The NFL Draft’s transition from 12 rounds to seven has helped the long-road plight of late-round draft picks of attaining their NFL dreams.  While fifth, sixth and seventh round picks are now considered late rounders and still face long odds of making the active roster at the end of training camp, they are draft picks and team management still likes to see their picks achieve success and finding a “diamond in the rough” is always a little feather in their caps.

Players made the case for some time that being a late round pick was worse than being a free agent, because draftees were forced to go the team that picked them, while the free agents could find their best opportunity to earn a job from any of the teams.  This move has helped free agents immensely, as the best left-overs can have their cell phones blown up in the free-agent feeding frenzy that happens immediately following the draft.  Now there are far more quality players still on the market and the best salesman wins!

Tom Brady is the most famous and most successful sixth-round pick in NFL history.  Sixth-round picks don’t usually make the final 53 man roster in the first place, let alone go on to Hall of Fame careers with a handful of Super Bowl rings.  There might be a richer history of completely undrafted players going onto great success than 6^th and 7^th rounders for exactly the reason we are talking about, more free agency.  In fact, just this year Malcolm Butler made one of the best plays in Super Bowl history, taking almost a sure win for the Seattle Seahawks and snatching victory out of the jaws of defeat for Brady’s Patriots back in January.

Finding playing time for these longshots in their rookie year usually comes from contributing on special teams until an injury opens an opportunity later in the year.  Butler made his first start for the Patriots in the middle of December before becoming a household name on the game’s greatest stage.  2015 may not bring the story of a late-round pick emerging as a future Hall of Famer or a free agent making the deciding play in the Super Bowl, but keep an eye on your team’s long-shots because they will be making (and sometimes not making) plays for your team late in the season.

Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota dominated every facet of pre-draft hype, but it is far more likely that a minimum wage player with a low end five-figure signing bonus, not the multi-million guaranteed money of first rounders, that will making the most noise come January, 2016.