What do the names John
Randle, Rod Smith, Wayne Chrebet, Kurt
Warner, Pat Williams, London Fletcher, Adam
Vinatieri and Priest Holmes have in common?
They all were not selected in the NFL Draft.
You may ask, how can players of this caliber
not get selected? The answer is quite
simple: teams make mistakes. Once players
get over the initial disappointment of not
hearing their phone ring they need to
realize that this is not the end of the
world, not the end of his football career.
These are just some of the players that have
gone on and had very successful careers in
the NFL. The odds are stacked against them,
but the precedent has been set, it can
happen. Even if you aren’t one of the Peyton
Manning’s, Randy Moss, LaDainian Tomlinson’s
of the world, you can still go on to have a
successful NFL career and make a lot of
money.
With the new collective bargaining
agreement, players will continue to switch
teams at a high rate. A team’s roster
turnover is astonishing. What does all this
turnover mean? A lot of holes needed to be
filled by cheap players. An NFL roster
consists of 53 players, not counting the 8
allowed to be on the practice squad. That is
1952 players that will be in an NFL camp
when the season starts. There will be 255
draft picks in this draft. But what are the
chances of the second day players making a
roster? About the same as a player who goes
undrafted.
Look at your favorite team’s current depth
chart. I am going to guess there are more
holes in that lineup than the amount of
draft picks you have available in April’s
draft. How do you fill those spots? With
expensive Free Agents past their prime? Or
with young players willing to do anything it
takes to make the team? I, like I am sure
most franchises would, will be happy with
the latter. Good luck this year’s UDFA, the
NFL awaits you.
