The moments following the NFL draft are wild. Dozens of undrafted free agents are signed — or have at least verbally agreed to a contract — within minutes. Dozens more follow in the next couple hours, and by Sunday morning, more than 200 players have found NFL homes, at least in some temporary capacity.
While it's a chaotic time for teams to bolster their draft class and get the right bodies for rookie minicamp, is it as chaotic as we think?
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Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk spoke with one league source, who estimated that 90 percent of all UDFA deals were "unofficially finalized" before the 2017 draft ended. So when the Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns and Denver Broncos were making the final three picks on Sunday — and likely well before then — teams were already negotiating free-agent deals
To be clear, I have no idea if Western Michigan quarterback Zach Terrell (above) was part of the 90-percent group.
"It’s similar to the process that unfolds during the early hours of the free-agency negotiation period, when teams insist on knowing whether a given player will agree to terms with a threat/promise that they’ll move on to the next guy on the list," says Florio, who suggests the league prevents UDFA signings until 48-72 hours after the draft.
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It's an interesting proposal, but would it prevent teams from arranging handshake agreements, especially with agents with whom they have a strong relationship? Regardless, the system clearly needs fixing if nearly all free-agent deals are completed while teams are still picking.
