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National Football League
Draft King Analysis
May 21, 2009
Lou Pickney, DraftKing.com
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Last night I ran across the 2009 Rivals.com All-Undrafted Team. It's an interesting list, and it reminded me again of how amazing it is that Mississippi State FS Derek Pegues not only went undrafted, but he remains unsigned as of this writing. Pegues took part in minicamps on a tryout basis with the Chicago Bears and the New York Giants earlier this month, but at this point he remains unsigned. I know that times are tight, but there isn't a team out there willing to take a flier on him for a $1,000-$2,000 signing bonus? There must be more to his story than what I know.
 | CB Dre Bly has signed with the 49ers. (Icon SMI)
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I ran across this interesting "What if" take on Vinny Testaverde and the 1999 season, which theorizes what might have happened if Vinny hadn't suffered that season-ending Achilles tendon injury in week one. I forgot that the Jets lead the HGH-fueled (in my personal opinion) Broncos 10-0 in the third quarter at Mile High in the 1998 AFC Championship Game (which took place in January 1999). It also amazed me to realize that we're more than ten years removed from that game. Time flies.
Something I meant to address yesterday was this article, which indicates that the Rooney Rule (requiring at least one minority candidate to be considered for an NFL head coaching position) might be extended to cover General Managers. This has been discussed in some circles for some time now, and it will be interesting to see how it is executed when/if it goes into effect.
The 49ers moved quickly to fill the void created by CB Walt Harris' season-ending ACL tear that happened earlier this week, as the team signed free agent CB Dre Bly to a one-year veteran minimum contract ($845,000) today. Bly turns 32 tomorrow. Bly was a rookie in 1999 with the St. Louis Rams, which won Super Bowl XXXIV, and he later played for the Detroit Lions and, most recently, with the Denver Broncos. The Broncos cut Bly in February. Bly is expected to battle with Tarell Brown and Shawntae Spencer for the starting CB spot opposite Nate Clements.
We're still at least a full month away, if not longer, from the start of teams signing their first-round picks to contracts. The delay between the draft and the start of training camp is an interesting one, with both teams and agents hoping to gain leverage in negotiations based on what a pick above or below signs for elsewhere. Matthew Stafford negotiated his contract with Detroit in advance of the 2009 NFL Draft, so he is set, but the other 31 players taken in the first round all remain unsigned as of this writing.
Sometimes a player is accused of "holding out" when he hasn't signed with a given team,
which to me is inaccurate given that a drafted player has made no agreement with the team from which to hold out. I've been guilty of using this terminology in the past in discussing an unsigned rookie, but it annoys me that a perception exists that a given player is holding out when that same phrasing is used for a player already under contract with a team.
A good example of this is the 2007 Kansas City Chiefs: LSU rookie WR Dwayne Bowe didn't sign until after training camp started, but that didn't constitute him being a hold out since he wasn't contractually obligated to be there until he had a contract with the team. In comparison, the refusal of RB Larry Johnson to come to camp that year, in hopes of landing a new contract, certainly better fit the mold of what that phrase is generally understood to be.
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