Rookie free agents can be great stories

Rookie free agents like CribbsCLEVELAND - OCTOBER 4: Joshua Cribbs #16 of the Cleveland Browns returns a kick against the Cincinnati Bengals at Cleveland Browns Stadium on October 4, 2009 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images)

Posted By: County Sports Network April 26, 2020

Rookie free agents can be great stories

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By STEVE KING

The NFL Draft was great – it always is, and this one, as I have indicated, was the best we’ll ever see – but now comes the best part of player procurement involving rookies.

That is the signing of players who weren’t drafted, the free agents. It’s been ongoing since the draft ended and will continue over the next couple of days, even probably as you read this.

The players who are drafted are a cut above. They’re supposedly the best of all the prospects who were available beginning last Thursday night at 8 and ending in the early evening Saturday when the draft ended with the last player selected, “Mr. Irrelevant,” Georgia linebacker Tae Crowder, by the New York Giants in the seventh round, at No. 255 overall. Crowder is a long way from LSU quarterback Joe Burrow, who was chosen No. 1 overall, but at least he was drafted. Drafted players have a lot room for error — they’ll get the benefit of the doubt – because teams are invested time, money and manpower in scouting them.

The players who weren’t drafted are the ones who will have to really scramble and, somehow in this virtual world without the usual rookie mini camps that would be going on next weekend, make a strong, quick impression. Who knows how that will happen?

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But it’s not impossible. It’s never impossible. There are plenty – plenty! – of stories of players who have gone from nowhere to somewhere via the rookie free-agent route. Those are the best stories. Draft picks are supposed to do that. But not rookie free agents. They are at the bottom of the food chain.

Like all teams, the expansion-era Browns have had a good number of rookie free agents who made it, including:

*Kent State product Joshua Cribbs in 2005, arguably the best kickoff-punt returner they’ve ever had – in any era dating all the way back to 1946.

*Rutgers product Shaun O’Hara (2000), a guard who was so good that he ended up being a starter on a New York Giants team that won the Super Bowl.

*Michigan product Mark Campbell, a tight end who played 10 years in the league.

In the tenure of the original Browns franchise, there were:

*South Carolina State product Orlando Brown (1993), a right tackle who, in being 6-foot-7 and 385 pounds and shoulders so wide that they seemed to go forever when he first came to the Browns, looked like a 747 jet. He was a starter for the Browns – in two different eras – and the Baltimore Ravens.

*Duke product Robert E. Jackson (1975), a guard who first impressed head coach Forrest Gregg when, in a one-on-one drill against veteran defensive tackle in Walter Johnson, a Cleveland Browns Legend, he took a real beating but refused to quit. He played 11 seasons.

*Little Dino Hall from tiny Glassboro State (1979). Who can forget him? The running back-returner got cut by Sam Rutigliano but was then re-signed and played five seasons for the Kardiac Kids.

Will this year’s Browns find a gold nugget of a player who was overlooked in the draft?

We’ll see.

But it can definitely happen. History tells us so.

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