Nice article abount undrafted free agents.
Undrafted players can look to Holmes, others
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By Len Pasquarelli
ESPN.com
Given the track record of Baltimore Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome, it seems no longer a matter of whether he will unearth a solid contributor among the undrafted free agents signed by the club, but rather just how many he will find among the post-draft rubble.
Five players who originally entered the NFL as undrafted free agents each started six or more games for the Ravens in 2002. Forty percent of the starting offensive line was comprised of undrafted free agents, including center Mike Flynn, a starter at guard in the team's Super Bowl XXXV victory of 2000. Two players originally signed as undrafted collegians split the 16 starts at the free safety position.
Priest Holmes has rushed for 3,170 yards over the last two seasons.
And none of that accounts for tailback Priest Holmes, the player many feel is now the best all-around tailback in the league, who escaped to Kansas City in the spring of 2001 as an unrestricted free agent, but who was signed undrafted by the Ravens in 1997.
"Every team tells you that you'll get a legitimate chance to make the roster if you sign with them," said Ravens free safety Will Demps, who as an undrafted rookie started 10 games in his 2002 debut campaign. "But when you do your homework, and study the teams where (undrafted rookies) really do play, there are a few teams that stick out. And this is one of them. They've created a little bit of a history here."
Newsome has been, of late, one of the masters of digging through the remnant of draft eligible players and locating viable roster candidates.
But he is hardly the only excellent excavator and, in the late stages of every draft and the hour or two after each lottery concludes, there are teams that frantically seek out the best of the rest. The odds of an undrafted free agent even making the roster, let alone moving into a contributor's role, indeed remain long. There are still just enough Horatio Alger success stories, though, to keep the scouts interested.
While most strike only fool's gold, the prospect of stumbling onto a 24-carat nugget at a bargain basement price remains a temptation, and that gridiron holy grail keeps the long-distance carriers busy for several hours after the draft.
Since the lottery was reduced to just seven rounds in 1994, many players who would have been graded as "draftable" in the past, are now free agent candidates. Of the 12 players the Washington Redskins signed on Sunday evening, half of them had "draftable" grades on the club's board, and a few might actually have a chance to make the roster, especially since the team had only three selections.
"Every year," said Redskins personnel director Vinny Cerrato, "there are still some good players out there (after the draft). Hey, Richard Dent was an eighth-round pick in 1983. In today's draft, that equates to a free agent, so you have to look at that pool."
There isn't a scout alive who wouldn't like to earn his stripes by signing a Kurt Warner, Priest Holmes, Rod Smith or John Randle -- all of whom were undrafted as seniors -- to a free agent contract. The pursuit of such players, or even the hint of an undrafted wannabe with viable skills, has turned the free agent chase into a competitive market.
By the sixth or seventh rounds of the drafts, scouts and personnel assistants already are on the phones pursuing potential free agents signees, with deals contingent on the player not being selected in the lottery. Two player representatives told ESPN.com this week that they had tentative free agent agreements in place for clients on Friday night, more than 12 hours before the draft even began, and consummated the deals Sunday evening, minutes after the draft officially concluded.
An unofficial count on Wednesday evening indicated that the number of undrafted free agents signed leaguewide for training camps virtually equaled the 262 prospects chosen over the weekend in the draft. How many will actually earn a spot on a club's regular-season roster? Over the past five years, the number of rookie undrafted free agents new to the league has averaged under two per franchise.
But those sobering numbers, for whatever reason, haven't yet precluded most teams from slashing their free agent budgets. While it's true that several franchises have reduced their undrafted free agent signings, the majority of teams will bring in 10-15 players annually, principally as camp fodder but also in the hope of perhaps getting lucky on a prospect. At the same time veterans who entered the NFL as undrafted prospects, and who have now achieved a degree of tenure, acknowledged this week that rookie free agents can't count on good fortune to land them a job.
"Mostly you've got to go to camp with the mindset that you're going to create your own luck," said New York Jets wide receiver and former undrafted free agent Wayne Chrebet, signed out of Hofstra in 1995. "Just getting onto a camp practice field, especially if you are from a small school, means you've beaten the odds. But that's just the beginning. To even have a small chance (of earning a roster spot), you have to work incredibly hard, to find a way where they can't come up with an excuse to cut you."
In the case of Demps, a two-year starter at San Diego State but a player deemed by some clubs to lack NFL-caliber quickness, that meant hitting everything that moved in camp. Jumping in line, and sometimes moving up in the queue for extra "reps," in virtually all the camp drills. Running into the huddle, hustling to the ball, sprinting hard every time secondary coach Donnie Henderson summoned him for personal instruction.
Former undrafted players like Philadelphia center Hank Fraley and New England wideout David Patten, veterans whose careers began as free agents but who are now starters in the league, concur with that formula.
"The great players, in a lot of cases, are born great players," said Patten. "But through a lot of hard work, you can make yourself into a good player, will yourself onto a team by doing all the little things at full-speed. And, hey, if you get a break, you have to be ready to take advantage of it."
In 2000, Fraley was claimed on waivers by Philadelphia after the undrafted free agent was released by the cross-state Pittsburgh Steelers. He never got into the field in 2000 but, when incumbent center Bubba Miller broke his ankle in 2001, Fraley took over the starting spot. Philadelphia coaches kept scouring around for a veteran, uncertain Fraley could handle the job, but he eventually quelled their concerns.
"That's the thing about getting a chance," Fraley said. "It is what it says it is: a chance. Once your foot is in the door, anything can happen, and that's been demonstrated over and over again. There are a lot of (free agents) filling out those last five or six spots on a roster. Not everyone can be a star but you can be a player."
And there are the rare undrafted free agents, like Holmes or Warner or Rod Smith, who supercede not only the expectations of the scouts, but also eclipse their own aspirations. The past 10 Pro Bowl games have included two dozen players whose professional careers began as undrafted free agents. All but five NFL teams in 2002 had at least one undrafted free agent who started a minimum of eight games.
"I would say, if I was talking to (an undrafted free agent), 'You know, it's not the end of the world,' " said Smith. "It can be, instead, a beginning for you. That's how you have to view it."
