High school sophomore football recruit lands massive trading card NIL deal

Mandarin High School wide receiver Brysen Wright holds a bevy of Power Conference scholarship offers heading into his sophomore season, and now the high-level recruit won’t have to wait until he arrives on a college campus to cash in on his name, image, and likeness. 

That’s because Wright has reportedly signed a trading card NIL deal with Wild Card, as the company’s first high school athlete. Wild Card has previously released college football trading cards, but hadn’t yet followed other trading card companies like Topps into the high school space. 

2028 WR Brysen Wright lands NIL deal with Wild Card

As On3’s Pete Nakos reported from a conversation with Wright’s agent Dan Everett, the deal will pay the rate of a first-round NFL Draft pick at the same position per autograph. Everett is a well-established college football agent with Carson Beck as his most noteworthy client. 

As a freshman at Mandarin High School, Wright played opposite 2025 four-star Texas wide receiver commit Jaime Ffrench, and impressed enough to land scholarship offers from many of the most prestigious programs in the country, including Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Miami, Ohio State, and, of course, Texas. 

College coaches have long taken bets on promising young talents, offering them as early as their freshman or sophomore year, but in the expanding NIL space, companies like Wild Card and agents like Everett will continue to do the same. If Wright becomes a college football star and, better yet, an NFL difference-maker, then his high school card could be incredibly valuable. 

That’s the bet that Wild Card is making with this agreement, and that anyone who buys the football card of a high schooler who does not graduate for three more years is making as well. 

It may seem strange for a high school player to be cashing in on such a significant deal, and the traditionalist who opposes NIL at every turn will recoil at the thought of somebody still waiting to take their driver’s test potentially making five figures. The reality is, though, you’re worth what somebody is willing to pay you, and if all the best college football coaches in the country view Wright as worth the investment, why shouldn’t Wild Card?