DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk 2025 NFL Draft UDFA Thread

Ja'Seem Reed, WR from San Diego looks interesting. One of the 13 UDFA's we signed per the official team app.

It'll be interesting to see how well he can work against a higher level of defender.

A tryout guy makes the 90...."Kent State wide receiver Luke Floriea has earned himself a contract on the 90-man roster with the Cleveland Browns." Old saying, where there is will, there is a way......hope he does well as competition ramps up.....Go Browns!!!!

We are going to need the extra bodies at WR with all the QB work that needs done.

It’s be nice to see a tryout TE - or a guy at any other position - make the team. We need a couple tight ends with KS’s system.

Honest question, what UDFA players have made the roster and made a significant contribution for the Browns in the last bunch of years, anyone know?

Hickman played a decent bit last year and looks in line to start this year. DeAnthony Bell was a core special teamer. Diabate played some as well.

Those are just off the top of my head.

Lol can say the same thing about drafted players last few years

Off the top I don't know...Hickman maybe.

In the end it doesn't matter. Those guys aren't being signed because we hope to find a star. Well, ok, we hope.

Roster building isn't just from the top down. It's also about building from the bottom up. If you can get better at the bottom of the roster as well, you have a better team.

Lets see a few over the years off the top of my head

Phil Dawson
Josh Cribbs
Shaun O Hara
Leigh Bodden
Tashaun Gipson
Jamel White
D’Ernest Johnson
Craig Robertson
Isaiah Crowell


Current Players

Corey Bojorquez
Tony Brown
Mohamoud Diabate
Ronnie Hickman
Sam Kamara
Winston Reid
and don't forget about Rex Sunahara

Here's the thing about the last 3 years... We only had (1) second round pick and zero first round picks.

The draft classes consisted of:
2024 (1) second, (1) third, (1) fifth, (1) sixth and (2) seventh
2023 (2) third, (2) fourth, (2) fifth and (1) sixth
2022 (3) third, (2) fourth (one of which was K Cade York), (1) fifth, (1) sixth and (2) seventh

% of success (become regular starters) in rounds 3-7
1 50% or 16 players
2 33% or 11 players
then
3 16% or 5 players
4 8% or 3 players
5 5% or 1.6 players
6 2% or .64 players
7 1% or .32 players

Edit: Currently 12% of NFL starters are UDFA.... food for thought


As you can imagine, with teams signing upwards of 5-15 UDFA players each off season, it is more common than you think to get a UDFA to pan out than it is to hit on your single pick at a position in one of these later rounds. They come to camp basically on a tryout. Same as draft picks of course, but the draft picks have a leg up because the draft capital was spent on them. If an UDFA player is outperforming a draft pick in camp, it becomes pretty likely that player was just missed in the process. Easy to do with approximately 16,000 prospects available and only 257 draft picks made.

If anyone is going to get excited about a 5th round draft pick before camp starts, it's just as valid for someone to get excited about an UDFA getting signed.