There are stars to be found in the forgotten, undrafted free agents
- Thread starter DKphin
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he kind of reminds me of colston. Roberto wallace better watch out, it's kind of **** or get off the pot for him now it seems.
DKphin
Active Roster
Read more:http://phinphanatic.com/2012/05/01/can-jeff-fuller-beat-the-odds/Immediately after the draft ended on Sunday, the Miami Dolphins made an interesting move by signing Undrafted Free Agent WR Jeff Fuller from Texas A&M. Considering his chemistry and history with now Dolphins’ QB Ryan Tannehill and Offensive Coordinator, Mike Sherman, this appears to be a good move that makes sense. From my research, most fans appear to be in favor of this pick-up as well.
Unfortunately, the chances of any UFA to make a team’s final 53-man roster are slim to none. In most cases, only a few are fortunate enough to make the practice squad, before they are eventually released the following year. Considering the odds are stacked against him, can Fuller earn a spot on the active roster?
The last Dolphin wide receiver to accomplish such a feat was Davone Bess. Immediately following the draft in 2008, the Dolphins scooped up the Rainbow Warrior from the University of Hawaii. At 5’10 and 190 pounds, his scouting report labeled him as being short, lacked NFL speed by running a 4.69 forty at the NFL combine, can’t stretch the field vertically, can’t block, and can’t get off the ball against physical defenders. According to most scouts, his weaknesses outweighed his strengths for becoming an NFL caliber WR.
Going into the 2008 training camp, Bess was competing with nine other receivers: Anthony Armstrong, Greg Camarillo, John Dunlap, Jayson Foster, Ted Ginn Jr., Derek Hagan, David Kircus, Selwyn Lymon, and Ernest Wilford. It didn’t take long before Bess started turning heads in the Davie facility. He had an excellent camp and an impressive pre-season to be one of six receivers to earn a spot on the 53-man roster. From there, the rest is history.
Similar to Bess, Fuller had several weaknesses listed on his scouting report. They were often more negative than positive. Because of his sudden case of butterfingers, below average speed, injury history, difficulty getting off jams, and constantly slowing down before making cuts in his routes, most draft experts didn’t even have Fuller in the top 25 WR list.
Unfortunately for Fuller, his production during his senior year slightly fell from his outstanding junior year performance. He ended with just 70 catches for 878 yards and six touchdowns. He also struggled with several dropped “easy” passes during critical situations of games in his final year. On a positive note, Fuller left Texas A&M as the university’s all-time leader in receptions, yards, and touchdowns as a WR.
Fuller has two huge factors favoring his chances of making this team. First, he has ideal size as a possession receiver at 6’4” and 225 pounds, which allowed him to dominate his competition in college. In fact, Fuller and Roberto Wallace are the two tallest WRs going into training camp. Second, he already has chemistry with Tannehill since they played together for four years at Texas A&M and was his “go-to” receiver. What rookie QB wouldn’t be excited to reunite with a familiar face and old partner-in-crime from his college days? This alone may give him the advantage over the other rookie receivers.
Stranger56
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Lord knows we need one or two of these late-round/udfa to actually contribute this year. I like Fuller's size, but he's got hands like feet.
Quadfather
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Fuller is going to have a bit of an advantage because he knows most of the offense and tannehill..I actually think we are pretty deep at WR in terms of prospects. They may not be number 1's but we have some talent that could suprise us like Austin or Cruz did. I think we roll with what we got and then next year draft a reciever in the first round. We broke a precident of drafting a qb in the first round...How long has it been since we took a reciever in the first round? Oh yeah Ginn...sigh...