I was surprised to see it take this long for the UDFA thread to start. Usually, we start getting a few names within hours of the end of the draft. I kept hearing about the UDFA picks of a number of teams Saturday evening, and here we are 2 days later and this is the first I've heard of the list.
PFT reported that teams were negotiating with UDFA's as early as the 6th round, which is against NFL rules, but we know the hard way, that NFL rules only to the Pats or arbitrarily to any other team on the daily "bad list". Of course, this list NEVER includes the Giants, Jets, and a few other "favorite nations"
You have to wonder if the success the Patriots have had in finding UDFA's who can make a good roster has led other teams to work that gold mine of talent a lot harder. In fact, it occurs to me that the UDFA arena has been successful a lot. IIRC, I read something a while back that claimed over 30% of the league started out as UDFA's. That seems like a lot, so I'm not sure it's reality, but just sayin'.
The Pats have done really well in the UDFA market for a lot of years with all the starters we've had that began their careers as UDFA's.
Given the success, we've had recently with Malcolm Butler and Adam Butler, I thought it would have been cool to sign another Butler (preferably from Rutgers.
) this season. Clearly, you can't have too many Butlers on your team.
As for the OP, Harris looks the most interesting, but you never know. David Andrews signing never even moved the needle when he came aboard in the spring of 2015, especially when we already had a highly touted C on the roster (Bryan Stork) slated to be the starting C for the next decade. The Malcolm Butler story has become the prototype of the "coming from nowhere" story among the mediots. So, as fans, we should have a lot of experience with how to deal with expectations coming from the UDFA class. One thing for certain, there will be a high expectation that at least ONE will make the opening day roster, so choose your "binky" early.
Quick question. With the signing of these 10 guys, how close are we to the magic 90 number? Also, do any of the draft guys know of some guys they like who are still out there?
