ATHENS — Stetson Bennett’s NFL draft projection remains one of the more complicated and highly debated topics in football at the moment. But prospects for Georgia’s star quarterback appear to have improved some Thursday with the news that he signed with a major contract agency.
Equity Sports announced Thursday that it will represent Bennett in his coming negotiations with NFL teams. The marketing interests of the Bulldogs’ two-time national championship game MVP continue to be handled by ESM and Dan Everett.
Bennett’s deal with Equity Sports places him at the pinnacle of professional athlete representation. The agency was founded just last week by Chris Cabott, who had been the CEO of Steinberg Sports & Entertainment. Leigh Steinberg also created a new agency – Steinberg Speaks – and the two men remain co-representatives of Kansas City Chiefs star quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
The mega-agents claim the move is more of a “re-branding of the agencies” than a separation. Notably, they both remain the agents of record negotiating a new deal for Mahomes, the two-time Super Bowl MVP.
It’s with that backdrop that Cabott will begin representing Bennett. Everett labeled Cabott “big time” and said he is an agent that Bennett has “respected for a long time.”
That Cabott was willing to take on Bennett rings a gong for the rest of the NFL. The 25-year-old quarterback remains in Fort Worth, Texas, where he is training with Apex Sports for the coming NFL combine. It was about 30 miles east of Fort Worth, in Dallas, that Bennett was arrested for public intoxication Jan. 29. He is alleged to have been banging on doors at 6 a.m., looking for a residence at which he was staying.
That incident was the latest in a series of missteps that Bennett has made since the Bulldogs won their second consecutive national championship Jan. 10. Bennett passed for four touchdowns and ran for two more in the 65-7 victory that earned him MVP honors, his fourth in four College Football Playoff games during his career. Since then, Bennett blew off the champions’ morning press conference in Los Angeles, made a confrontational speech at Georgia’s championship celebration at Sanford Stadium the next weekend, turned down an invitation to play in the Senior Bowl and was arrested in Dallas.
All has been quiet on the Bennett front, at least until Thursday’s news. Meanwhile, the speculation about if and when he might be drafted rages on.
Before his arrest, Bennett had been projected by ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper as a potential third-round pick. Since then, many analysts believe Bennett will have to go the free-agent route to try to make a 53-man roster. Some believe Todd Monken’s recent hiring as offensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens bodes well for Bennett landing with them.
Bennett was invited to the NFL combine, which begins Feb. 28 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. He will get at least one other opportunity to show off his skills to NFL talent evaluators when Georgia conducts its annual Pro Day exercise March 15 at the Payne Indoor Athletic Facility on the UGA campus.
Between Bennett’s game-day video and statistical profile, the NFL already has plenty to go on. As a sixth-year senior last season, Bennett completed 68.3% of his passes for 4,127 yards, 27 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He also ran for 10 scores.
Over three seasons, Georgia went 29-3 with Bennett as its starting quarterback. He set school and career records for completion percentage and finished with 8,428 yards passing, 66 passing TDs, 14 rushing TDs and 21 interceptions.
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