ExtremeRavens Posted July 30 Posted July 30 Deep into the Ravens’ 2 1/2-hour practice on a sweltering late Monday afternoon in Owings Mills, running back Chris Collier took a handoff from backup quarterback Josh Johnson and slashed and burst through the right side of the offensive line for an 8-yard gain. In the grand scheme of Baltimore’s season, and the more immediacy of training camp, it was humdrum, one of seemingly a thousand innocuous plays that hovers somewhere between repetitious and largely irrelevant. Except that for Collier, a 5-foot-11, 210-pound 24-year-old undrafted free agent out of little Division II Lock Haven (student population: 3,800), every touch and every yard carries with it the burden of outsized importance. At the start of any given NFL season, there are about 2,200 or so players in the league between 32 teams and their maximum allowable 53-man rosters and 16-player practice squads (not including those on various injury lists). At the start of last season, just 43 of them came from Division II schools. Even fewer, of course, were the products of Division III schools or lower. Yet, their existence provides a powerful elixir of hope and possibility. Miami Dolphins star wide receiver and five-time All-Pro Tyreek Hill played at West Alabama. Former Minnesota Vikings and current Carolina Panthers receiver Adam Thielen, a two-time Pro Bowl selection, matriculated at Minnesota State. New England Patriots outside linebacker and ex-Raven Matthew Judon, a four-time Pro Bowl selection, was a fifth-round draft pick by Baltimore in 2016 out of Grand Valley State. NFL record books are also littered with players who came from nowhere before landing in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, from defensive end Deacon Jones (Mississippi Vocational College) to running back Walter Payton (Jackson State) to the gold standard of small schools, big dreams Jerry Rice (Mississippi Valley State). “If you’re good enough, an NFL scout will find you,” Ravens vice president of player personnel George Kokinas told The Baltimore Sun. “Jerry Rice and [four-time All-Pro tight ends] Shannon Sharpe and Antonio Gates, those elite players, you’re gonna find those guys.” No one will mistake Collier, or Ravens undrafted rookie tight end Mike Rigerman out of Findlay, for future stars. Running backs Derrick Henry and Justice Hill and tight ends Mark Andrews and Isaiah Likely needn’t worry. Collier and Rigerman are simply hoping to make it, in Baltimore or elsewhere. They’ve already outlasted another small school star, wide receiver DeAngelo Hardy (75 catches for 1,353 yards and 20 touchdowns last year at North Central College), one of the Ravens’ 22 undrafted free agents this offseason who was released in May. That they’re still around or even made it to this point is a testament to their abilities as much as their determination. Collier, who likes to study film of Hall of Famer Barry Sanders, former Pittsburgh Steelers All-Pro LeVeon Bell and former Heisman Trophy winner and ex-NFL back Reggie Bush, spent two years at Nassau Community College, where he barely saw the field and struggled balancing school, practice and his job at a local Abercrombie & Fitch and as an Uber Eats driver with days that began at 4 or 5 a.m. and stretched until midnight. After working his way up from fourth string to appearing in 10 games his sophomore year, he moved up a level to Wagner, a Division I program. But three concussions in a six-game span left him dizzy over his future. Ravens undrafted free agent running back Chris Collier barely saw the field at Nassau Community College and struggled balancing school, practice and his job at a local Abercrombie & Fitch and as an Uber Eats driver with days that began at 4 or 5 a.m. and stretched until midnight. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff) That’s when he transferred to Lock Haven, where he finally found his footing, rushing for 1,393 yards with 12 touchdowns on 236 carries last year. Collier was named the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Year, but it was his pro day that turned heads when he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.48 seconds and did the three-cone drill in 6.78 seconds, both of which were faster than that of any back at this year’s NFL scouting combine. Still, no one selected him, though more than a dozen teams were interested in his services in the hours after the draft concluded, including the Ravens, who were the only team not to contact him after his pro day but did send him a care package of team swag (half-a-dozen shirts, two hats, a sweatshirt, etc.) before the draft. “They showed me the most love and were the first offer on the table,” Collier said. “I didn’t feel like playing that game [of entertaining other offers]. I was blown away by them.” Rigerman, meanwhile, has likewise been trying to catch the attention of coaches while running with the third unit and making plays whenever and wherever he can, be it as a receiver or a capable blocker. The opportunities are far and few between for the 6-foot-2, 244-pound 23-year-old undrafted free agent, who, like Collier, said “it was a lot to take in at first” when he arrived in Baltimore. Neither player had ever seen anything remotely close to the kind of facilities, technology and care the Ravens offer after they came from small schools with tiny budgets “straight to the big leagues,” as Rigerman put it. Signing with Baltimore — a team that boasts a deep and talented tight end room with Andrews, Likely, Charlie Kolar and second-year player Scotty Washington (and fullback Pat Ricard) — might also seem like a strange choice for someone on the fringes. Though a few other teams had interest in signing Rigerman, he said he welcomed the opportunity to learn from Baltimore’s group. “I’m a student of the game,” Rigerman said, adding that he was caught off guard when the Ravens expressed interest in him because he hadn’t heard a lot from them leading up to the offer. “Being under their wing will allow me to do that. “But going from Division II to catching passes from Lamar, that’s a crazy jump.” “Going from Division II to catching passes from Lamar, that’s a crazy jump,” Ravens undrafted free agent tight end Mike Rigerman said. (Daniel Kucin Jr./AP) It’s also a reminder to general manager Eric DeCosta and Kokinis that talent comes from all sorts of places. During Kokinis’ early days as a scout with Baltimore in the late 1990s, he recalled the time he’d just come from seeing four future first-round picks work out to watching fullback Dan Kreider at New Hampshire. His assessment was: “ZST53XX,” which translated in scout speak to, he said, “short, slow, stiff, 53 meant undrafted free agent from a small school and XX means always hurt.” Months later, Kokinis and the team’s other scouts were watching film of a Ravens’ loss to the Steelers when, as Kokinis puts it, Kreider, who’d signed with Pittsburgh, “de-cleated” Baltimore linebacker and future Hall of Famer Ray Lewis on a third-quarter blitz. Though the legend of the block has grown in scope over the years, Kreider went on to have a 10-year career. The point is, scouting is still, to an extent, an inexact science, especially when it comes to evaluating players from small schools. “You try to create an objective way of measuring everyone on the same page,” DeCosta told The Sun. “Measureables are important. Do they measure up, or are they good small school players?” That DeCosta has an appreciation if not understanding of small school players is not a surprise. Long before working for the Ravens, he played at Division III Colby College, where he was an undersized, underwhelming linebacker who was also the team’s captain in 1992. The landscape has also changed for small college players in recent years with an increase in all-star games, the transfer portal and much more information and film at the disposal of scouts. This perhaps explains in part why small school players continue to find their way through the Ravens’ organization — they currently have more than a half-dozen players from the Division II level or below, including third-year cornerback Christian Matthew (Valdosta State), rookie defensive end CJ Ravenell (Missouri Western), second-year running back Owen Wright (Monthmouth) and veteran receiver Deonte Harty (Assumption). “Level of play is important,” coach John Harbaugh said. “It probably helps you evaluate a little more apples-to-apples kind of a deal. But, great players come from every single level of college football, and it’s really how you transition to the NFL that counts.” And, as Kokinis added, “Do we have a role for this type of player?” In Collier, Harbaugh said during spring workouts that the back “looked like he belonged” and was “quick and fast and strong.” “He checked the boxes from a versatility standpoint,” Kokinis told The Sun. “He has a vision and a certain toughness that he brought to his running style.” In Rigerman, Kokinis noted the tight end’s toughness. “And he caught the ball well,” he continued. “He could move around a bit. We’ve seen the picture with Ricard … so you say, ‘OK, this guy has some of those traits,’ so you could see a path.” In the end, that’s all players like Collier and Rigerman are looking for: a road to stay in the NFL, which they both only partly joked often stands for “not for long.” “It’s surreal,” Collier said. “You go from playing ‘Madden’ — the Ravens are actually the main team I use — to being in the same room with Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry. It feels like a fever dream.” One they hope to not wake up from. View the full article Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.