‘I can’t believe he was still available!!!’… yeah, right genius

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/04/2009 (6324 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The coaches and general managers never fail to disappoint us on NFL draft day when it comes to repetition and monotony. Such was the case, once again, as the NCAA brought all its livestock to market and we got to hear the GMs exclaim, “I can’t believe so-and-so was still available when it was our turn. We are so very lucky!”

But aside from the nauseating optimism from all the personnel managers that their, and only their, choices of beef will reshape the course and destiny of the franchise, the brand a player gets on draft day will go a long way in determining the experience and respect he will have in training camp.

Way back in 1997, I was part of a three-player package that the Buffalo Bills brought in on the defensive line to provide depth, competition — and who am I kidding — some camp meat to get pounded on. With the likes of Bruce Smith, Ted Washington, Phil Hansen and Bryce Paup already manning the trenches in a predominantly three-four defence, any illusions we may have had about going from football zeros to football heroes were far ahead of us.

Marcellus Wiley had been drafted with the Bills’ second pick in the draft out of Columbus University, and Pat Williams (the Pat Williams who is currently playing nose tackle for the Minnesota Vikings) and myself were undrafted free agent selections.

For those of you unfamiliar with the term “undrafted free agent selection” it means that after the draft is finished, teams select a limited number of training camp fodder from the remaining pool of players that were eligible to be drafted, but were passed over.

You may think that three players vying for essentially the same spots would all stand an equal opportunity in an NFL training camp, but whether it was in our heads or that of our coaches, we all embraced our badge number and ranking when it came to the pecking order and how we interacted with others.

The first thing you notice when you are not drafted and the guy standing next to you is the franchise’s second pick, is that he and everyone else is very aware of that fact.

In training camp, while Pat and I were on a day-to-day existence trying to eke out our survival, Marcellus was apartment shopping and being introduced to alumni and stakeholders within the Bills organization.

Shoo-ins

The idea that the team’s first two or three picks in the draft are virtual shoo-ins to make the team is true, because of the non-refundable money they are given and the fact that football overseers do not enjoy being made to look foolish.

In fact, the privilege and status of being a high draft pick was such a coat of arms it affected the way we competed and practised against them.

While last-chance hopefuls such as Pat and myself were advised to be on the field an hour prior to practice — because we obviously had a lot to work on — Marcellus was not expected to be out there.

During conditioning drills when we were running 40-yard sprints we always battled to see who would be the close second to Marcellus, but never really considered turning society upside down by trying to beat him at anything. He was selected way ahead of us, literally hundreds of players before us, and measured, weighed, and determined to be superior in every facet… so how could you even contemplate beating him at anything?

It just didn’t seem possible, which is a huge mistake rookies make when they attend their first camp and let their draft position determine their potential.

Coming close to the second pick in the draft seemed close enough without upsetting the delicate balance of the football world.

As it turned out, all three of us made the team in 1997 in one capacity or another, yet if you look back at which of us had the most successful career in the NFL, though Marcellus had a noteworthy career, Pat Williams, the other undrafted free agent, is still playing at a Pro Bowl calibre.

And as an undrafted free agent and a guy who had none of the credentials our counterpart did, the Bills must have been saying after the fact, “I can’t believe Pat was still available when we ran out of draft picks.”

Doug Brown, always a hard-hitting defensive lineman and frequently a hard-hitting columnist, appears Tuesdays in the Free Press.