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QuikSand · 04-28-2005, 08:59 AM

The riff-raff phase

We have concluded the league draft (a quite painfully slow process, for whatever reasons) and are ready to begin the second round of free agency. Since quality restricted players are not yet available, we’re basically looking at the same old veterans that nobody wanted during the first 20 rounds, plus the rookie nobody wanted through 224 draft picks.

Sound great, right? Well, I have had a little bit of luck here in the past – usually finding special teams contributors and the like. On the current team, we have a few guys who were undrafted rookie free agent (URFA) signees – usually guys who either have one particular skill that makes them helpful, guys who contribute to team chemistry, or guys who have a bump up in their first training camp to suggest potential future development.

LB D.J. Dennis was a URFA, and remains with us as a special teams demon
TE Clay Lannon was also a URFA, first acquired by Burlington, and is decent
QB Sherman Buckner showed some early potential for development – mixed bag
CB Britt Peterson, on the roster bubble, was a URFA and is a decent role player
TE Gino Kerr was a URFA in 2005, switched from FB to TE to make the roster
RB Lewis Lee was also a URAF in 2005, and looks to stick this year as a returner
RG Larry Rapaport was a URFA last year, showed some growth potential, but is in danger
P Donovan Embry was a URFA last year, and is likely to hold the job this season
C Brett Lyon looks like a keeper, a solid pass blocking URFA from last year

So – at the moment, we have eight or nine guys who are on the roster from the URFA process. This is, not surprisingly, a natural outcome of my usual strategy of selling off my late round draft picks – I don’t have a parade of 6th and 7th rounders to fill the roster, so I get players (usually of pretty comparable quality) after the draft, and take my chances there. No bonuses (usually) make this a low-risk proposition.

We put in offers to a number of rookie free agents, and will hope for the best. In the next couple of days, I’ll detail the guys that we have landed, and will try to give a sense of where they might fit into our scheme, if at all.

On a team that already has 59 players committed (58 signed plus our top draft pick), it’s tough to see any of these fresh faces sticking – but we will have to do some paring down at the end of the line, and it’s probably better to have a marginal contributor be a promising youngster than a fossilized veteran – so guys like DE Randolph Gritton and C Reinaldo Johnson are the players who will need to be watching the rookie camps.

04-28-2005, 08:59 AM	#27
QuikSand lolzcat Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Annapolis, Md	The riff-raff phase We have concluded the league draft (a quite painfully slow process, for whatever reasons) and are ready to begin the second round of free agency. Since quality restricted players are not yet available, we’re basically looking at the same old veterans that nobody wanted during the first 20 rounds, plus the rookie nobody wanted through 224 draft picks. Sound great, right? Well, I have had a little bit of luck here in the past – usually finding special teams contributors and the like. On the current team, we have a few guys who were undrafted rookie free agent (URFA) signees – usually guys who either have one particular skill that makes them helpful, guys who contribute to team chemistry, or guys who have a bump up in their first training camp to suggest potential future development. LB D.J. Dennis was a URFA, and remains with us as a special teams demon TE Clay Lannon was also a URFA, first acquired by Burlington, and is decent QB Sherman Buckner showed some early potential for development – mixed bag CB Britt Peterson, on the roster bubble, was a URFA and is a decent role player TE Gino Kerr was a URFA in 2005, switched from FB to TE to make the roster RB Lewis Lee was also a URAF in 2005, and looks to stick this year as a returner RG Larry Rapaport was a URFA last year, showed some growth potential, but is in danger P Donovan Embry was a URFA last year, and is likely to hold the job this season C Brett Lyon looks like a keeper, a solid pass blocking URFA from last year So – at the moment, we have eight or nine guys who are on the roster from the URFA process. This is, not surprisingly, a natural outcome of my usual strategy of selling off my late round draft picks – I don’t have a parade of 6th and 7th rounders to fill the roster, so I get players (usually of pretty comparable quality) after the draft, and take my chances there. No bonuses (usually) make this a low-risk proposition. We put in offers to a number of rookie free agents, and will hope for the best. In the next couple of days, I’ll detail the guys that we have landed, and will try to give a sense of where they might fit into our scheme, if at all. On a team that already has 59 players committed (58 signed plus our top draft pick), it’s tough to see any of these fresh faces sticking – but we will have to do some paring down at the end of the line, and it’s probably better to have a marginal contributor be a promising youngster than a fossilized veteran – so guys like DE Randolph Gritton and C Reinaldo Johnson are the players who will need to be watching the rookie camps.