It’s near decision time for the NFL to get on board with life and move on. For the past 100-or-so days, the NFL and NFLPA – headed by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith – have been meeting in and out of court to come up with an agreement that, at least in principle, ultimately ends the lockout.
With the past several weeks of speedy negotiations while players and owners met privately in hotels in Chicago, New York and Washington D.C. to agree on a deal, the NFL lockout should be over within a week or two and this purgatory of an offseason will finally have a place.
The primary order of business after the lockout is over will be the signing of free agents, along with scheduling the following weeks to set the 2011 NFL season in order.
“We’re very fortunate to have a lot of great players who will be in high demand,” said Eric Metz who has been an agent for 27 years and who has represented the likes of wide receiver Joey Galloway, offensive tackle John Fina, guard Ruben Brown, defensive end Luther Eliss and others, according to Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.com. “You’re a little more optimistic in those situations. The major concern is the volume of players in the market… just the number of players who are going to be out there.”
The biggest losers in this negotiation war may be the individuals drafted in 2011. Because they’ve been unable to either work out or perform for coaches in mini-camps and OTAs across the league, they have been unable to prove their worth.
The higher draft picks, mainly from the fourth-round and up, are basically safe in terms of making their team’s roster. It is the fifth- to seventh-rounders that are at risk, unable to showcase their skills or display their abilities and make their dreams of playing in the NFL come true.
Fifth- to seventh-round selectees are not guaranteed a spot on the 53-man roster, or even on the practice squad. Their selections are nothing more than a guaranteed work-out spot for the franchise that chose them.
The NFL lockout has been a blessing in disguise for many players injured last season; like Washington Redskins’ safety LaRon Landry, who had injuries to his Achilles’ and wrist, and who have used this down time rehabbing and healing. On the other hand, the lockout may have hampered the progression of many players that have not had a coach or trainer pushing and training them in organized team activities.
Playbooks (which many players obtained after the lockout was invalidated by U.S. District Court Judge Susan Richard Nelson on April 25 so that teams could resume league operations only to have the lockout reinstated four days later on April 29 by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals based off the NFL owners’ appeal) can do but so much.
Once the lockout is lifted, most veteran players will have a sense of what to do and what to expect. But the lower drafted rookies, honestly, are the ones who are left out.
To make things fair and give the lower draftees a shot to make the team that selected them, each should automatically make the team, whether on the active roster or the practice squad.
Keeping these lower drafted individuals on the squad could actually work out well for teams, even after signing veterans and undrafted free agents.
The average number of selections for each NFL team from the 2011 draft was seven. Between three to four players will make the roster while the others could be placed on the practice squad. Practice squads are set with eight individuals but a team could conceivably have nine athletes on that squad (provided one of them lives outside the United States).
The veteran or highly skilled athletes could still be signed, while the undrafted players could have a shot to make a team as well. If a drafted player does not work out into September or October, they could be released to create an opportunity for another individual who is more skilled.
One thing that favors undrafted players is that they typically do not come with a high price tag.
“Who’s going to want to pay $1 million dollars to an eight-year guy at the end of his career when they can get a guy for $330,000?” said Metz. “You can have three impact special teamers making what the veteran at the end of his career is making.”
The opportunities for the lower draft selections are there, if teams want to exercise this possibility. Nothing against the undrafted free agents, but the many selected from the 2011 NFL Draft should be given the first opportunities because they were the individuals noticed and the ones that teams placed their stamp on from the beginning.
The race to get the season on board will come swiftly – like a thief in the night. The lower draftees may be forgotten through all of this, as teams will quickly begin to get their rosters intact and their players up to speed as the 2011 NFL season draws near.
Who knows? A franchise’s need could be resolved quickly if there is a Terrell Davis (a sixth- rounder), Marques Colston (a seventh-rounder) or Tom Brady (a sixth-rounder, recently selected by his peers as the best NFL player of the 2011 season) sitting and waiting in their mist. If guys like this were cut before truly given a chance and ventured to another squad, it would be a shame.