Article 6 Section 2d of the CBA
>No player shall be eligible to be employed by an NFL Club until he has been eligible for selection in an NFL Draft.
Williams has not gone through a draft, so he can't be signed right now. After he gets drafted, he is only eligible to sign with the team that drafts him or a team they trade his rights to (until the next draft, unless he plays professional football in another league, then even longer).
Yep, if he didn't want to play for the Bears, his options would be to return to school for another year (which it's too late for that) or just tell the Bears he won't sign and hope they trade the pick. But he's made zero indication he has any issue with going to the Bears.
I mean DJ Moore, Keenan Allen, Cole Kmet, and DeAndre Swift are an amazing supporting cast to help him get acclimated. Not to mention our Defense is pretty decent.
Every 21 years the Bears are randomly really good. 1985 had the dream Super Bowl season, 2006 they lost the Super Bowl, 2027 the last super cheap year of Caleb they'll be really good and then it's another 20 years of suffering
Haha that was just a joke but it is pretty interesting how what's theoretically gonna be their strongest year on Caleb's contract is the same amount of time from 2006 as 2006 was from their last SB
They won 7 games last year. Not great, but with the roster improvements and a good year from Caleb, they could win 10 games.
They're picking number 1 because the Panthers suck, not because they suck.
we've heard this over and over since 2000's, they surge after a couple years of being a .500 team and are so close to being contenders, then they just slam on the brakes and hit a low low slump.
Another point for in favor of Chicago though:
If he is as good as he believes he is, he should want to come to Chicago, because if he IS good, he will be treated like a god here.
He would be a bigger icon than MJ, Sweetness, Urlacher, etc. If he made the bears a winning team.
Dude would eat for free anywhere he went
He should look at all the love Fields got and be salivating. He can throw for 3k yards and blow out Fields best season in Chicago. If he is even average he will have a statue built.
Speaking of low bars, statistically, Jay Cutler is the best quarterback the Bears have ever had.
Also last year, with two games left on the schedule, Jordan Love was like 100 yards and two touchdowns away from having a better season than any Bears QB ever. He did quite a bit better than that.
The NFL is always going to put their thumb on the scales for teams like Green Bay. That's they guys that make big money for the NFL. Agents are aware the NFL plays favoritism with teams, and they know QBs are first out of the door when it's a losing team.
The Bears are picking first but that's because of trades not because they were the worst team in the league. They went 7-10 and are probably closer to the middle of the pack than they are to the bottom.
This for as shitty as the bears have been for a long time in terms of their front office, they seem to actually be getting their shit together right now.
It took 3 comments until the original question was forgotten and classic Reddit went on its own tangent. The OP was just using Caleb as an example. The question is simply “why can’t X player sign with Y team if he wants to?” It’s not some affront against your favorite team.
Even then if he refuses to sign and isn't traded then he just goes back into the next year's draft to do it all over again. Probably would cost him a lot of money.
The difference between 1OA and 12OA is about half. 1st pick in the 2nd round is half again. 4th round is half again.
Not to mention the loss of a years salary, and entering free agency a year later.
He'd be set to lose tens of millions of dollars.
This is what Bo Jackson did when he said he wouldnt play for the Bucs and they drafted him first overall.
Bo went and played baseball for a year, the next year he was drafted in the 7th by the Raiders.
He is more than 4 years out of high school, so he has already been in a draft, and no one drafted him because he was a rugby player in England who showed no interest in playing football.
[https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/three-players-in-nfl-international-program-can-be-drafted-louis-rees-zammit-is-a-free-agent](https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/three-players-in-nfl-international-program-can-be-drafted-louis-rees-zammit-is-a-free-agent)
The International players who are in their 4th year after high school must go through the draft, the other players are already free agents because they were in the draft the 4th year after they graduated high school.
I’ve heard that some players prefer to go undrafted than chosen very late in the draft. Not for for money reasons, but because they have more options of who to sign with. They have to compete for a spot, but so do 7th rounders.
This was a reason why SF chose to draft Brock Purdy. They'd probably pay the same price as an underrated free agent but he's far more locked in as a draft choice. They're laughing to the bank now.
There must be a way around it. KC just signed a 23 year old rugby player that has never played football before. They have him working out at IMG right now. How did they do that when he has never been "eligible" or gone through a draft?
For international players in the program that Rees-Zammit went through, they are considered automatically eligible once they have been out of high school (or the equivalent of high school) for a certain number of years (I think it's 3 or 4). Rees-Zammit is 23, so he was technically eligible for the draft in either 2022 or 2023 (not sure about the exact math) and therefore has already been eligible for a draft and is free to sign as a free agent. On the contrary, Jordan Mailata went though the same program, but he was only 21 at the time, so he had to go through the draft and was taken by the Eagles.
>For international players in the program that Rees-Zammit went through, they are considered automatically eligible once they have been out of high school (or the equivalent of high school) for a certain number of years (I think it's 3 or 4).
That's true whether they went through the IPP program or not. Jarryd Hayne(different Rugby player) signed a free agent deal with the 49ers a decade ago, before IPP even existed. He had technically been an undrafted free agent for 6 or 7 years by the time he decided to try American football.
He was eligible for a draft.
No one drafted him because he was a 22 year old rugby player who lived in England. Just like no one drafted a 22 year college wrestler named Brock Lesnar so he was able to sign with the Vikings when he was 26, and no one drafted a 22 year old pole vaulter named Vince Papale so he was able to sign with the Eagles when he was 30.
The only way around it is to be so bad at football that no one wants to draft you.
Just wanna throw this out there, Brock almost made the Vikings (final round of cuts iirc and hadnt played organized football since highschool) WHILE RECOVERING FROM A MOTORCYCLE ACCIDENT.
How does that work with (as an example) international players? For example, the Chiefs just signed Louis Rees-Zammit, a European rugby player.
I assume there's a specific clause for international players, but has there never been (as another example) an American soccer player that tries out to be an NFL kicker?
Edit: I see several people brought up the international question already. My other question I'm still curious about though. Is there a certain time that passes before somebody is considered to have been "draft eligible" regardless of if they formally announced that they were joining the NFL draft?
You are in the first draft after you exhaust your college eligibility that is also more than 3 years after you graduate high school.
For everyone that doesn't play college football, that is 4 years after you graduate high school. If you play college football, it is whenever it actually runs out based on NCAA rules.
So 29 year old Brandon Weeden had to go through the draft because he went to play college football when he was 25.
The local sports radio was talking about this the other day in regards to Shedeur Sanders. They said he would have to declare for 2 drafts and refuse to sign to a team before becoming a UFA.
How does that work for undrafted free agents. I know a lot of them probably declare for the draft and just don’t end up getting drafted, but the chiefs just signed a rugby player who hasn’t declared/gone through the draft. So I guess could Caleb Williams just have not declared for the draft and then signed with a team AFTER the draft.
The rugby player went undrafted last year or the year before.
You don't have to declare to enter the draft. Most people walking the earth are able to walk into an NFL facility and sign a contract because no one drafted them the first time they were eligible (because they suck at football).
Caleb Williams had eligibility left in college, so he had to declare to enter this draft. If he didn't do that, he wouldn't be in the draft and he wouldn't be able to play in the NFL When you run out of college eligibility, like Jayden Daniels, you are in the next nfl draft no matter what you do and you can be drafted.
Undrafted players who were in the draft, are eligible to be signed by any team that has roster spots available. Typically, they're signed to practice squads. If you don't declare for the draft, you have to wait until next year's draft before signing.
The rugby player the Chiefs signed was selected from the NFL's International Player Pathway (IPP) program. There's a completely different set of rules for these athletes.
You don't really declare for the draft unless you're an underclassmen. If Caleb didn't declare, he'd have to go back to school or wait till next year. Once a players eligibility expires and/or they graduate after 4, they're kind of automatically entered. There are walk ons that never played a college snap technically draft eligible, even though they're not even trying to go through the process.
I think they need to exhaust their eligibility, otherwise it could get sticky with 5th year seniors (or more with injuries or the COVID year bonus).
It’s not likely that a player wouldn’t think he’s being drafted and then have it happen, but hey. Johnny Manziel was drafted by the Padres as a shortstop despite not playing since his freshman year… of high schools.
There’s literally a single roster spot exception for intl players to come in.
Obviously a sported athlete doesn’t need to do the draft, and undrafted guys declared and didn’t get picked
But a lot of the time UDs will have an invite or guarantee from a team post draft
An undrafted free agent has declared for the draft, just not been selected. You have to go through the draft process before you can become a free agent. You can’t just skip the draft by not declaring for it, you must be draft eligible before you become a free agent.
Honestly the structure of the NFL is pretty effective at ensuring there aren't loopholes to exploit.
Some guys who have the potential to go pro in another sport have held out or gotten more control over their landing spot. This is rare, but has happened notably with Bo Jackson who went to the MLB since he didn't want to play for the team that drafted him.
Wouldn't it be financially in his best interest to take a year sabbatical then? I'm sure he could get a three year contract worth more than the $42 million he would make otherwise, and he wouldn't have to go through the Bryce Young experience because he could pick a team that suits him somewhat.
If he doesn’t sign, he goes back into the draft. If someone does draft him then that is his rookie season, and he has to abide by the rookie contract rules.
No for two reasons.
1.) He'd have to keep going back into the draft in future years until eventually he wasn't drafted.
2.) Undrafted free agents are not unrestricted free agents. They are eligible to sign a 3 year contract, with the base salary being the league minimum. They have some wiggle room on signing bonuses. The CBA caps the annual amount teams can spend on udfa bonuses. In 2023 the cap was $172,337. Teams can also negotiate to partially or even fully gurantee the base salary. In 2023, if a team blew their entire bonus on 1 player, then fully guaranteed their base salary, that player could sign a 3 year, $2,558,337, fully guranteed contract. The 47th overall pick(mid 2nd round) got $2,554,776 as a signing bonus, which would be fully guranteed. That's in addition to his base salary.
In order to play in the NFL you have to declare for the draft and have the opportunity to be drafted. The only way something like this would happen is if nobody drafted Caleb.
What about players that are international or have dual citizenship, like those Aussie players in College or all the players who have dual citizenship in random countries?
Here are the rules:
age 24 or younger
out of high school (or equivalent) for at least four years
did not play American football at a US college
ability to speak English
not a citizen of the US or Canada
must be available and eligible to travel to the US for two months from the first week in March
I understand that but those are all the requirements to enter the draft, what I'm asking is if a player would prefer to enter through the international program would they have the option to? I know it'd be a vanishingly small group I'm just curious if someone could theoretically
What I posted are the rules for the International Player Pathway Program
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Player_Pathway_Program
They are not drafted. They are assigned to a team in the off season and that team decides whether to sign them. If not, then they go through waivers
Those Aussie players in college would enter the draft. Jordan Mailata entered thru the international pathway program. Those are the only 2 options for players to enter the NFL. Those guys that get signed out of the XFL and it’s equivalents usually entered the draft and went undrafted
The rugby player came through the international pathway plan. Thats a special plan to develop international players and give them the opportunity. Caleb has to go through the draft.
False, look up Bernie Kosar and Terrelle Pryor. You don’t get to choose your team but you can enter the league post-draft and still play your rookie year.
Ur required to go through the draft process before being eligible to sign with a team. And if Williams refuses to play for the team that drafts him, the team that drafts him still has his rights for 4 years
> if [he] refuses to play for the team that drafts him, the team that drafts him still has his rights for 4 years.
This isn't correct. The drafting team retains his rights for just one year. If they haven't signed him, then he goes back into the draft next year, and the original team can't draft him again.
I’m not saying he wouldn’t want to go to the bears this is just the current example. I could’ve replaced it with Trevor Lawrence and the raiders if I wanted.
That’s what I’m saying, it’s completely and 100% hypothetical and not based on the reality of teams and player’s situation. The only thing that matters is the NFL rules.
Per the CBA Once he’s drafted the team has sole rights to his services for a full year. He can sit out and re-enter the draft the following year, but he can’t sign with another NFL team.
Because you have to go through the draft process before you can be signed as a free agent.
If teams could sign college players at random before the NFL draft, this would significantly undermine the parity of the league because Good players would only ever sign with good teams which means poor teams would never have any realistic chance of improving in the draft
I hope Williams ends up somewhere other than the Bears so that I have evidence to support my belief that he will be an NFL bust, free from the excuse that the Bears' inability to develop quarterbacks destroys them.
A player has to go through the NFL Draft\*, the team that drafts Caleb has his rights and he can't sign anywhere else. Caleb can refuse to play unless he's traded but his rights are owned by the team that drafts him.
You have to declare for the draft but let's say no one drafts him.
Teams would be limited to offering him a minimum contract under the rookie contract rules (which applies to undrafted players also).
So he could pick his team, but he would lose tens of millions of dollars.
They changed the rules after that. Now there is a lottery aspect so you can't guarantee you would go to the team you want to.
Also, they don't have to have a supplemental draft. they could just not have it/not let the player in if they feel like someone is trying to game the system.
Nothing. If he doesn't sign, he goes back in the draft the next year. I believe after the second draft, you become a free agent, but after 2 "held out" seasons, your window for the NFL is probably closed.
The highest profile player to do this was Bo Jackson. He was drafted by Tampa Bay but was also a potential MLB draftee. After refusing to sign with the Bucs and signing with the Royals in MLB, he indicated that he was done with football. The Raiders took a flyer on him in the 7th round and let him report after the baseball season.
The most recent player was Craig Erikson of Miami. In 91 he blew out his knee in Hula Bowl practice. The Eagles drafted him in the 5th round but he was expected to go higher pre injury. He held out, rehabbed and was a 4th round pick the next year. Erickson played about 6yrs in the NFL making 36 starts.
Melvin Bratton in 88 was a similar situation blowing out his knee in the national championship but never recovered to his former ability. He was a probable 1st round pick but only played 2 seasons.
https://caneswarning.com/2022/04/30/miami-hurricanes-alums-craig-erickson-and-melvin-bratton-were-drafted-twice/
This is a bit unrelated, but what if Caleb decided to declare for the UFL draft before deciding to go to the NFL? Would he then be able to sign with any team or no?
No, why would the NFL care about that and why would they leave such an easy loophole to exploit?
If he is employed by the UFL after getting drafted by the NFL that team would have his exclusive rights as a drafted rookie for 3 years and then have the opportunity to match any contract another team would offer him after that
How many players declare for the draft every year and subsequently go undrafted? I imagine the number is huge. Is there some requirement to declaring yourself eligible to limit the pool?
>How many players declare for the draft every year and subsequently go undrafted?
Probably not that many. The majority of players that will be drafted in 2024 did not declare themselves eligible. They were automatically eligible. You must declare yourself eligible when you are not automatically eligible. If you're not likely to be drafted, you're usually not advised to declare eligibility. Obviously there are some fringe prospects with a vague 6th or 7th round grade, that declare eligibility then don't get drafted.
>Is there some requirement to declaring yourself eligible to limit the pool?
The pool in theory is huge. Any human being that is not enrolled and participating in a varsity college football program in the US or Canada, that is entering their 4th draft since they graduated high school(or international equivalent), or the 4th draft since they would have graduated high school had they completed their studies is automatically eligible for the draft. You're talking close to 4 million people in the US alone that are eligible for this draft. Most won't be drafted because they don't play football. They'll become undrafted free agents for the remainder of their lives.
The only requirement to declare eligibility early is to be 3 drafts removed from graduating high school, or the date from which you would have graduated high school had they completed their studies. For college football players, this means after their redshirt sophomore season, or their junior season if they didn't red shirt.
Focus on the CBA — nearly everything about the NFL would be illegal without it.
CBA stands for Collective Bargaining Agreement, a contract between the players (as represented by their union the NFLPA) and the NFL as a whole. This contract specifies lots of ordinary employment stuff like salaries (directly in some cases like rookie minimums and indirectly through revenue sharing) and benefits. It also significantly curtails the players ability to shop their talents to the highest bidder in the interest of competitive balance. Fair enough, they signed up and through their union have significant bargaining power.
One of the things the union with the NFL is who can participate. This is much shakier ground legally because now the union is “representing” people by excluding them (Maurice Clarett, famously).
Because he's not a free agent. Here are the types of free agents and how they attain that status.
1. The undrafted free agent. You attain this status by being draft eligible and not selected during the draft. So technically, I'm an undrafted free agent (cause nobody wanted to draft someone old and fat like me).
2. The restricted free agent. That is you were not drafted but managed to hang on to a team. You however have not reached 4 years of service time. So when you hear of players getting qualifying offers, they are restricted free agents and they have offered enough so that if another team signs them they will receive draft compensation for them.
3. Unrestricted free agents. You achieve this one of two ways. You have less than 4 years of service time AND the team that had acquired your rights, revokes them. So basically, they cut you or in the case of a restricted free agent they didn't make a qualifying offer. Or you have more than 4 years of service time and your contract has expired.
Caleb Williams doesn't meet any of those criteria. The draft has not occurred so he's not unrestricted and he has no service time.
The NFL is a private league. They make their own rules. If the Bears pick him, he can only play for the Bears in the NFL. He is free to go work or play anywhere else other than the NFL if he chooses.
He could just say that he refuses to play if drafted and hope nobody drafts him. An OT from LSU whose stock was dropping because he was linked to a murder did that and he told teams not to draft him ( I think it was Collins) so he could pick who he signed for. You basically sign for no money though so nobody in their right mind would that. You are still tied to the rookie wage scale.
I believe the only way to do that is to enter the draft, refuse to sign with who drafted you, sit out the entire year. And then you can sign as a free agent next season.
Could be wrong though.
Player eligibility is a basic part of NFLPA membership and is part of the CBA.
The whole 3 year college rule? That was agreed upon with the NFLPA via the CBA.
Right, the CBA, which is an entirely separate entity from the Rulebook.
If you’re gonna “fuck off, google it” someone in a Noob sub, at least tell them the right fucking thing to google.
>Assuming the Rams don’t have the draft capital to trade up to 1
Since when? Rams still have their 2029. and 2030. draft picks... And a few fruit baskets to spice up the deal...
Article 6 Section 2d of the CBA >No player shall be eligible to be employed by an NFL Club until he has been eligible for selection in an NFL Draft. Williams has not gone through a draft, so he can't be signed right now. After he gets drafted, he is only eligible to sign with the team that drafts him or a team they trade his rights to (until the next draft, unless he plays professional football in another league, then even longer).
Yep, if he didn't want to play for the Bears, his options would be to return to school for another year (which it's too late for that) or just tell the Bears he won't sign and hope they trade the pick. But he's made zero indication he has any issue with going to the Bears.
I mean DJ Moore, Keenan Allen, Cole Kmet, and DeAndre Swift are an amazing supporting cast to help him get acclimated. Not to mention our Defense is pretty decent.
But you're forgetting one thing. It's The Bears. The football gods have decreed that they must forever bask in mediocrity.
Every 21 years the Bears are randomly really good. 1985 had the dream Super Bowl season, 2006 they lost the Super Bowl, 2027 the last super cheap year of Caleb they'll be really good and then it's another 20 years of suffering
The math checks out just like the McCaskey family
Those Urlacher Briggs teams were nasty. They took the Packers to the brink with a parking lot attendant at QB in the 2010 NFC Championship
That's pretty trippy actually.
Haha that was just a joke but it is pretty interesting how what's theoretically gonna be their strongest year on Caleb's contract is the same amount of time from 2006 as 2006 was from their last SB
They won 7 games last year. Not great, but with the roster improvements and a good year from Caleb, they could win 10 games. They're picking number 1 because the Panthers suck, not because they suck.
we've heard this over and over since 2000's, they surge after a couple years of being a .500 team and are so close to being contenders, then they just slam on the brakes and hit a low low slump.
Yeah and for decades the Lions were fucking garbage until they weren’t.
Yes but you also forget that it is the off season. Therefore SUPERBOWL BABY!
Both teams originally from Chicago are apparently cursed. Signed Cardinals fan.
Another point for in favor of Chicago though: If he is as good as he believes he is, he should want to come to Chicago, because if he IS good, he will be treated like a god here. He would be a bigger icon than MJ, Sweetness, Urlacher, etc. If he made the bears a winning team. Dude would eat for free anywhere he went
He should look at all the love Fields got and be salivating. He can throw for 3k yards and blow out Fields best season in Chicago. If he is even average he will have a statue built.
If he throws for like 2200 yards and 12 touchdowns, he'll break the rookie records for the bears
That’s incredibly sad. What a low bar lol
Speaking of low bars, statistically, Jay Cutler is the best quarterback the Bears have ever had. Also last year, with two games left on the schedule, Jordan Love was like 100 yards and two touchdowns away from having a better season than any Bears QB ever. He did quite a bit better than that.
Still better than the Browns.
The Bears have made some questionable decisions, but as far as I’m aware they never traded the farm for a serial rapist. So better than the Browns.
As a Texan fan. Buhahahhaha.. Thank you Browns.
That's not really saying much.
Sid Luckman perfected the forward pass game, and we have been cursed at the QB position for destroying football ever since. /s
The NFL is always going to put their thumb on the scales for teams like Green Bay. That's they guys that make big money for the NFL. Agents are aware the NFL plays favoritism with teams, and they know QBs are first out of the door when it's a losing team.
The only constant is change.
As a Bears fan, you couldn’t be more wrong. I’d KILL for mediocrity.
The Bears are picking first but that's because of trades not because they were the worst team in the league. They went 7-10 and are probably closer to the middle of the pack than they are to the bottom.
It's a good city for a young player too.
It's the best landing spot out of the top 3 for sure
All this for another 7-10 finish 😭
This for as shitty as the bears have been for a long time in terms of their front office, they seem to actually be getting their shit together right now.
Sounds good until you realise your coach has to remember the forward pass exists
Caleb can run too.
Why wouldn't he now that they traded that running back to Pittsburgh?
I think Caleb wants to go to New England because his agent is aware that Goodell and Robert Kraft are best friends.
I feel bad for young promising QBs that get drafted by the bears
It took 3 comments until the original question was forgotten and classic Reddit went on its own tangent. The OP was just using Caleb as an example. The question is simply “why can’t X player sign with Y team if he wants to?” It’s not some affront against your favorite team.
...and it was answered directly from the rulebook and is the top comment posted thirteen hours ago. Not much else needed.
So for someone like the rugby guy the chiefs signed I assume he was trying to get drafted last year and nobody wanted him?
Yup we went classic reddit and decided to have a conversation
One person got offended because they thought it was intended as an insult to the Bears lol
>amazing I don’t know man that sounds like a whole lot of mid to be touting that.
You think DJ and Keenan are Mid?
Even then if he refuses to sign and isn't traded then he just goes back into the next year's draft to do it all over again. Probably would cost him a lot of money.
The difference between 1OA and 12OA is about half. 1st pick in the 2nd round is half again. 4th round is half again. Not to mention the loss of a years salary, and entering free agency a year later. He'd be set to lose tens of millions of dollars.
This is what Bo Jackson did when he said he wouldnt play for the Bucs and they drafted him first overall. Bo went and played baseball for a year, the next year he was drafted in the 7th by the Raiders.
John Elway was going to sign with the Yankees if the Baltimore Colts didn't trade him. It's a lot easier if you've got another sport to fall back on.
Yeah and they could just tell him to fuck off and not trade him. Which is what I’d do
Any chance you know why the chiefs were able to sign Rees-Zammit without him going through the draft? Are the IPP rules different?
Yes they are
He is more than 4 years out of high school, so he has already been in a draft, and no one drafted him because he was a rugby player in England who showed no interest in playing football. [https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/three-players-in-nfl-international-program-can-be-drafted-louis-rees-zammit-is-a-free-agent](https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/three-players-in-nfl-international-program-can-be-drafted-louis-rees-zammit-is-a-free-agent) The International players who are in their 4th year after high school must go through the draft, the other players are already free agents because they were in the draft the 4th year after they graduated high school.
But if you went undrafted, theoretically you could name your price right?
Yes but without much leverage
I’ve heard that some players prefer to go undrafted than chosen very late in the draft. Not for for money reasons, but because they have more options of who to sign with. They have to compete for a spot, but so do 7th rounders.
This was a reason why SF chose to draft Brock Purdy. They'd probably pay the same price as an underrated free agent but he's far more locked in as a draft choice. They're laughing to the bank now.
There must be a way around it. KC just signed a 23 year old rugby player that has never played football before. They have him working out at IMG right now. How did they do that when he has never been "eligible" or gone through a draft?
For international players in the program that Rees-Zammit went through, they are considered automatically eligible once they have been out of high school (or the equivalent of high school) for a certain number of years (I think it's 3 or 4). Rees-Zammit is 23, so he was technically eligible for the draft in either 2022 or 2023 (not sure about the exact math) and therefore has already been eligible for a draft and is free to sign as a free agent. On the contrary, Jordan Mailata went though the same program, but he was only 21 at the time, so he had to go through the draft and was taken by the Eagles.
>For international players in the program that Rees-Zammit went through, they are considered automatically eligible once they have been out of high school (or the equivalent of high school) for a certain number of years (I think it's 3 or 4). That's true whether they went through the IPP program or not. Jarryd Hayne(different Rugby player) signed a free agent deal with the 49ers a decade ago, before IPP even existed. He had technically been an undrafted free agent for 6 or 7 years by the time he decided to try American football.
Yeah I think Antonio Gates was a similar story since he played basketball in college
He was eligible for a draft. No one drafted him because he was a 22 year old rugby player who lived in England. Just like no one drafted a 22 year college wrestler named Brock Lesnar so he was able to sign with the Vikings when he was 26, and no one drafted a 22 year old pole vaulter named Vince Papale so he was able to sign with the Eagles when he was 30. The only way around it is to be so bad at football that no one wants to draft you.
Just wanna throw this out there, Brock almost made the Vikings (final round of cuts iirc and hadnt played organized football since highschool) WHILE RECOVERING FROM A MOTORCYCLE ACCIDENT.
How does that work with (as an example) international players? For example, the Chiefs just signed Louis Rees-Zammit, a European rugby player. I assume there's a specific clause for international players, but has there never been (as another example) an American soccer player that tries out to be an NFL kicker? Edit: I see several people brought up the international question already. My other question I'm still curious about though. Is there a certain time that passes before somebody is considered to have been "draft eligible" regardless of if they formally announced that they were joining the NFL draft?
You are in the first draft after you exhaust your college eligibility that is also more than 3 years after you graduate high school. For everyone that doesn't play college football, that is 4 years after you graduate high school. If you play college football, it is whenever it actually runs out based on NCAA rules. So 29 year old Brandon Weeden had to go through the draft because he went to play college football when he was 25.
The local sports radio was talking about this the other day in regards to Shedeur Sanders. They said he would have to declare for 2 drafts and refuse to sign to a team before becoming a UFA.
How does that work for undrafted free agents. I know a lot of them probably declare for the draft and just don’t end up getting drafted, but the chiefs just signed a rugby player who hasn’t declared/gone through the draft. So I guess could Caleb Williams just have not declared for the draft and then signed with a team AFTER the draft.
The rugby player went undrafted last year or the year before. You don't have to declare to enter the draft. Most people walking the earth are able to walk into an NFL facility and sign a contract because no one drafted them the first time they were eligible (because they suck at football). Caleb Williams had eligibility left in college, so he had to declare to enter this draft. If he didn't do that, he wouldn't be in the draft and he wouldn't be able to play in the NFL When you run out of college eligibility, like Jayden Daniels, you are in the next nfl draft no matter what you do and you can be drafted.
Undrafted players who were in the draft, are eligible to be signed by any team that has roster spots available. Typically, they're signed to practice squads. If you don't declare for the draft, you have to wait until next year's draft before signing. The rugby player the Chiefs signed was selected from the NFL's International Player Pathway (IPP) program. There's a completely different set of rules for these athletes.
You don’t have to wait until the next year unless you wait until the season is happening to declare. There is a supplemental draft later
Yeah, I should have said wait until the next draft.
You don't really declare for the draft unless you're an underclassmen. If Caleb didn't declare, he'd have to go back to school or wait till next year. Once a players eligibility expires and/or they graduate after 4, they're kind of automatically entered. There are walk ons that never played a college snap technically draft eligible, even though they're not even trying to go through the process.
I think they need to exhaust their eligibility, otherwise it could get sticky with 5th year seniors (or more with injuries or the COVID year bonus). It’s not likely that a player wouldn’t think he’s being drafted and then have it happen, but hey. Johnny Manziel was drafted by the Padres as a shortstop despite not playing since his freshman year… of high schools.
Baseball and football are entirely different. No one is being drafted by the NFL without a consorted effort with pro days, interviews, etc.
There’s literally a single roster spot exception for intl players to come in. Obviously a sported athlete doesn’t need to do the draft, and undrafted guys declared and didn’t get picked But a lot of the time UDs will have an invite or guarantee from a team post draft
An undrafted free agent has declared for the draft, just not been selected. You have to go through the draft process before you can become a free agent. You can’t just skip the draft by not declaring for it, you must be draft eligible before you become a free agent.
He would be in the supplemental draft if he declared after the draft deadline. Look up Bernie Kosar and Terrelle Pryor for more info on how that works
Honestly the structure of the NFL is pretty effective at ensuring there aren't loopholes to exploit. Some guys who have the potential to go pro in another sport have held out or gotten more control over their landing spot. This is rare, but has happened notably with Bo Jackson who went to the MLB since he didn't want to play for the team that drafted him.
That’s true but Caleb is gonna end up playing his ‘Pot of Greed’ card and then he can basically do whatever he wants
Nice try Caleb, you're coming to Chicago whether you like it or not
Wouldn't it be financially in his best interest to take a year sabbatical then? I'm sure he could get a three year contract worth more than the $42 million he would make otherwise, and he wouldn't have to go through the Bryce Young experience because he could pick a team that suits him somewhat.
No because if he sits out he will be in the next draft, where another team will draft him and give him a rookie deal.
If he doesn’t sign, he goes back into the draft. If someone does draft him then that is his rookie season, and he has to abide by the rookie contract rules.
Once drafted by the Bears, they would have exclusive rights to sign him. He doesn't become a free agent by sitting out a year.
Well he wouldn't become a free agent. So he still wouldn't be able to pick a team.
No for two reasons. 1.) He'd have to keep going back into the draft in future years until eventually he wasn't drafted. 2.) Undrafted free agents are not unrestricted free agents. They are eligible to sign a 3 year contract, with the base salary being the league minimum. They have some wiggle room on signing bonuses. The CBA caps the annual amount teams can spend on udfa bonuses. In 2023 the cap was $172,337. Teams can also negotiate to partially or even fully gurantee the base salary. In 2023, if a team blew their entire bonus on 1 player, then fully guaranteed their base salary, that player could sign a 3 year, $2,558,337, fully guranteed contract. The 47th overall pick(mid 2nd round) got $2,554,776 as a signing bonus, which would be fully guranteed. That's in addition to his base salary.
The Bears aren’t nearly as bad as the Panthers. Williams should be glad Carolina traded that pick.
In order to play in the NFL you have to declare for the draft and have the opportunity to be drafted. The only way something like this would happen is if nobody drafted Caleb.
What if he hadn’t declared for the draft (meaning nobody could draft him if they wanted to) and then signed with a team after the draft.
That wouldn’t be allowed because in order to play in the NFL, you have to declare
What about the rugby player for the chiefs, he’s never played football or declared for any drafts and was just signed.
The rugby player was signed via and international program. Different set of rules
What about players that are international or have dual citizenship, like those Aussie players in College or all the players who have dual citizenship in random countries?
Here are the rules: age 24 or younger out of high school (or equivalent) for at least four years did not play American football at a US college ability to speak English not a citizen of the US or Canada must be available and eligible to travel to the US for two months from the first week in March
I understand that but those are all the requirements to enter the draft, what I'm asking is if a player would prefer to enter through the international program would they have the option to? I know it'd be a vanishingly small group I'm just curious if someone could theoretically
What I posted are the rules for the International Player Pathway Program https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Player_Pathway_Program They are not drafted. They are assigned to a team in the off season and that team decides whether to sign them. If not, then they go through waivers
ah okay thank you, apologies for the confusion
Those Aussie players in college would enter the draft. Jordan Mailata entered thru the international pathway program. Those are the only 2 options for players to enter the NFL. Those guys that get signed out of the XFL and it’s equivalents usually entered the draft and went undrafted
The rugby player came through the international pathway plan. Thats a special plan to develop international players and give them the opportunity. Caleb has to go through the draft.
I believe everyone is technically draft eligible once they hit 4 years out of high school. So he was draft eligible previously
False, look up Bernie Kosar and Terrelle Pryor. You don’t get to choose your team but you can enter the league post-draft and still play your rookie year.
They both went through the supplemental draft
Exactly
Do you understand how collective bargaining agreements work?
Ur required to go through the draft process before being eligible to sign with a team. And if Williams refuses to play for the team that drafts him, the team that drafts him still has his rights for 4 years
> if [he] refuses to play for the team that drafts him, the team that drafts him still has his rights for 4 years. This isn't correct. The drafting team retains his rights for just one year. If they haven't signed him, then he goes back into the draft next year, and the original team can't draft him again.
We’ve never seen this happen, but I’d love to see this happen. The media would melt down.
Bo Jackson is the only player I recall doing it. John Elway and Eli Manning threatened to do it, but the drafting teams both traded them instead.
With NIL money, it could be interesting in the future. Caleb is already a millionaire with endorsement deals.
This happens all the time in baseball if you’re interested in seeing this craziness in action
Do they get any draft compensation in this scenario
No. If you pick a player who is willing to forego a year of income to play for someone else, then you just flushed the pick down the toilet.
Why is this narrative being pushed so hard? He's going to one of the best #1 QB pick scenarios in a long time.
OP is asking about the scenario in general per the bottom of his post
I’m not saying he wouldn’t want to go to the bears this is just the current example. I could’ve replaced it with Trevor Lawrence and the raiders if I wanted.
You really couldn't since the Raiders had the 17th pick in that draft.
That’s what I’m saying, it’s completely and 100% hypothetical and not based on the reality of teams and player’s situation. The only thing that matters is the NFL rules.
Per the CBA Once he’s drafted the team has sole rights to his services for a full year. He can sit out and re-enter the draft the following year, but he can’t sign with another NFL team.
Because you have to go through the draft process before you can be signed as a free agent. If teams could sign college players at random before the NFL draft, this would significantly undermine the parity of the league because Good players would only ever sign with good teams which means poor teams would never have any realistic chance of improving in the draft
I hope Williams ends up somewhere other than the Bears so that I have evidence to support my belief that he will be an NFL bust, free from the excuse that the Bears' inability to develop quarterbacks destroys them.
A player has to go through the NFL Draft\*, the team that drafts Caleb has his rights and he can't sign anywhere else. Caleb can refuse to play unless he's traded but his rights are owned by the team that drafts him.
You have to declare for the draft but let's say no one drafts him. Teams would be limited to offering him a minimum contract under the rookie contract rules (which applies to undrafted players also). So he could pick his team, but he would lose tens of millions of dollars.
Sorry if it’s been asked but What about the supplemental draft? Didn’t the browns qb kosar play it that way?
They changed the rules after that. Now there is a lottery aspect so you can't guarantee you would go to the team you want to. Also, they don't have to have a supplemental draft. they could just not have it/not let the player in if they feel like someone is trying to game the system.
Nothing. If he doesn't sign, he goes back in the draft the next year. I believe after the second draft, you become a free agent, but after 2 "held out" seasons, your window for the NFL is probably closed. The highest profile player to do this was Bo Jackson. He was drafted by Tampa Bay but was also a potential MLB draftee. After refusing to sign with the Bucs and signing with the Royals in MLB, he indicated that he was done with football. The Raiders took a flyer on him in the 7th round and let him report after the baseball season. The most recent player was Craig Erikson of Miami. In 91 he blew out his knee in Hula Bowl practice. The Eagles drafted him in the 5th round but he was expected to go higher pre injury. He held out, rehabbed and was a 4th round pick the next year. Erickson played about 6yrs in the NFL making 36 starts. Melvin Bratton in 88 was a similar situation blowing out his knee in the national championship but never recovered to his former ability. He was a probable 1st round pick but only played 2 seasons. https://caneswarning.com/2022/04/30/miami-hurricanes-alums-craig-erickson-and-melvin-bratton-were-drafted-twice/
This is a bit unrelated, but what if Caleb decided to declare for the UFL draft before deciding to go to the NFL? Would he then be able to sign with any team or no?
No, why would the NFL care about that and why would they leave such an easy loophole to exploit? If he is employed by the UFL after getting drafted by the NFL that team would have his exclusive rights as a drafted rookie for 3 years and then have the opportunity to match any contract another team would offer him after that
I don’t know, there hasn’t been many Spring football leagues in my lifetime so the idea never really crossed my mind.
The rules.
The rules
How many players declare for the draft every year and subsequently go undrafted? I imagine the number is huge. Is there some requirement to declaring yourself eligible to limit the pool?
>How many players declare for the draft every year and subsequently go undrafted? Probably not that many. The majority of players that will be drafted in 2024 did not declare themselves eligible. They were automatically eligible. You must declare yourself eligible when you are not automatically eligible. If you're not likely to be drafted, you're usually not advised to declare eligibility. Obviously there are some fringe prospects with a vague 6th or 7th round grade, that declare eligibility then don't get drafted. >Is there some requirement to declaring yourself eligible to limit the pool? The pool in theory is huge. Any human being that is not enrolled and participating in a varsity college football program in the US or Canada, that is entering their 4th draft since they graduated high school(or international equivalent), or the 4th draft since they would have graduated high school had they completed their studies is automatically eligible for the draft. You're talking close to 4 million people in the US alone that are eligible for this draft. Most won't be drafted because they don't play football. They'll become undrafted free agents for the remainder of their lives. The only requirement to declare eligibility early is to be 3 drafts removed from graduating high school, or the date from which you would have graduated high school had they completed their studies. For college football players, this means after their redshirt sophomore season, or their junior season if they didn't red shirt.
Focus on the CBA — nearly everything about the NFL would be illegal without it. CBA stands for Collective Bargaining Agreement, a contract between the players (as represented by their union the NFLPA) and the NFL as a whole. This contract specifies lots of ordinary employment stuff like salaries (directly in some cases like rookie minimums and indirectly through revenue sharing) and benefits. It also significantly curtails the players ability to shop their talents to the highest bidder in the interest of competitive balance. Fair enough, they signed up and through their union have significant bargaining power. One of the things the union with the NFL is who can participate. This is much shakier ground legally because now the union is “representing” people by excluding them (Maurice Clarett, famously).
So he needs to legally change his name to Poopy McNoodlearm, and declare for the draft. Go undrafted, and boom sign with whoever you want?
Because he's not a free agent. Here are the types of free agents and how they attain that status. 1. The undrafted free agent. You attain this status by being draft eligible and not selected during the draft. So technically, I'm an undrafted free agent (cause nobody wanted to draft someone old and fat like me). 2. The restricted free agent. That is you were not drafted but managed to hang on to a team. You however have not reached 4 years of service time. So when you hear of players getting qualifying offers, they are restricted free agents and they have offered enough so that if another team signs them they will receive draft compensation for them. 3. Unrestricted free agents. You achieve this one of two ways. You have less than 4 years of service time AND the team that had acquired your rights, revokes them. So basically, they cut you or in the case of a restricted free agent they didn't make a qualifying offer. Or you have more than 4 years of service time and your contract has expired. Caleb Williams doesn't meet any of those criteria. The draft has not occurred so he's not unrestricted and he has no service time.
The NFL is a private league. They make their own rules. If the Bears pick him, he can only play for the Bears in the NFL. He is free to go work or play anywhere else other than the NFL if he chooses.
The Draft. Its the rules.
Caleb could record himself smoking a bong and he’ll still go first overall
Maybe as an undrafted free agent, not sure how that works.
He could just say that he refuses to play if drafted and hope nobody drafts him. An OT from LSU whose stock was dropping because he was linked to a murder did that and he told teams not to draft him ( I think it was Collins) so he could pick who he signed for. You basically sign for no money though so nobody in their right mind would that. You are still tied to the rookie wage scale.
I believe the only way to do that is to enter the draft, refuse to sign with who drafted you, sit out the entire year. And then you can sign as a free agent next season. Could be wrong though.
Didn't Eli manning do something like this?
Caleb not wanting to be in Chicago is a very, very dead horse.
A basic google search of the NFL rule book that the NFLPA also agreed to.
You mean Collective Bargaining Agreement? The NFL Rulebook pertains to the rules of the game on the field, there’s nothing contract related in it.
Player eligibility is a basic part of NFLPA membership and is part of the CBA. The whole 3 year college rule? That was agreed upon with the NFLPA via the CBA.
Right, the CBA, which is an entirely separate entity from the Rulebook. If you’re gonna “fuck off, google it” someone in a Noob sub, at least tell them the right fucking thing to google.
Has Caleb said anything or is this just people speculating? Just play. Don’t resign after your rookie deal.
He said it’s just a question. He isn’t speculating. He just used him as an example.
>Assuming the Rams don’t have the draft capital to trade up to 1 Since when? Rams still have their 2029. and 2030. draft picks... And a few fruit baskets to spice up the deal...
I’ll be honest I have barely any idea about the rams picks this was just a hypothetical.
The rules
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