College in 2018, he worked in Orlando, Florida, while running his own Philadelphia Eagles and NFL Draft blog, “Underdog-Eagles.com.” This experience in sports journalism, paired with his English degree and journalistic experience at Washington College, revived his passion for football.

He started playing football after his dad convinced him to give it a try in third grade. By his fourth year of playing youth football, he had earned team MVP and Offensive Player of the Year, and loved every minute of it. In high school, he opened his first game his freshman year with two interceptions as the starting safety. He was then moved to a coverage linebacker role, while also playing running back. As his understanding of the offense became clear, the coaches began coaching him to be a reserve quarterback, and occasionally saw snaps under center in his high school career.

After a tough decision, he decided not to play his senior year of high school. Washington College does not have a football team, so he wasn’t able to play in college, leaving him to satisfy his football needs with intramural sports and sports writing. He wrote for a few small start-up blogs in his free time, often focusing on the NFL Draft. It was small, but it was enough.

In the winter of his senior year, his Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl. Having become an Eagles fan after watching them lose to the New England Patriots when he was eight, things came full circle when the Eagles beat the Patriots in 2018.

After graduating from college and starting his Underdog-Eagles blog, he moved back to Maryland to work for Washington College. During the Covid-19 pandemic, he started watching college football film again and graded players for fun. He approached multiple websites for work, finally landing with The Dynasty Draft Room. When the Dynasty Draft Room joined forces with NFL Draft Bible and Sports Illustrated, his skills in understanding the team-building process of an NFL team came to the forefront, and soon became one of two pro personnel analysts. Co-hosting the live show, “The Prospect Prophets,” and writing as a pro personnel analyst kept him busy and eager.

He connected with NFL scout David Turner and began learning from him. He picked up a job in Washington, DC as an assistant football coach and offensive analyst for the Maret School. He found himself in a routine of working virtually during the day, driving to Maret to coach in the afternoon, researching for Sports Illustrated in the evening, and working on Maret film until he’d go to sleep. To make all this happen, he stayed on a friend’s inflatable mattress and worked through lunch during Maret’s football season.

Since then, he has covered the 2021 NFL Draft throughout the week of the draft, and is working to design and improve the Pro Personnel Department with Roy Countryman, while working on the Prospect Encyclopedia. He is also planning his wedding and enjoying the time he’s spent with his fiancé working together throughout quarantine.

JACK DESPEAUX

Zach is a freelance sports writer and podcaster who has been involved with football and sports for most of his life. He started writing about football with The East Village Times while covering the San Diego Fleet of the now defunct AAF. After that, he decided to throw his lot in with another spring football league, starting a successful, yet short-lived XFL Podcast about the New York Guardians. “The Guard Post” had a committed following and was just beginning to grow when the pandemic began and shut down the XFL. After retiring the podcast, Zach decided to join Blitzalytics, where he met, learned from, and worked under Roy Countryman on their NFL and Draft Content. Now he is currently finishing up his Bachelor degree at George Fox University, but writes when he can for the Crocker Report and has a podcast called “Wider Hashes” with friend and colleague Seth Steere.

Zach discovered football in the Third Grade in Pennsylvania from an Uncle he lived with while both of his parents were deployed overseas. He would discover his love for the sport through Madden, thoroughly enjoying the strategy and skill required in such a physical sport. He wouldn’t play until later in his life, but those early days were filled with watching the Carolina Panthers and getting way too emotional after a win or a loss. After moving to Texas, Zach would finally play the sport, beginning a love affair that has spanned the better part of his life so far. He would go on to play high school, and then a short stint in college as a safety for George Fox University, a small D3 school in the Pacific Northwest. His playing days would come to an end after a dramatic shoulder injury ended a rather forgettable career. But even after the injury, his love for the strategy and skill required in football persisted. That was when Zach started writing about the sport.

Nowadays, Zach is writing and attempting to learn more about the game and everything that goes on behind it from every resource available to him. While he still plans to be an avid fan and analyst of the game after earning his college degree in Organizational Communication, he plans to try and get into coaching football at the high school level.

ZACH GARTIN

Jake is a 25-year-old content creator who focuses on being a football analyst, podcaster, personality and scout, while currently hosting his own rapidly-growing 5,000-plus subscriber YouTube channel. He currently co-hosts the Downtown Rams podcast with Alexis Kraft, owns Downtown Rams which covers all things Los Angeles Rams, co-hosts The AJ Show with Adam Grego, which covers all things NFL football, and in addition, writes for Nitecast Media. Jake aspires to be the most entertaining, hard-working, educated and innovative personality in sports and entertainment. He has interviewed some truly incredible people, like Kurt Warner, Roman Gabriel, Dick Vermeil, Isaac Bruce, George Kittle, Anthony Munoz and many others.

Initially, Jake started writing fan posts on Turf Show Times' fan post section. He caught enough traffic from his 2016 NFL Mock Draft post that he eventually was brought onto Rams Wire as a staff writer. He spent a short amount of time there before deciding to start Downtown Rams. It was there he collaborated with Blaine Grisak, who he had met through Rams Wire. Together they started the Downtown Rams podcast. Blaine eventually left the show and moved into the website manager role, and Joe Curley of the Ventura County Star took over as the new co-host. That lasted all the 2018 Super Bowl season, and then the show pivoted to bring on current co-host Alexis Kraft. Since the beginning of 2019, Alexis has done the show with Jake, and they have just passed their 350 episode milestone.

Jake spent some time studying with the Scouting Academy. He covered the Senior Bowl three out of the last four years for Downtown Rams, and is looking forward to covering his upcoming fourth Senior Bowl. Football has always been his biggest passion, and was floored when he realized he could start writing, podcasting and shooting videos talking about it. He’s been a life-long Los Angeles Rams fan, and it was his dream from a young age to become the Rams general manager. That might explain why he is as obsessed with the NFL Draft as anyone. This past year, he hosted a three-day NFL Draft show in the studio with Alexis and Adam, which for Alexis and Jake ended up being the third-straight NFL live draft show they had done together.

From building teams from scratch on Madden 2003 to building a brand and business from scratch in 2016, Jake has accomplished a lot, failed a lot and learned a lot. There is still plenty left to go. He's optimistic and excited for what the future holds, but as of right now he cannot get enough out of creating football-related content and is very grateful to be a part of this project with some of his most well-respected peers.

JAKE ELLENBOGEN

Ryan is a Dynasty Fantasy Football Writer for the NFL Draft Bible on Sports Illustrated. He has always had a passion for sports and writing. He never quite knew how to put the two together until last year when he broke into the industry with The Dynasty Draft Room, where he started writing about fantasy football.

Ryan’s love for sports started at a young age, and it has never left. Growing up in the thumb of Michigan, he played soccer, tennis, and baseball, and in eighth grade, played for his middle school’s football team. In high school, he took on a different challenge – starting the varsity soccer team. Between himself, a few of his friends and help from his mom, they became an official club sport. In his senior year of high school, he played on the first varsity soccer team at Yale High School.

Ryan spent three years at St. Clair County Community College and two years at Central Michigan University to earn his bachelor’s degree in Sports Management. During his three years at community college, Ryan developed a passion for writing. He created a bond with a literature professor that helped show him that writing was more than merely putting words on paper to get a grade or an assignment done. It was an art form; a way to tell the story of your thoughts while intermingling your opinions to drive home the vision and your story. It stuck with him and impacted the way he writes his pieces. It is more than just spewing out content on a page to make an article. It’s about telling a story of why the article is being written, and why the numbers make a particular point over just what the numbers suggest.

Ryan has been playing fantasy football since joining a league with his dad in 2011. They have spent many hours talking about all different strategies for building different teams throughout different scoring systems, and types of leagues, which he is sure has made his girlfriend and mom extremely happy. Through all the various leagues, however, he fell in love with dynasty fantasy football. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ryan made some connections and ended up discussing joining The Dynasty Draft Room to combine his two passions. He knew he couldn’t pass up the opportunity when it was offered, and that has led him to where he is today.

For Ryan’s main job, he does IT Consulting with his dad’s company. On the weekends during the summer and fall, he plays as much golf as possible on Michigan’s beautiful golf courses. You can find him on Sundays in the fall watching two TVs with his beloved Detroit Lions on one and NFL Redzone on the other to stay updated on all the football news that day. He continually seeks to grow in the fantasy football industry and the football industry in general, with the hopes to one day make it his full-time career.

RYAN FREDERICK

Patrick is a sports writer and scout who made his entrance into the industry through graphic design. After teaching himself graphic design, he joined Blitzalytics, where he spent the past three years. He started scouting late in the season in 2020, and continued through 2021. He also was a beat writer for the XFL team, the New York Guardians. Through the years, he became a versatile analyst, writer, and designer. In February, he launched his own Boston sports site.

He was raised a Boston sports fan by his father, who grew up there. He grew to enjoy football the most, and joined the local Peewee team at a young age. While he only played several years on the team, he continued his love for the game, and enjoyed many enjoyable moments watching the Brady-Belichik dynasty in their prime. His first memory of football is watching Wes Welker get flagged for making a snow angel in a blowout win against the Cardinals in 2008. He would go on to be assigned Welker’s 83 while playing football, leading him to be one of his favorite players.

Originally intending to go into graphic design, sports journalism changed his life during the end of his high school years. After graduating from Randolph High School in New Jersey, he began attending the County College of Morris down the road. During his freshman year of college, he worked on the inaugural Prospect Encyclopedia, writing about the Chargers.

He continued to scout for Blitzalytics in 2021, writing some of their biggest reports, including Trevor Lawrence, Travis Etienne, and more. During that year, he found a true love for scouting, and developed his skills during that time. He was trained from years of watching football, and by many friends and mentors, for whom he is grateful for, including great minds and Prospect Encyclopedia authors Roy Countryman and Cody Manning, and graphic designer Robert Robinson, who inspired him to expand his horizons.

From Randolph, New Jersey, and now living in Mine Hill, New Jersey, Patrick continues to attend the County College of Morris in the criminal justice program. He plans to transfer to a four-year program and get a Bachelor’s in Criminal Justice.

However, he does not plan to leave the sports industry. He continues to scout, and grow his Boston sports website. He hopes to grow it into a premiere sports site for Boston fans to visit. Like many others, he hopes to one day become a full time scout, whether for a media company, or a college or NFL team.

At 20, he continues to seek to always grow in the expanding sports industry. Whether it be scouting the next generation of talent, or covering the current one, he plans on working in the industry for a long time.

PAT PRYOR

My name is Robert Robinson but I am better known as RobRob. As I did last year I will choose not to talk about myself in this iteration of the book either.

I would love to say hello again to all my family. My mother and father who are still driving forces in pushing me to achieve greater heights.

This year has been especially crazy for all of us, and it was no different for me and my family. So I want to thank my wife Amanda and my daughters Lily and Charlotte. We have been trapped in the house together for the better part of a year and a half and still love and enjoy each others company...if that isn't love than I guess I don't know what is. Thank you for putting up with my ups and downs and for being strong and smart and loving.

Thanks for all the quality work in this book by this group of talented writers that made my job so easy.

I never thought I would be here...well not actually. I talked a big game but was always too afraid to

actually try. If it weren't for Amanda pushing me I don't know where I would be, and I will leave you with what I heard on an episode of AGT from a wonderful woman called Nightbird...

"You can’t wait until life isn’t hard anymore before you decide to be happy."

ROBERT "ROBROB" ROBINSON