Coming out of the 49ers’ 32-19 season-opening victory over the New York Jets, the participant of the sport wasn’t any of San Francisco’s well-known stars. Instead, that honor went to Jordan Mason, unknown to the informal NFL fan previous to that Monday night time.
With famous person operating again Christian McCaffrey inactive as a consequence of damage, Mason made his first NFL begin in prime time — and stole the present. The third-year professional registered 28 carries for 147 yards (5.3 yards per carry) and a landing, the centerpiece of a dashing assault that overwhelmed the Jets. The final time Mason had that many carries or dashing yards in a single recreation? A 2016 highschool contest.
And this is the distinguishing issue about Mason: He’s a former undrafted free agent.
Signed by the 49ers after the 2022 draft, the previous Georgia Tech standout has been a mainstay as a core particular teamer, lacking just one recreation since becoming a member of the franchise.
“He got here in fairly mature,” left deal with Trent Williams mentioned of Mason after the season opener. “Even being the third or fourth again, he was at all times prepared. … He earned all people’s respect.”
Tom Brady’s 3 Stars of Week 1: Micah Parsons, Jordan Mason and Baker Mayfield
Mason is simply one of many many undrafted gamers who will form the 2024 season. Undrafted free brokers characterize a major share of the participant inhabitants — roughly a 3rd every season — however they get the shortest finish of the stick in a league with brief careers and few ensures. While their paths of perseverance and overcoming adversity are typically understood, the specifics of their tales can typically go ignored.
FOX Sports spoke with a number of former undrafted free brokers, each present gamers and retired legends, about their experiences with the UDFA label — and their appreciation for it.
‘They have been questioning what occurred to me’
For Warren Moon, undrafted standing introduced obscurity early in his skilled profession.
The Pro Football Hall of Famer’s journey is well-documented — from Canadian Football League star to 17 seasons within the NFL, the place he was a nine-time Pro Bowler and the 1990 Offensive Player of the Year. He was the primary Black quarterback and the primary undrafted quarterback enshrined in Canton.
Moon was a distinguished school soccer participant at Washington — within the 1977 season, he led the Huskies to a Pac-8 title and a victory over Michigan within the Rose Bowl, the place he was named MVP. But after receiving intel that he’d be chosen late within the draft (if in any respect) — after which be requested to change positions — Moon started his skilled profession within the CFL.
Not enjoying within the NFL out of school damage Moon, a lot in order that he felt betrayed by his nation. And enjoying in Canada, he actually dropped off the radar in America. Consistent live broadcasts of CFL games didn’t gain traction in the U.S. until the 1980s.
During the 1982 NFL gamers’ strike, with video games canceled, NBC broadcast CFL video games for a time, placing Moon again in entrance of an American viewers.
“People began to say, ‘Oh, that is the place he went. Oh, he is up in Canada,'” Moon advised FOX Sports. “People have been telling me that. They have been questioning what occurred to me.”
Warren Moon was enjoying for the Edmonton Eskimos in 1982 when Canadian Football League video games began getting air time within the U.S. as a result of NFL gamers’ strike. (Photo by David Madison / Getty Images)
Moon gained 5 consecutive Grey Cups (the CFL’s equal of the Super Bowl). He was a two-time CFL MVP. He made some huge cash. He did not should cope with the racism he confronted within the U.S. He was snug in Canada.
Still, he could not resist the urge to play within the NFL.
“In the again of my thoughts, you are still watching NFL video games (and considering): ‘Am I adequate to play?'” mentioned Moon, who signed with the Houston Oilers forward of the 1984 season after a bidding battle for his providers. “These folks advised me I wasn’t adequate. Can I make it at that stage? And that burning want is what introduced me again.”
A vote of confidence
Entering the NFL, Kenny Moore II felt impostor syndrome.
Today, the Colts star is arguably the league’s finest nickelback, a participant who has signed two record-setting offers for his place. But popping out of Valdosta State in 2017, he noticed himself as much less assured than everybody else.
He initially signed with the Patriots, who have been coming off their historic Super Bowl LI comeback victory over the Atlanta Falcons. Around the locker room have been established gamers who’d been by means of a number of Super Bowls collectively, headlined by quarterback Tom Brady, now thought of the best participant of all time. Moore’s personal place group featured the likes of Stephon Gilmore and Malcolm Butler, the Super Bowl XLIX hero.
Then there was Moore, a Division II undrafted rookie with a $2,000 signing bonus.
Despite his humble NFL beginnings as an undrafted participant out of Division II Valdosta State, Kenny Moore II has change into a star with the Colts. (Photo by Michael Allio/Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Images)
After a coaching camp and preseason through which he gave his all and impressed the Patriots, Moore was reduce anyway. It marked the primary time he’d been “fired” as a soccer participant, the primary time he’d been advised he wasn’t adequate. But he remembers vividly a dialog with coach Bill Belichick, speaking in a hallway after he’d acquired the information.
Belichick’s message: You did all you could possibly.
“To hear that from one of many best coaches ever — and his kind of criticism that went into the sport, his kind of corrections (of my recreation) — he had already given me all of the instruments that I wanted to take the following step,” Moore advised FOX Sports. “So wherever I landed after that, I knew I used to be outfitted. I laid my head down that night time with reduction, with loads of humility, simply to get up the following day not realizing what was going to occur, however I knew I used to be prepared for it.
“The subsequent day, I used to be flying to Indy.”
Handling the adversity
Outside linebacker Caleb Murphy made the Titans’ roster final season as an undrafted rookie from Division II Ferris State, the place he set the NCAA single-season report with 25.5 sacks and tied the NCAA report with 39 tackles for loss.
He admits his rookie season was arduous for him. Despite starring within the preseason, he was inactive for all however three regular-season video games.
That expertise has helped him be taught to prioritize his psychological well being. After being alone in Nashville final season, having household dwell with him this 12 months has helped.
Now in his second NFL season, Caleb Murphy has performed in a handful of video games as a backup linebacker for the Titans. (Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)
“You cannot make everybody lively, and I used to be simply the man they selected to not make lively most video games,” Murphy advised FOX Sports. “Just speaking to folks (about psychological struggles). You’ve acquired to speak. Sticking to your self and figuring it out by yourself by no means works. You should let it out as a result of there’s loads of stuff happening that you may’t management. You have to have the ability to talk to somebody how you are feeling.
“I take pleasure in being right here — simply because I’m right here,” he continued. “Any undrafted man needs to be completely happy in the event that they make the 53. … I pleasure myself on that each day.”
Playing to your strengths
What’s the important thing to sticking round a group, to having endurance within the NFL as an undrafted participant? According to Kurt Warner, like Moon an undrafted quarterback who wound up within the Pro Football Hall of Fame, it is leaning into your strengths.
Many UDFAs do not possess the bodily attributes of a prime draft choose, however Warner says they’ve particular traits inside them. That’s what he believes epitomized his profession — from school at Northern Iowa to a tryout with the Green Bay Packers, to stocking cabinets at a grocery retailer, to graduate assistant at his alma mater, to the Arena Football League, to Rams backup and to turning into an NFL beginning quarterback for the primary time at age 28.
“I had issues that I might do this have been I believe pretty much as good as anyone that is ever performed the sport,” Warner advised FOX Sports. “Not having (sure) expertise might have been why I used to be undrafted and went the route that I did. But it was these expertise that have been nonetheless there that allowed me to separate myself each time I used to be on the soccer area.”
Warner, the one undrafted participant to be named NFL MVP and Super Bowl MVP, constructed a fame as a prime playoff performer. He owns three of the highest six passing yard totals in Super Bowl historical past.
Kurt Warner was MVP of Super Bowl XXXIV after throwing for 414 yards and two TDs within the Rams’ 23-16 win over the Tennessee Titans. (STEVE SCHAEFER/AFP by way of Getty Images)
“At some level, you have to acknowledge, ‘Hey, I am unable to make throws like Patrick Mahomes. I am unable to run like Lamar Jackson. So I’m going to concentrate on the issues that I do effectively. And I’m going to proceed to get higher at these issues, as a result of if I’m going to separate myself, it may be in these areas,'” Warner added. “And so I believe it is actually necessary for undrafted guys to trust in who they’re, to acknowledge what their talent set is and what they bring about that is distinctive to the desk, and ensure they’re persevering with to concentrate on that.
“I believe it’s extremely, crucial to showcase these issues and to acknowledge these issues in ourselves, so we will play to our strengths and benefit from each alternative that we’re given.”
‘I did not need the journey I had’
Warner would not know that he absolutely appreciated his soccer journey, captured within the 2021 biographical sports activities movie “American Underdog,” till it was over. But he began to achieve some concept early in his NFL profession, realizing how his unconventional path compelled him to change into a greater participant. He turned a extra full individual. His character developed differently.
And he is appreciative for what all that introduced him.
“For so lengthy, I did not need the journey that I had,” Warner mentioned. “I did not need to discuss being the grocery retailer man. I wished to speak about, ‘Hey, I made it and I belong in the identical class as these different nice gamers of this period.’ And not simply because I used to be undrafted or not as a result of I labored in a grocery retailer and now I’m doing this, however I wished my accomplishments to face alone.
“Then finally, you begin to embrace being totally different, issues being totally different and doing issues differently. And the truth that no one will ever have my story. That’s the form of stuff you embrace when it is all mentioned and carried out.”
As a Hall of Famer, Warner now embraces his journey from undrafted standing to Canton. (Photo by Nick Cammett/Diamond Images by way of Getty Images)
Moore believes he’d get extra consideration if he performed for a franchise in a much bigger market. He believes that if he had been an early to mid-round choose, he’d be a four- or five-time Pro Bowler by now, as a substitute of a one-time Pro Bowler.
He additionally believes that, as a former undrafted participant, he has to work more durable for recognition. And he considers nickelback a “soiled job” that is “not very fairly to focus on” on the aspect of the ball that will get much less consideration.
“It marries up with every part that I’ve endured to maintain proving it — to not others, however to myself,” Moore mentioned. “That I can nonetheless go get it out within the mud. I can nonetheless be behind the 8-ball and nonetheless make one thing shake with that.
“When we’re speaking a couple of man who’s in his eighth 12 months within the league, being undrafted, it has been every part I hoped for,” he continued. “It’s been every part I’ve labored for. … I’m within the stretch line each single day earlier than apply simply excited about how blessed I’m. It’s actually that. It’s actually that as of late, as a result of the NFL is difficult sufficient to make it and make desires come true.
“I acquired an enormous appreciation as a result of I do know the place I got here from.”
Against the percentages
At the tip of August, the Titans posted a now-viral video of normal supervisor Ran Carthon and head coach Brian Callahan informing 5 on-the-bubble gamers that they’d made Tennessee’s preliminary 53-man roster.
One of these gamers was David Martin-Robinson, an undrafted rookie tight finish from Temple.
“You gave me the chance,” Martin-Robinson mentioned within the video, expressing gratitude. “It’s all I wished and wanted.”
The ensuing weekend, Martin-Robinson went house to Pennsylvania. He celebrated the information with household and buddies. A neighbor even gave Martin-Robinson a pack of lottery tickets as a present.
That’s when a cousin chimed in.
“Yo, what do the percentages say on that ticket proper there?”
Martin-Robinson checked.
“You do not even want that,” the cousin continued. “You’ve already gained the lotto!”
“That hit arduous,” Martin-Robinson advised FOX Sports of the interplay. “When I sit down and give it some thought, it’s one thing I’m very happy with, ? There aren’t very many who get to say they’ve carried out it and that they’ve made it up to now.
“At the identical time, I’m excited to maintain going.”
