http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_y...tzel_new_orleans_saints_roster_rejects_011012 This USED to be the Sparanophins, castoffs and overlooked guys with chips on their shoulders, the Saints get it, though it does help when you have Drew Brees at Qb.. And the Saints reliance on UDFA's is not limited to their roster, when you find a team that has been good for awhile, they will gather talented UDFA's as they understand that picking so late in each rd means they must supplement their drafts every yr, though it does at times take more then 1 yr for a UDFA player to come up to speed. This is also one of the reasons why to me, the Draft is an event, it's a ton of fun, but it is not as important as Mel Kiper would have you believe. It's also one of the reasons why I watch the CFL like a hawk, this is how good teams find guys that can play, and their professional experience, be it at a lower level, can give them an edge over their competition for the 61 man Franchise roster.
They've also used #1 picks on Rb's in the last 7 drafts including trading up with the pats to draft Ingram. When you can find UDFA's who can play, you can occasionally make that move.
Article mentioned 47%. I suspect the packers are built along the same lines as well, which is one of the reasons why I still love the draft, but can keep some perspective on what exactly it accomplishes.
A.J. Smith calls it the second draft; the pool of UDFA's that are priority signing as soon as the Mr Irrelevant is announced. ESPN or SI had a really nice article detailed just how competitive the "Second Draft" really is.
Especially now that the draft is only 7 rounds. The NFL used to find a good portion of their talent in that 8 to 12 round range. Now that's UDFA territory. It's almost like having half a dozen 8th round picks every year. If you can evaluate talent you can find guys like Troy Brown, Trent Green or one of my all-time favorites Mark Clayton.
Problem kind of is that with the practice roster, teams who like a player, but are not sold on them, can just stash him on there and simply never play him, it puts off a decision to play a guy from being made. In today's NFL, a player like Jeff Cross would never see the field, or more then likely wouldn't imo.
It depends on the opportunity. Bess saw the field with Miami b/c there was weakness ahead of him on the depth chart.
