The Washington Redskins could learn from the Chicago Bulls: RG3

How is that a team can rush a player back into action before they are fully healthy. There have been numerous medical controversies in sports recently when it comes to franchise players. In football the most recent case is Robert Griffin the Third the starting Quarterback for the Washington Redskins.. He tore his ACL last year in the NFC wild card game. Going into the game he was already injured and hurting, but pushed through to help his team. He should have been benched. The coaches made the descion to let him play or was it the teams medical staff, or was it the medical staff being pressured by the coaches to clear him? After all was said and done, the NFL and the fans have no idea.

Flash forward to this football season. The Redskins held RG3 out of the preseason, but RG3 has started every game of the regular season. So far it seems he is a shell of his former self. People were exepcting him to recover and have a Adrian Peterson like recovery, sadly he has not. You can tell that he's ailing, that his accuracy is off, his speed is down. Now questions are coming up on whether he is full healthy, whether he should have been cleared, whether he should be playing at all, or is it all mental?

The NBA went through and is still going through a simliar situation with the Chicago Bulls and their franchise player Derrick Rose. He tore his ACL two years ago, and despite being cleared by the doctors to play, he did not play all last season. Some people said it was mental, some people said it was physical, but the organization left it up to Derrick Rose and his people on whether or not he would play. Either way, Derrick Rose sitting out was the right move.

In both situations the player is the star of the franchise and have big contracts. In both situations it has affected the over all performance of the team. The Bulls made it to the playoffs last year and made it deep into them. The Redskins are 0-2 going into week 2 of football season. The Redskins also drafted Kirk Cousins who is basically the same player as RG3 to back him up. He could start for the Redskins while RG3 sits.

Should the Redskins take a page out of the Bulls book and sit their star until he's %100, or should they continue to allow him to play? Yes, when it comes to RG3 the Redskins should learn from the Chicago Bulls situation with Derrick Rose. Some might say that RG3 is just rusty from lack of preseason play and he will come along just fine as he keeps playing. Sometimes these players don't know what is best for them, and it’s the organizations obligation to see to the health of their players. The Redskins drafted Kirk Cousins just in case a scenario like this would happen. So use the back up plan Redskins.

The Rise of the Undrafted Rookie: Agents new market to tap.

The Jewish New Year begins this week on Thursday and the NFL season starts Thursday as well. As Jew combining the two for me is the ultimate New Years. Sadly I cannot watch the game until after the Sabbath. This is just a side note I wanted to share with my followers.

            Lets talk about the recent change with NFL rookies making the 53-man roster of an NFL team. This change is affecting smaller NFL agents whether they choose to see it or not

            Most teams draft about 8-10 players every year.  It used to be that most of the drafted Rookies made the 53-man roster of the team that drafted them.  Not anymore. There has been a rise of undrafted rookies (UDR) making teams. Rookies drafted in rounds 4-7 are nolonger sure locks to make a team or their practice squad.

“Last year, 37 percent of the 622 undrafted rookies signed by the 32 franchises won Week One jobs, either on the practice squad (131) or the 53-man roster (98).” Per Profootballtalk.com

Flash forward to this year, and lets look at some of the teams that kept undrafted rookies over the drafted ones and veterans. The New England Patriots have 14 rookies ontheir team this year and half of them are undrafted. Six UDR’s made the New Orleans Saints roster. The Houston Texans had four make theirs. These are not lowly teams just trying to find a way to win. These teams are all predicted to make the playoffs this year and are among the most known teams in the NFL.

Here are some names of undrafted players that are in the Hall of fame, still playing or headed there. There is Arian Foster, Vontaz Burfict, Joshua Cribbs, Tony Romo, Jeff Saturday, and London Fletcher.

You can watch a great video of Arian Foster and why he is so amazing. (There is some music used and if its not your taste just mute it.)

Why is this so significant?

            Drafted players sign bigger contracts than undrafted players. Most of them sign about 2 million-dollar contracts for 5 years of their service. Undrafted players sign a league rookie minimum, which is around $375,000 a season. These deals are short term. These UDR’s receive little in signing bonus or guaranteed money; both were between $4000 and $6000. This is one of the contributing factors as to why drafted players made teams over them. A drafted player has way money guaranteed, so the organization rather keep the player they have to pay rather than cut that player and still have to pay him as well as the undrafted player.

            This recent change does not affect big name agents like Drew Rosenhause, but for smaller known agents who have maybe 5-30 clients this is a big deal. A lot of these smaller agents make money on their late round draft picks making the 53-man roster. If a drafted player signs a 2-5 million dollar contract over 3 years and then gets cut and goes to the practice squad the contract changes completely. A practice squad player makes around $5,700 a week. That is a huge drop off for an agent who can only take up to 3% off the top of each month’s salary. When an undrafted player makes the 53-man roster his contract is changed and he is given more money thus the agent benefits from this. There used to be a philosophy in the agents circles about only representing players that were for sure going to get drafted and after that might get drafted. Most undrafted rookies did not have an agent up until recently. Now suddenly the undrafted rookie market has become a new pool for smaller agents to tap into.