NFL Draft: Late Round Finds vs. Undrafted Gems

[Topher Dean]

With the conference championships looming and Super Bowl XLIII to follow, fans of the teams left out of the mix are eagerly anticipating the draft in April. The great thing, among many, about the most exciting drafting process in all of sports is that it becomes a competition in it of itself. It’s a contest that, yes, even the Detroit Lions can emerge victorious. While it won’t give a team like the Lions their first notch in the win column in over sixteen months, it is capable of spurring unbridled optimism amongst sports’ most passionate fans for the upcoming season.

For the casual fan, the draft is simply a matter of, “Who did we take with our first pick?” For the die hard it’s, “Who was Mr. Irrelevant?” or “Who did we nab with that 6th round compensatory pick?” For many rabid fans it’s who is drafted in the late rounds and who their favorite teams bring in as undrafted free agents that make the process exciting.

With that said, I’ve assembled two teams—one made up of players drafted in the 5th round or later this decade and one made up of undrafted free agents. It’s quite shocking in that these squads appear to more resemble a pro bowl roster rather than players that were passed on in the early rounds or forgotten altogether. The point is there are certainly diamonds in the rough. Keep in mind I’m only using active players for both teams.


ALL-FIFTH ROUND AND LATER TEAM

Pos.	Rd.	Player	College	Drafted by	Year
QB	6	Tom Brady*	Michigan	New England	2000
RB	6	Chester Taylor	Toledo	Baltimore	2001
FB	7	Madisen Hedgecock	North Carolina	St. Louis	2005
WR	7	T.J. Houshmandzadeh*	Oregon State	Cincinnati	2001
WR	7	Marques Coslton*	Hofstra	New Orleans	2006
TE	6	Bo Scaife	Texas	Tennessee	2005
C	6	Justin Hartwig	Kansas	Tennessee	2002
G	5	David Diehl	Illinois	Baltimore	2003
G	5	Jake Scott	Idaho	Indianapolis	2004
T	5	Tony Pashos	Illinois	Baltimore	2003
T	5	Jared Gaither	Maryland	Baltimore	2007
DT	7	Jay Ratliff*	Auburn	Dallas	2005
DT	5	Rocky Bernard	Texas A&M	Seattle	2002
DE	7	Robert Mathis	Alabama A&M	Indianapolis	2002
DE	5	Aaron Kampman*	Iowa	Green Bay	2002
LB	6	Cato June*	Michigan	Indianapolis	2003
LB	5	Scott Fujita	California	Kansas City	2002
LB	5	Hunter Hillenmeyer	Vanderbilt	Green Bay	2003
CB	7	Cortland Finnegan*	Samford	Tennessee	2006
CB	5	Brandon Carr	Grand Valley State	Kansas City	2008
SS	7	Gibril Wilson	Tennessee	N.Y. Giants	2006
FS	6	Antoine Bethea*	Howard	Indianapolis	2006
K	6	Neil Rackers*	Illinois	Cincinnati	2000
P	5	Shane Lechler*	Texas A&M	Oakland	2000
KR/PR	5	Dante Hall*	Texas A&M	Kansas City	2000

ALL-UNDRAFTED FREE AGENT TEAM

Pos.	Player	College	Year
QB	Kurt Warner*	Northern Iowa	1994
RB	Willie Parker*	North Carolina	2004
FB	Tony Richardson*	Auburn	1994
WR	Wes Welker*	Texas Tech	2004
WR	Patrick Crayton	Northwest Oklahoma State	2004
TE	Antonio Gates*	Kent State	2003
C	Jeff Saturday*	North Carolina	1999
G	Brian Waters*	North Texas	2000
G	Ryan Lilja	Kansas State	2004
T	Jason Peters*	Arkansas	2004
T	Donald Penn	Utah State	2007
DT	Pat Williams*	Texas A&M	1997
DT	Chartic Darby	South Carolina State	2001
DE	Cullen Jenkins	Central Michigan	2003
DE	Adewale Ogunleye*	Indiana	2000
LB	James Harrison*	Kent State	2002
LB	Antonio Pierce*	Arizona	2001
LB	Bart Scott*	Southern Illinois	2002
CB	Randall Gay	Louisiana State	2004
CB	Nick Harper	Fort Valley State	2001
SS	Atari Bigby	Central Florida	2005
FS	Will Demps	San Diego State	2002
K	Adam Vinatieri*	South Dakota State	1994
P	Jeff Feagles*	Miami, FL	1988
KR/PR	Joshua Cribbs*	Kent State	2005

* - Been to a Pro Bowl