For NFL player agents, NFL Draft weekend can be a roller-coaster finish to a long, intensive process

Travis Kelce might be the biggest name in the NFL today, thanks in part to his engagement to Taylor Swift but also his own Hall of Fame-worthy career as a three-time Super Bowler with the Kansas City Chiefs.

Thirteen years ago, though, he was just TE10 at the NFL combine, and then pick No. 63 in the 2013 NFL Draft.

Despite being a Cleveland kid, Kelce was actually right here in Pittsburgh when he was selected by the Chiefs with the first pick in the third round. He was hanging out at Latitude 40 in North Fayette for a draft party hosted by his agency, which included Central Catholic High School graduate Greg Diulus.

Today, Diulus is still representing NFL players and - top of mind at this time of year - soon-to-be NFL players. An agent with Milk & Honey Sports, he has seen plenty of draft day success stories and even the occasional draft day fall, the natural rhythm of how Thursday through Saturday will go for hundreds of prospects hoping to hear their name called on stage in Pittsburgh.

"Good agents put the work in, and then you're just kind of watching things happen," Diulus said last week. "There's not much you can do to convince a team if they weren't gonna draft your guy anyway."

For Diulus and his peers, draft weekend is the culmination of a monthslong process for them preparing college standouts for the pros. It starts way back in January with all-star showcase games such as the Senior Bowl then training for the NFL combine in late February.

Usually, it's the player's agency that coordinates where and with whom they train. Tongue in cheek, Diulus calls it "the underwear Olympics," but he knows as well as anyone that 40-yard dash times and in-person interviews with NFL teams can greatly impact someone's draft stock.

That's why Diulus likes to put together what he calls a "bio book" on the major decision-makers his clients will chat with behind closed doors at the combine in Indianapolis. Maybe it will have a nugget on a mutual interest or a connection between hometowns or alma maters.

"We kind of talk through it and not just hand it to them and say, ‘Here, read this.' ... We want to make sure they have enough information that somehow gets into their head about the people they're going to meet," Diulus explained.

And it might be one of those NFL execs or coaches who calls the player in April and says, "Are you ready to be a Pittsburgh Steeler?" Getting to that point requires a lot of behind-the-scenes work, from coordinating travel to NFL cities for pre-draft visits or calling each team's training staff to make sure there aren't any lingering questions about the player's medical evaluations.

But that doesn't make waiting for the call any easier. And Diulus has been through this enough that when his prospective NFL players ask for information about when and where they might go in the draft, he doesn't want to over-promise and then under-deliver.

If Diulus has a good feel from his longtime scouting contacts or a specific franchise's front office that his guy will be taken in the second round, he might tell the player and his family that they should be selected by the end of the third round. But the TV spectacle the draft has become can lead to plenty of anxiety in the room.

"It gets really crazy during the draft itself, especially when you're representing a player who pops up as Mel Kiper's next best available and it's Round 3, then you get to Round 5 and that player's still sitting at the top of that little ESPN crawl ... ," Diulus said. "There's nothing an agent can do at that point. The teams have their boards set and it's either gonna happen or not gonna happen. It's very nerve-wracking for families."

For that reason, Diulus generally discourages the big draft bash with family and friends unless they're certain it won't be an embarrassing night for that player. He prefers stories like John Greco's.

Back in 2008, Greco, an offensive lineman out of Toledo, was projected to go in the late third or early fourth. So the Greco family arranged for a limousine to pick them up at a certain time to take them to their draft gathering. Instead, Greco went to the St. Louis Rams with the second choice of the third round. He was actually in the limo, instead of at his party, when the pick was made.

Ironically, Kelce's draft experience is one that Diulus said "got squirrely" and had everyone in the room a little worried. Kelce was generally viewed as a first-round talent, but he was suspended for his redshirt sophomore season at Cincinnati. So there may have been lingering character concerns from some NFL teams.

"I thought I was gonna be the first tight end taken off the board," Kelce recalled on his "New Heights" podcast with older brother Jason. "I ended up being the fifth."

All's well that ends well for Kelce. He landed with an offensive mastermind in Chiefs coach Andy Reid. A few years later, two-time MVP Patrick Mahomes came along to throw him the ball.

Thursday night, 16 prospects will be in the green room for the draft at Acrisure Stadium. Diulus experienced that three years ago with Ohio State offensive tackle Paris Johnson Jr.

"It's at least a little more fun if you're in that green room area," Diulus said. "You've got a table full of snacks, you're talking to other kids and family members, so it's a little more of a social gathering. But there's still that little voice inside of you that's saying, ‘I hope this guy doesn't go next. I want my guy to go next.'"

Johnson was widely projected to be the first offensive lineman picked in 2023, but even that wasn't without drama.

Diulus had Arizona pegged as Johnson's destination, only for the Cardinals to trade down from No. 3 to No. 12. For a moment, everyone in Johnson's group was deflated.

Soon, the Cardinals were back on the clock. They traded back up to the No. 6 pick. And sure enough, Johnson was their target. He walked across the stage and gave NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell the bear hug of the night.

"Then you're justified in everything you've done with the player and feel good about everything that's gone on," said Diulus, whose agency has Indiana wide receiver Elijah Sarratt, among others, in the 2026 draft class. "That's the best-case scenario for an agent."

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This story was originally published April 20, 2026 at 8:04 AM.