Official 2017 UDFA Thread

So tell me if I am wrong but the general agreement is 4 or so of these guys as far as we know have a legit shot to really be something. That correct?

With Jacob Hollister-TE, Josh Augusta-DT, Harvey Langi-LB and Jason Thompson-S being the big "gets"?

BobDigital said:

So tell me if I am wrong but the general agreement is 4 or so of these guys as far as we know have a legit shot to really be something. That correct?

With Jacob Hollister-TE, Josh Augusta-DT, Harvey Langi-LB and Jason Thompson-S being the big "gets"?

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I'd add Carr, Daniels, and Davey Jones...at the very least. Never seen as deep a udfa class as this one.
Forgot about Max Rich, and the guard from Purdue.
Camp competition is gonna be fierce.

manxman2601 said:

Outstanding post.

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Thank you. I appreciate the hard work and knowledge you bring to this forum.

Six SEC UDFAs. Four last year. The SEC is clearly a good place to find them. So much depth.

FoxboroFlyer said:

I'd add Carr, Daniels, and Davey Jones...at the very least. Never seen as deep a udfa class as this one.
Forgot about Max Rich, and the guard from Purdue.
Camp competition is gonna be fierce.

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I like Dwayne Thomas too. He's not the biggest or fastest, but he's a football player. I would not be shocked if he carved out a Logan Ryan like role for himself with the Patriots.

There's going to be a lot of angst on this board come cutdown to 53 day hoping some good players can make it to the practice squad.

Kenneth Sims said:

I like Dwayne Thomas too. He's not the biggest or fastest, but he's a football player. I would not be shocked if he carved out a Logan Ryan like role for himself with the Patriots.

There's going to be a lot of angst on this board come cutdown to 53 day hoping some good players can make it to the practice squad.

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Agree completely. I was trying to keep my additions to a minimum, but it's almost impossible. There are a nice number of "good gets" in this class. I don't even know how you separate them other than areas of need on the roster, but I don't even think that works. there's going to be some surprises, for sure.
I like Killings, and Dean too

Kenneth Sims said:

There's going to be a lot of angst on this board come cutdown to 53 day hoping some good players can make it to the practice squad.

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It seems like there should be a ton of depth and competition in camp at every single position except the specialists...and center. AFAIK it's still just Andrews backed by Karras, who has never played anything but RG.

BobDigital said:

So tell me if I am wrong but the general agreement is 4 or so of these guys as far as we know have a legit shot to really be something. That correct?

With Jacob Hollister-TE, Josh Augusta-DT, Harvey Langi-LB and Jason Thompson-S being the big "gets"?

Click to expand...

I'll add one more:

patchick said:

It seems like there should be a ton of depth and competition in camp at every single position except the specialists...and center. AFAIK it's still just Andrews backed by Karras, who has never played anything but RG.

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Maybe the Jon Toth rumor will come through. Other than that, who knows.

TE Hollister had similar numbers to O'Shaunessy although the latter has proven it on ST in the NFL already. They should have a solid battle.

On Thompson, is he a legit Safety or is he a Safety in name only (like Ebner) after the position switch? I am definitely not sleeping on the Safeties, we looked at them seriously, it seemed, pre draft and Richards likely isn't safe despite the lack of draftees there.

Kenneth Sims said:

I like Dwayne Thomas too. He's not the biggest or fastest, but he's a football player. I would not be shocked if he carved out a Logan Ryan like role for himself with the Patriots.

There's going to be a lot of angst on this board come cutdown to 53 day hoping some good players can make it to the practice squad.

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It's just a sign of how loaded the team is. Last year there was a lot of angst across this board at cutdown time, and the league agreed given how many of those guys were claimed. We haven't seen them on the field yet, but there's a chance it'll be even "worse" this year.... Which is a sign that the defending Super Bowl champions are even better.

Unfortunately some of this will work itself out via injuries. We'll see how it all plays out.

BelichickFan said:

TE Hollister had similar numbers to O'Shaunessy although the latter has proven it on ST in the NFL already. They should have a solid battle.

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At this point it looks like 5-way battle for the 3rd TE spot: Hollister, Housler, Lengel, O'Shaughnessy, Williams. Anybody want to take a stab at handicapping the race?

AtomicDawg said:

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Still sorry Anthony Johnson didn't work out. Such a sport..

patchick said:

At this point it looks like 5-way battle for the 3rd TE spot: Hollister, Housler, Lengel, O'Shaughnessy, Williams. Anybody want to take a stab at handicapping the race?

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Everything I own is on Hollister. High, high hopes for this one. Gotta believe O'Shaughnessy has the best odds, as far as handicapping goes though.

patchick said:

At this point it looks like 5-way battle for the 3rd TE spot: Hollister, Housler, Lengel, O'Shaughnessy, Williams. Anybody want to take a stab at handicapping the race?

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These are O'Shaughnessy and Hollister's numbers :

O'S :

Height: 6042
Weight: 248
40 Yrd Dash: 4.68
20 Yrd Dash: 2.71
10 Yrd Dash: 1.61
225 Lb. Bench Reps: 16
Vertical Jump: 35
Broad Jump: 09'08"
20 Yrd Shuttle: 4.38
3-Cone Drill: 7.20

Hollister :

Height: 6035
Weight: 239
40 Yrd Dash: 4.64
20 Yrd Dash: 2.70
10 Yrd Dash: 1.62
225 Lb. Bench Reps:
Vertical Jump: 36 1/2
Broad Jump: 10'01"
20 Yrd Shuttle: 4.34
3-Cone Drill: 7.12

Kind of spooky how similar they are.

For reference with Dwayne Allen :

Height: 6031
Weight: 255
40 Yrd Dash: 4.89
20 Yrd Dash: 2.85
10 Yrd Dash: 1.73
225 Lb. Bench Reps: 27
Vertical Jump: 32
Broad Jump: 09'02"
20 Yrd Shuttle: 4.37
3-Cone Drill: 7.12

Allen is the biggest and slowest in straight line but his quickness is good despite the size.

Williams and Lengel are almost another position. No idea if they can keep Gronk, Allen, one of (O'Shaughnessy/Hollister) and one of (Williams/Lengel) while also keeping Devlin at FB.

patchick said:

At this point it looks like 5-way battle for the 3rd TE spot: Hollister, Housler, Lengel, O'Shaughnessy, Williams. Anybody want to take a stab at handicapping the race?

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The fact that they had Housler in the house for some time now . and the fact that despite almost unanimous perception of quality and depth of TE class they still traded for O'Shaughnessy (and in the middle of the draft at that) probably suggests they think pretty strongly about him . and not too strong about Housler..

In cap sense its pretty much open since there is no money attached to any of the 5 players and have approx. same max value.

long distance said:

The fact that they had Housler in the house for some time now . and the fact that despite almost unanimous perception of quality and depth of TE class they still traded for O'Shaughnessy (and in the middle of the draft at that) probably suggests they think pretty strongly about him . and not too strong about Housler..

In cap sense its pretty much open since there is no money attached to any of the 5 players and have approx. same max value.

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I wouldn't read to much into the trade for O'shaughnessy...doesn't BB and Reid have like a consecutive multi year draft day trade thing going on? They had to come up with something. Dan O probably was a roster cut casualty anyway.

Watched footage of Dwayne Thomas. Kid is a monster in blitz packages. Bama had no answer for him




Thomas looks like a willing tackler. It's my favorite part of his game

Soul_Survivor88 said:

Watched footage of Dwayne Thomas. Kid is a monster in blitz packages. Bama had no answer for him




Thomas looks like a willing tackler. It's my favorite part of his game

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Mighty impressive, against imo the best team in the country. Excellent post, sir! Thanks for sharing!