Now that the draft has ended, teams may sign players who weren’t picked. It’s a potentially valuable aspect of the process, given that players like John Randle -- undrafted when the draft had 12 rounds -- have made it to the Hall of Fame.
But as the land rush unfolds and as scattered unconfirmed reports of signings arise, it’s important to wait for official confirmation of the signings by the teams. Last year, for example, when the lockout ended and teams were finally permitted to round up rookies on whom dibs weren’t called, multiple erroneous reports of signings emerged via Twitter accounts and websites -- and then those reports were picked up and spread and several of them ultimately were flat wrong.
The most glaring example was linebacker Mark Herzlich, who widely was reported as having signed with the Ravens. He actually signed with the Giants -- and he’ll soon be wearing one more Super Bowl ring than Dan Marino, Dan Fouts, Fran Tarkenton, Jim Kelly, Donovan McNabb, Barry Sanders, Cris Carter, Andre Reed, and I could keep going but you get the point, combined.
So we’re going to wait until the teams confirm the signings. Especially since most of the players who’ll be joining NFL teams as undrafted free agents will, come September, be watching the games on TV, just like the rest of us. And they’ll ultimately have as many Super Bowl rings as Dan Marino, Dan Fouts, Fran Tarkenton, Jim Kelly, Donovan McNabb, Barry Sanders, Cris Carter, Andre Reed, and I could keep going but you get the point, combined.