As millions tune in to Thursday’s NFL Draft to see what their favorite team will do, St. Thomas graduate Shawn Zobel will be watching to see how his draft predictions stack up with other analysts around the country.

Zobel, who graduated from St. Thomas in 2012, spent the last eight years creating and building his NFL draft prediction and analysis website Draft Headquarters. Since last summer, Zobel has spent countless hours scouting prospects, predicting picks and creating mock drafts.

“I started last July watching film on players for this year’s draft,” Zobel said. “I went to the East-West Shrine game in St. Petersburg, Florida, in January, and a week later I went to Mobile, Alabama, for the Senior Bowl.”

Zobel began Draft Headquarters after attending the 2004 NFL Draft while in high school. As a high school student, Zobel began compiling analysis of hundreds of NFL prospects and publishing it in a book that he put together every year. He continued the work all the way through college with the hope that his scouting work would land him a job in professional sports after graduation.

“When I was in college, it was a lot of fun to do it while going to school. To be honest, I lived a double life sometimes,” Zobel said. “I think I’d be sitting next to one of the executives for the New England Patriots one day, and the next day I’d be sitting in Spanish class at St. Thomas.”

In the two years since he graduated, Zobel has done work with a couple NFL teams.

“I’ve continued to work in the business doing a variety of different things,” Zobel said. “Last year I did some work with the Miami Dolphins as well as the St. Louis Rams last spring. Both of those I’d say came from the work that I’ve done on my website … for one of the teams I worked at the NFL scouting combine, and the other team brought me in, and I did some post-draft work for them.”

Zobel has also worked for the NFL Network covering the Combine. Beyond Draft Headquarters and the NFL, Zobel also spends his time coaching football at Eden Prairie High School and working for the National Rugby Football League to bring the first professional rugby league to the U.S.

While dividing time between different jobs and professional sports leagues, Zobel still spends countless hours maintaining and updating his Draft Headquarters website. USA Today writer Tom Pelissero, who met Zobel while working at 1500 ESPN Twin Cities, said Zobel is one of the hardest working guys in the business.

“He certainly has a passion for it,” Pelissero said. “He puts in the time. That’s the thing I can say about Shawn. He absolutely grinds at it, and when I’ve gotten in the past his bound 200-page guide … there’s a lot of stuff to dig into in there.”

Pelissero said Zobel’s commitment to scouting players shows the dedication needed to break into the NFL and earn a job.

“I think like any scout, like any online draft expert, you’re going to have hits and you’re going to have misses. Mel Kiper does, Todd McShay does … so you’re less judged on what your percentages are because those are difficult to calculate, than it is whether you put in the work – like any scout in the NFL would – to try to come up with an opinion,” Pelissero said.

Pelissero also added that with anticipation for the draft growing every year, now is an excellent time for Zobel to get into draft predictions to make a name for himself.

“It’s a really interesting time to be doing this,” Pelissero said. “Ten years ago, you didn’t have nearly the expansive websites. You just didn’t have the general media options. The NFL network was certainly in its infancy at that point, ESPN didn’t have a person covering every single NFL team and they only had (Mel Kiper Jr.) on the draft.”

Though Zobel is proud of the accomplishments he’s made with his scouting and draft analysis, he hinted that he’s drifted away from his aspirations of being an NFL professional.

“It was a very unique opportunity to be able to do something like that where I’d travel around the country and scout football players, and at the same time I’d still be in college,” Zobel said. “But now that I’ve graduated, you begin to have a different perspective on the business aspect of how things work. I still (manage Draft Headquarters) more than anything for fun at this point because I’m also working for other ventures.”

However, no matter how much his perspective on the business has changed, the one thing that’s remained the same is his passion toward scouting and the NFL Draft, something that does not go unnoticed by his peers in the business.

“Obviously your perspective changes in terms of what types of opportunities it can provide for you, but I’ve still attacked it with the same passion that I’ve had since I was in high school,” Zobel said.

“He’s the one who is out there obtaining All-22 film from Arkansas-Pine Bluff and stuff. I mean, there aren’t a lot of guys who do that,” Pelissero said. “He absolutely, 100 percent, puts in the time to do it. He’s going to miss some, he’s going to get some right. That’s just the nature of the scouting business.”

Jacob Sevening can be reached at seve8586@stthomas.edu.