UDFA signings

Ferm Sheller

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This guy's had quite the run

Labryan Ray, defensive end, Alabama
Ray came to Alabama as a five-star recruit, but ran into injury issues. A 6-foot-4, 285 defensive lineman, he suffered a broken foot as a freshman. He played his entire sophomore season in 2018, but was arrested for public intoxication. The next year, he played in just three games due to a foot injury and ankle surgery. In 2020, he missed six games due to an elbow injury. Last season, Ray played 13 games, making 11 tackles but dealt with a groin injury and dislocated left elbow.
His Combine picture was a blue tent.
 

McBride11

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leadership stopped spending money in part because of a series of scandals involving money, drugs, prostitutes etc.

They spent big this offseason, so they may well be back in a year or two.
The 30:30 The U is fantastic. Part 2 starts delving into some of this
 

RetractableRoof

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Do these numbers count vs the cap? Is there a udfa guarantee cap? Some total pool?

To NFL teams these seem like rounding errors. So what limits them? Simply not investing in unlikely prospects?
I don't KNOW the answer to your question, but I'd speculate that you only have so many reps in camp. With CBA related limits to contact, to limits on 2 a days, etc. there are only so many reps to go around for the ones that you draft. If you have a barren roster, then it would make sense to bring more in just in a shotgun approach. Beyond that, if you only have X reps in camp for that position, how advantageous is it to allocate them to UDFAs when players you've spent draft resources on could benefit from them?
 

singaporesoxfan

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Mystic Merlin

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Do these numbers count vs the cap? Is there a udfa guarantee cap? Some total pool?

To NFL teams these seem like rounding errors. So what limits them? Simply not investing in unlikely prospects?
Only the top 51 players in terms of salary count against the cap from March through Week 1, to accommodate the reality that teams will have anywhere from 75-90 players on their roster throughout the offseason/camp/preseason.

So the aforementioned bonus pool limit, roster limits, and the fact that any salary guarantees will ultimately count against the cap curb the number of UDFAs a team can acquire. Plus, desirable players aren’t necessarily going to sign with a team with a backlog of other desirable UDFAs - these guys want to find the best opportunity and given their FA status they actually are in a better spot than seventh round picks who are at the mercy of the team that drafts them.
 

Eddie Jurak

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Lazar has an article about the Pats UDFA signings, but the most interesting thing about his article is the list of UDFA who have made the team over the past 18 years:



More often than not they got a damned good player as a UDFA. You could almost assemble a team of these guys.

DB: Jackson, Butler, Jones, Gay, Coleman, Lockett
LB: Langi, Fletcher, Guyton, Woods
DL: Butler, Love, Forston, Francis, Vellano,
OL: Andrews, Kline, Barker, Croston, Maneri
TE: Hollister, Sudfeld
RB: Bolden, Taylor, Foster
WR: Meyers, Harper, Thompkins, Olszewski
QB: Hoyer, Gutierrez
ST: Allen (P), Nordin (K), Aiken (LS), Olszewski (KR)

Not much for front 7, OL, TE, safeties, RBs, or WRs. But damned good corners!
 

Shelterdog

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mwonow

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Too bad, I was daydreaming about an offense where Mac, King and the RB they drafted who had 4 TD passes were all threats to go downfield
 

bakahump

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Its reasons like that the Pats stay competitive.

(numbers are illustrative)
Always adding around the edges. If there was a Football Winshares this guy might add .5 for pinpoint snaps, .3 for Great blocks and .7 for Kick coverage. While an "avg" NFL Long Snapper is a 1 winshare guy we find a (potential) 1.5. (While a stud QB/WR/TE is worth 10WS or something. So some long snapper no one even payed attention too made up 5% on a Stud Player. We add that to our 7.5 Winshare "Avg" QB or WR or TEs or whatever....and the difference gets closer...and the team stays competitive.)

Not even considering the $ differnece between Cordona and this guy.