Deal or no deal? It's a quick decision for NFL free agents
Luke Swan had already agreed in principle to a free-agent contract with the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday evening when he fielded a call on his cell phone from the New York Jets.
The former University of Wisconsin wide receiver wasn't quite sure what to tell the Jets' representatives -- Swan had yet to sign the deal with the Chiefs -- so he politely referred them to his Chicago-based agent, Cliff Brady.
"You know what," Swan told a reporter who had been waiting on the other line, "maybe you should call me back later so we can verify the facts."
Swan did end up signing with the Chiefs on Sunday night, ending a chaotic day that was equal parts exhilarating and stressful for himself and his agent.
Now picture this: There were hundreds of players like Swan trying to secure a spot with one of the 32 teams in the National Football League on Sunday. The process started well before the second day of the draft had ended and continued late into the night.
Peter Schaffer, the Denver-based agent for former UW punter Ken DeBauche, who signed with the Green Bay Packers as an undrafted free agent, says the system is anything but ideal.
"I've been in this business now for 20 years," said Schaffer, who also represents former UW offensive lineman Joe Thomas, "and I've been saying for 19 of them -- because the first year I didn't know any better -- that there has to be a better way.
"I take what I do very serious. I take my obligation to my clients very serious and you have to make a decision -- whether it's two teams, 10 teams, 20 teams -- on what are the best chances for them to succeed in their profession. And we sometimes have five minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes to make that call."
In one case Sunday, Schaffer fielded a call from a team that offered one of his clients a $12,000 signing bonus. (Deals for undrafted players generally range from $1,000 to $20,000.) Schaffer called the player, who agreed to the deal, but the offer had been pulled in the four minutes it took Schaffer to call the team back.
Other times, Schaffer's assistants and secretaries were taking offers from teams because he was already on the line with another team.
Said Schaffer, who saw seven of his clients get drafted Sunday, "It's a very stressful, hectic few hours."
He didn't need to tell that to Brady, who began working the phones fervently on Swan's behalf at the start the sixth round Sunday. Chicago and Cincinnati indicated they were very interested in Swan, but then both drafted other wide receivers -- the Bears took Arkansas' Marcus Monk; the Bengals took Louisville's Mario Urrutia -- with compensatory selections late in the seventh round.
Swan, who watched the draft with about a dozen friends and family members at his Madison apartment, was disappointed when he wasn't among the 252 players selected. On the flip side, the advantage to being a free agent was that he could choose from what he felt was the best situation among the handful of teams that offered him a contract.
"But I'm not going to lie to you -- everybody wants to be drafted, every agent wants their client drafted, even if it's the last pick of the draft. But you play the cards you're dealt," Brady said.
"We were working the phones pretty hard that sixth and seventh rounds for Luke. If it wasn't going to happen, it wasn't certainly because of a lack of effort. All of a sudden, you get down to those last 10 picks of the seventh, then you really start thinking about, 'Well, shoot, we can kind of pick where we want to go.' "
Ironically, the Chiefs weren't among the four teams which had shown the most interest in Swan, whose draft status took a hit when he sustained a hamstring injury that caused him to miss the last half of his senior season at UW.
But, according to Brady, "the Chiefs just came on like gangbusters." Generally, scouts deal with undrafted free agents, but it was Kansas City's vice president of player personnel, Bill Kuherich, who called Brady about Swan on Sunday.
"We talked four times in about six minutes," Brady said. "Every time, the dollar amount kept going up. Not that you just jump on the dollars, but it shows they have interest."
DeBauche, meanwhile, chose the Packers over a handful of other offers. It seems like an easy decision in theory -- DeBauche grew up in Suamico, a suburb of Green Bay -- until you consider that he wasn't given very long to think about it.
Schaffer believes he has a solution to the flawed system.
"I think there has to be an absolute moratorium for 24 hours where no deals can be done," Schaffer said. "You can talk, you can communicate, teams can line 'em up, but no deal can be done.
"You're talking about a young man's career at stake here. It's certainly worth (taking) 24 hours. These young men deserve that."
Michelle Stocker/The Capital Times
Former Wisconsin wide receiver Luke Swan signed with the Kansas City Chiefs as an undrafted free agent.
