Clayton Echard teases his season of 'The Bachelor': 'I did find love'

"I went in, and I had maybe a checklist of sorts," Echard said of his approach as the next Bachelor. "I was looking for somebody that was funny, intelligent, driven, put forth effort, and so I figured, 'OK, that's a good list and hopefully I'll find that.' Well, what I found was very quickly the women blew my expectations out of the water. They brought all of that and so much more, so the expectations continued to rise, and I realized that ultimately I was gonna find everything that I wanted and so much more."

"I did find love," the medical sales representative continued. "I was a little skeptical going into the whole journey, but I'm so pleasantly surprised that things worked out much different than what I had thought."

Echard is from Eureka, Missouri, and played football at the University of Missouri before signing with the Seattle Seahawks as an undrafted NFL rookie in July 2016. He was unfortunately cut by the team before the season began, however.

While this group of 33 women has been teased as Echard's potential suitors, the final cast has not been announced.