The Interview Reversal
For the first 50 years of the NFL Combine, the formal team interview was a one-way evaluation: teams asked prospects questions, prospects answered. The 2026 Combine featured six top-100 prospects who arrived at their interviews with prepared, written CTE-specific questions for team medical staff. The questions, per multiple front-office sources, included: how often the team's neurological staff scans players via fMRI in-season, how the team handles a player's CTE diagnosis post-career, and whether the team subsidizes Boston University CTE Center brain donation registration for current players.
What Drove the Shift
The 2024 publication of the BU CTE Center's largest-ever post-mortem study found that 91% of the 376 NFL veteran brains studied showed evidence of CTE pathology. The figure was widely covered but its impact on prospect behavior took 18 months to filter through. By the 2026 Combine cycle, agents had standardized the practice of preparing CTE-specific interview questions for top clients. The agents who now train clients on these questions include Drew Rosenhaus, David Mulugheta, and Tom Condon — the three highest-volume agents serving the top-100 prospect tier.
How Teams Have Responded
Front offices have responded asymmetrically. Five teams (Cleveland, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Minnesota, Baltimore) have publicly announced expanded neurological-monitoring programs for active rosters since 2024. Twelve teams have privately reformed their concussion-protocol staffing without public announcement. Six teams — including, per agent reports, two AFC South franchises — have given prospect medical staffs explicit instructions to deflect CTE questions during pre-draft interviews, a practice that prospects' agents now register as a red flag and downgrade those teams accordingly.
The Downstream Pick-Slot Impact
Teams that handle CTE conversations well have begun to attract prospect preferences in pre-draft trade-down scenarios. The Cleveland Browns specifically — which since 2024 have invested in expanded brain-imaging protocols — were the second-most-requested landing spot among 2026 top-30 prospects, per agent surveys. The Browns' draft activity (multiple trade-downs that produced extra Day-2 picks) was made possible in part because teams behind them had to bid up trade compensation to land the prospects who preferred a Cleveland landing spot. The CTE conversation is now a real input to draft economics, not just a moral one.
What Comes Next
The NFLPA's December 2025 statement — proposing a CBA-level requirement that all 32 teams maintain standardized neurological-monitoring protocols — is currently in early bargaining-session negotiation with the league office. Most labor-side observers expect a watered-down version to pass into the next CBA cycle in 2030. In the meantime, prospect-driven CTE awareness is reshaping team scouting from the inside out. The 2026 draft is the first cycle in which prospects could meaningfully push teams to disclose neurological-care practices. By 2030, the practice will be standard. The 2024 BU study, in retrospect, was the watershed event. The 2026 draft is the first year the watershed reached the negotiation table.