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Vikings WR
Atrews Bell
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I used to think you could tell them by their football shoes, which would be worn and
scuffed when they got to NFL training camps, the only shoes they could afford. Rookie free
agents. Bless ’em.
Draft choices would show up in Guccis, so to speak. They had their fat contracts and
fat egos, and they would be going through a training procedure as though it were a day on
the beach, and bam! A guy would hit ’em. Usually one of those guys wearing the worn
shoes, who had to hit to identify himself, to separate himself from the team’s other
candidates.
How I rooted for those rookie free agents during the 25 years I tagged around after my
little team, the Chargers! They are the NFL’s underdogs. They were not drafted. They
are not about to become wealthy. They are just guys.
But useful guys. For fleshing out a training-camp roster, if nothing else. And there
always is the possibility that there will be someone possessing abilities that teams did
not discern when they conducted the draft.
Josh Ranek, maybe. He is from Tyndall, S.D. (pop. 1,201). At South Dakota State, he
rushed for 6,794 yards, averaged 6.0 yards per carry and scored 426 points on 69
touchdowns and six two-point conversions. He also was third in the voting for the Harlon
Hill Trophy, which goes to the NCAA Division II Player of the Year.
Impressive stuff. Ah, but there’s a rub. Ranek weighs 205, but he is only
5-foot-7½. Running backs of that height don’t get drafted. Not often, anyhow.
In the day and age when there was no limit on how many athletes a team could have in
training camp, some clubs — I am thinking of the Cowboys — would sign as many as
100 undrafted rookies. One year, Ron Waller, who had extensive contacts in the minor
leagues, by himself signed 50 free agents for the Chiefs.
The draft concluding, teams would have representatives fanned out throughout the
country, prepared to descend, contracts at the ready, on the athletes they wished to
acquire.
These days, teams must be more selective. They cannot have more than 80 players in camp
at one time, although they are permitted six exemptions for players who have been in NFL
Europe.
But to get back to Ranek, he is represented by Jack Wirth, a Worth, Ill., agent who
counseled another former South Dakota State player, Chargers TE Steve Heiden. The
draft’s seventh and final round having gone by without Ranek being named, Wirth got
on the telephone. He contacted, by his account, about a dozen teams, including the
Chargers.
When he dialed the team’s scouting department, Wirth said he heard this recording:
"If you are an agent wishing to place an undrafted rookie, identify him and leave
your number. We will return your call if we have an interest."
Wirth’s call to the Chargers was not returned. The only team that responded, he
said, was the Cowboys. Ranek now is a Dallas property.
"If he were three inches taller, he would have been a second-round choice,"
contended Wirth. In a pre-draft workout for the Browns, Wirth said, Ranek bench-pressed
225 pounds 30 times and ran the 40 in 4.49 seconds.
In Brookings, S.D., site of South Dakota State, they think Ranek can play in the NFL.
"I certainly do," said Ron Lenz, the school’s sports publicist. "I
keep hearing people say, ‘Yeah, but he’s 5-foot-nothing.’ But he’ll
work. He’ll do whatever it takes. His dream is to play in the NFL, and he has
understood right from the start that his size would be a handicap."
At 205, Ranek has bulked up considerably from what he weighed when he matriculated at
Brookings. In high school, he twice was a state wrestling champion at 152 pounds.
Wirth did not say what sort of a signing bonus, if any, Ranek received. Some teams this
year are not offering bonuses to undrafted rookies, according to Wirth. Compare their
status to Fresno State QB David Carr, who is understood to have accepted a seven-year
arrangement from the Texans totaling $45 million, including an $11 million signing bonus.
Which team has acted most wisely in collecting rookie free agents? Difficult to say,
but I have heard some positive things about the group the Vikings rounded up. In it is
Jeremy Allen, a 240-pound fullback from Iowa who has run under 4.5, plus a number of
possible useful wide receivers: Kelly Campbell of Georgia Tech, Atrews Bell of Florida
State and Devon Lewis of Southern.
The Bengals enlisted a safety out of Mississippi State known as "Pig"
Prather. What distinguishes him, his name aside, is that one scouting combine assigned him
the highest preseason rating of any college player. But he had knee surgery following his
junior season and shoulder surgery after this senior season and was not drafted.
The Cowboys also made an interesting signing when they picked up Woody Dantzler, who
had his moments at Clemson as a quarterback. At 5-10½, Dantzler does not have a future at
quarterback in the NFL, but he can run. He might be an NFL running back.
Hope. It’s there for Josh Ranek and Pig Prather and Woody Dantzler. It’s
there for all the undrafted free agents. It’s what sustains them. After all,
they’re just guys.
Jerry Magee has covered pro football for the San Diego Union-Tribune since 1961 and for
PFW since its inception in 1967. |
