Late-round pick to player in Pro Bowl? It's possible

Second-day selection can motivate a man and, with hard work, lead to successful career.

By ROGER MILLS, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published April 21, 2003

TAMPA -- To Bucs receiver Keenan McCardell, the stigma of being a 12th-round pick and a second-day selection in the 1991 draft still is motivating.

Twelve years after proving doubters wrong, catching 640 passes, winning a Super Bowl ring and solidifying himself as one of the game's most consistent performers, McCardell is driven by the slight.

"When you're a second-day guy, you have to get it and get it quick," McCardell said. "You're hungry. You're not being catered to.

"Even though I have close to 700 catches, I wasn't a first-round pick, I still have that edge. You hear them say, 'I made myself. I wasn't as talented.' But I was as talented as those other guys. Just give me my just due."

Like so many second-day picks, McCardell believes he has paid his dues and doesn't think his longevity in the NFL is surprising. Same for teammate Brad Johnson, a ninth-round selection by the Vikings in 1992 who was chosen after the likes of Tony Sacca, Casey Weldon and Mike Pawlawski.

"Came out pretty good, huh!" said Johnson, who was the 14th quarterback taken in that draft and is one of only three (Jeff Blake and Tommy Maddox) still playing. "But you have to understand that it's a numbers game. There are a lot of great linebackers out there, a lot of great linemen and great defensive backs. It's a select few who get chosen and it's out of your control at that point."

For every first-round horror story, like the Redskins' 1994 selection of quarterback Heath Shuler (No. 3 overall), there are a number of late-round fairy tales, like Miami's Zach Thomas, a Pro Bowl linebacker selected in the fifth round of 1996.

"When I was sitting there waiting on the draft, even though I know I'm not going early, I'm watching all these other linebackers go," Thomas said. "Beside Ray Lewis, the rest of them, I was like, 'Man, this is ridiculous.' Even now, I look at some of those guys and they aren't even in the league and they went before me. I'm not bitter, but it definitely motivated me."

No doubt, good players have slipped through the cracks, and sometime in this weekend's draft, that likely will happen again. The challenge for the Bucs, who have four picks Sunday (two in the fourth round, one each in the fifth and sixth), is to find quality players and put them in positions to thrive.

"It's just amazing when you think about some of the guys who are Pro Bowl players in our league who were selected on the second day," Jets coach Herman Edwards said. "I think if you do your homework, you can pick up some pretty good players."

Steelers coach Bill Cowher said: "There are guys you see now. Look at the Pro Bowl. They don't have speed, they don't have size, but they have heart. They understand the game. They know what it takes. They have all the intangibles."

But how is it that good players get overlooked?

McCardell said one explanation is the old debate about potential over production.

"Sometimes you draft on potential instead of production," he said. "I had big-time production in college (UNLV) but I was undersized. I think I was about 175 pounds. My body hadn't matured yet. ... I'm a big believer in potential will get you beat, production wins you games. When you sit there saying someone could potentially be good, by the time he's being potentially good, your team is potentially getting its behind kicked."

Another explanation is the league's preoccupation with the result of workouts. Run a fast time or complete a high number of repetitions and you're securing yourself a high pick. Flop in the workouts and you're sitting by the phone a little longer than planned.

"It doesn't matter how you make a play," Miami's Thomas said. "I might not be able to run a 40-yard dash with the other guys, but you never run a 40 when you're out there on the football field. It's a whole different game when you're out there on the field. If it was just all the combine stuff, then a track athlete would go in there and kick butt."

In defense of scouts, some players simply weren't great at the time of the draft.

"It's funny to me, but you have to be realistic," Johnson said. "The highest I thought I would go was probably the fourth round. It depends on who you're surrounded by, who you listen to. For some guys it's agents, friends or coaches. Guys read magazines. But when you really break it down, it's what an organization wants and needs and how you fit into it. It's a crap shoot."

While there is no blueprint to explain how a player taken on the second day ends up having a meaningful career, there are some givens. He has to stay relatively healthy. He has to play special teams. He has to have a touch of luck and he has to make an impact from the first day he suits up.

"You come in knowing that the first-round guy is there and the second- and third-round guys are likely there," said Bucs center John Wade, taken in the fifth round in 1998 by the Jaguars. "But as a later-round pick, you have to do something special. Teams don't want to see you in the training room. If you're trying to make a ballclub, you have to do everything. You have to be on the field, trying to make plays."

Bucs general manager Rich McKay said performing on special teams gives players time to get better and prove their value.

"You're looking at them as either future players or special-teams players," McKay said, "and what you sell to those guys when you get them is that (their) way of making the team is not the traditional way."

Late-round picks, who do not cost much, afford the team salary-cap relief if they turn out to be solid contributors quickly.

"The draft is kind of the key because at least it puts a little stability to your salary structure," Denver coach Mike Shanahan said. "If you've got to go out and get free agents all the time, eventually you're going to fall off the cliff."

Said McCardell, who one day wants to be a general manager: "Your draft is productive only if your whole draft makes your team productive. You can have the first-round guy go out and bust his behind, but if the later guys don't see the field, then it's not a successful draft. Just because your No. 1 does what he has to do? He's supposed to, he's your No. 1."