That is interesting. Just going off the brief highlights of each UDFA, he was one of the guys who looked least impressive.
Although these offenses tend to limit the effectiveness of the TE, so maybe they think there is more there then he has showed. He is pretty well down on the guys who interest me as UDFA.
It does not mean he is the best one, but it could just come down to demand.
Here are top paid UDFAs:
Anyone see that is a virtual list of the best players? Of course not.
If he has a good agent and Dallas really wants him, he got the biggest cut of the FA pie. Depends on who else was fighting for him and why.
The UDFA process has a lot of factors involved. If you are not drafted, and you don't care where you go, your agent, if they are any good are going to get you the best deal first regardless of your best case scenario might be. I might want to go to a team that plays their scrubs a lot in preseason so I get a bunch of tape out there. Sometimes an agent tells a team, don't bother with my client unless you draft him. So it all shifts around based on a lot of things.
Not always do these players make a calculated decision and say I am going here because I can make the team. They may not care where they go. Not everyone is like Tony Romo was. And teams do overpay. We had a huge bonus to George Farmer and he couldn't even make it to the second wave of cuts. But he was able to establish a UDFA market, we just won him because we paid more.
Ever hear of Colorado OLB Jimmie Gilbert? Apparently the Jaguars really liked him but didn't want to draft him. So he got paid.
They can put things on tape in preseason games to get picked up. The talent is not that overwhelming that good and healthy players are walking the street after final cuts. It is all about attrition for the most part.
