 Mike HlasHi, I'm Gazette/TheGazette.com sports columnist Mike Hlas. This is the Hlog. We will meet here, discuss things, and then go [...] |
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Three-fourths of all NFL teams have former Iowa Hawkeye players in their training camps
I’ve kind of taken it upon myself to keep tabs on the former Iowa Hawkeyes in NFL training camps. The reason? I think a lot of the stories are compelling.
Matt Kroul and Bryan Mattison switching from defensive line to offensive line to try to make teams. The possibility of three rookies from Iowa (Christian Ballard, Adrian Clayborn, Karl Klug) starting on NFL defensive lines, or at least getting a lot of playing time. Players like Shonn Greene and Amari Spievey apparently on the cusp of making serious impacts.
But it’s a lot to follow. Because there are 44 Hawkeyes in camps, and the vast majority will be on NFL rosters after the final cuts.
I did the math. Ex-Hawkeyes are on 24 of the 32 NFL squads as of Tuesday. The Baltimore Ravens (Kyle Calloway, Mattison, Marshal Yanda, Marcus Paschal) and Minnesota Vikings (Ballard, Chad Greenway, Allen Reisner, Seth Olsen) lead with four each. Atlanta, Carolina and Kansas City have three apiece.
The full list is here, albeit with one error. Sean Considine is with Carolina, not Jacksonville. I’m not criticizing. Like I said, it’s a lot to follow.
The only teams without a Hawkeye are Arizona, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Houston, San Francisco and Washington.
If Calloway doesn’t make the Baltimore team, he may end up with the Omaha Nighthawks of the United Football League.
Omaha scooped up Calloway in the UFL’s allocation draft caused by the folding of the Hartford Colonials.
The Nighthawks’ season starts Sept. 15 with a home game against the Virginia Destroyers. Disappointingly, Omaha will be done playing before the Iowa-Nebraska game in Lincoln on Nov. 25. It could have been a full weekend out there.
The UFL has four teams. There are no former Hawkeyes on any of their current rosters, as near as I can tell. Which is good, because that would be too much to track.
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And still no DJK. He should be UFL material at least, right?
I’ll admit, I have been kind of curious myself about where Derrell will land.
DJK, basically, is blacklisted. No way that Iowa’s all-time leading receiver, and the Big Ten’s leading kickoff returner, carrying an NFL body, can’t earn a no-risk free agent contract to an NFL camp. Except that he can’t. I don’t know if Ferentz is sending a message to the rest of the Iowa squad, or if the NFL simply has a one-strike-you’re out rule now. But DJK’s bad decisions have really hurt him.
In the context of OSU knowingly playing ineligible guys all year, and the criminal enterprise that was fronted by the Miami football team, its ironic. The NFL should not have higher standards than the NCAA, but it would appear here that it does.
As everyone knows, Kirk’s relationships in the NFL go way deep. Can’t imagine any NFL team interested in DJK wouldn’t call Kirk as a reference, like for any job opening. Is there any way he can have much positive to say about DJK as a person/team guy, after all he did for 4-5 years to basically thumb his nose at Kirk, and to a large degree the program? No doubt the kid can play football, but with millions of $$ at play, you’ve also got to be a good employee. Plenty of proof of that not being the case over the years with the likes of TO, Ochochinco, Packman and others. They wasted a lot of team’s money, despite displaying unbelievable talent at moments.