END OF DRAFT SPARKS “MASS CONFUSION”
Posted by Mike Florio on April 27, 2008, 9:55 p.m.
With the draft over, the 32 NFL teams are lining up flocks of players who weren’t drafted as free agents.
As one league source tells us, it’s currently “mass confusion” as teams try to get dibs on the guys they want.
“There’s got to be a better way,” the source said.
The problem is that the players often are facing ultimatums from teams who have contract offers on the table right now, and the players’ agents don’t have a full and fair chance to scope out other possibilities. The risk in turning the Sunday night “take it or leave it” offer down is that, in the end, that offer might have been the best and/or only one.
So why not prevent any free agents from signing until 24 or 36 hours after the draft ends? It would allow players to intelligently assess their options before making a decision.
It’s widely believed that it’s better for players not to be drafted than to be drafted late in the process, since the player who isn’t drafted might find a better fit with a franchise that didn’t choose to use a draft pick to land him.
