Gold Rush: Deacs In The NFL
8/13/2003 12:00:00 AM | Football
Aug. 13, 2003
Wake Forest alumni in NFL training camps, according to insiders.com:
| Nate Bolling | DT | Baltimore |
| Desmond Clark | TE | Chicago |
| Fabian Davis | WR | Tampa Bay |
| Blake Henry | OG | Atlanta |
| Dustin Lyman | TE | Chicago |
| James MacPherson | QB | Indianapolis |
| Kelvin Moses | ILB | N.Y. Jets |
| Ovie Mughelli | FB | Baltimore |
| Calvin Pace | DE | Arizona |
| Ricky Proehl | WR | Carolina |
| Walter Rasby | TE | New Orleans |
| Fred Robbins | NT | Minnesota |
| Montique Sharpe | DT | Kansas City |
| John Stone | WR | Oakland |
| Ray Thomas | TE | Buffalo |
| Jay Williams | DE | Miami |
| Joe Zelenka | TE | Jacksonville |
Against all odds
MacPherson among undrafted rookies getting chance at NFL
By Jay Reddick
The first day of April's NFL Draft gets all the attention. Top pick Carson Palmer and the rest of the first-round picks get their pictures made with the commissioner on that Saturday afternoon, they have a news conference with their new team, and are anointed as superstars for years to come.
Most of the anxious moments -- and the construction of NFL teams' nuts and bolts -- happen the following Sunday, when NFL teams jockey for low-round picks and free agents who will fight for jobs in the coming training camp.
James MacPherson knew all this. He had seen former teammates Calvin Pace and Ovie Mughelli picked on the draft's first day, but Sunday was when he kept the TV on and the phone by his side.
"I was sitting at home, watching the draft, and I saw Montique's (Sharpe's) name come across as a seventh-round pick," MacPherson said. "I hadn't expected to get drafted, but just then the phone rang."
On the other end of the line was Jim Caldwell, MacPherson's old coach at WFU, but this was not a social call. Caldwell, now the quarterbacks coach for the Indianapolis Colts, invited MacPherson to training camp. "He said they had a spot open for me, if I was interested," MacPherson said. "Of course, that wasn't much of a decision. "This is a dream come true for me."
MacPherson is one of 17 players, including seven rookies, who opened camp this fall with an NFL team. The drafted trio represent the Deacons' second-biggest such class ever and was the second-biggest draft representation in the nine-team ACC, behind Florida State.
Pace got the fanfare after he was picked 18th by the Arizona Cardinals. He is expected to bolster their pass rush. Mughelli went in the third round to Baltimore. MacPherson joins Tampa Bay wide receiver Fabian Davis, Atlanta guard Blake Henry and Buffalo tight end Ray Thomas as free-agent pickups.
As a quarterback, MacPherson has a high-profile job to fight for in Indianapolis. Peyton Manning is the team's starter at that position, and Damon Huard is the holdover backup. Veteran Jim Kubiak and MacPherson are expected to battle for the third spot.
"Right now, I'm just trying to make it," MacPherson told Gold Rush after his first day of preseason camp in Terre Haute, Ind. "Just to be here and practicing with NFL players is an amazing experience, and one of the most challenging things I've ever done."
The NFL season lasts just 17 weeks, but MacPherson has worked almost non-stop since that phone call from Caldwell.
"We had a three-day rookie mini-camp the week after the draft," MacPherson said. "From there, I went home for a few days, then went back to Wake and walked at graduation in May. That night, I flew out here (to Indiana) for what we call 'summer-school practice.' That was four weeks; I stayed two extra weeks to work out and get stronger, then preseason camp started."
MacPherson said he has heard positive things from Caldwell, head coach Tony Dungy and the rest of the Colts staff during preseason camp. He expects to play in at least one or two preseason games before a decision is made about his future.
The team is staying in dormitories during the preseason, but MacPherson said the atmosphere there has very little to do with college life. "It's more professional," MacPherson said. "We go back to the dorms, and we want to relax and kid around, but we're all competing for jobs, so we study."
The playbook, which MacPherson said "kind of looks like a Bible," is by far the biggest he has ever seen.
"We can run the same play out of 30 or 40 different formations, with five different pass-protection schemes," MacPherson said. "Everybody is smarter at this level, and I have a lot to learn, but it's coming to me." That was obvious during the team's first intrasquad scrimmage in August, when his 6-yard pass to tight end Mike Roberg gave the second-stringers their only touchdown of the game.
Davis is undergoing similar growing pains in Tampa Bay, but according to coach Jon Gruden, he has also stepped up to the challenge, learning the complexities of NFL football.
"He shows up on the practice field every day," Gruden told the St. Petersburg Times. "The one thing about this guy is, he's a quick study. He knows how to play football, and that's a winning edge for him right now. He'll get a good look in the preseason."
That "good look" began Aug. 3, when Davis saw time at receiver, catching one 24-yard pass, and also was the Bucs' leading kickoff and punt returner in the first preseason game of the year, against the Jets in Tokyo. Davis is fighting for a job among a large group on the defending Super Bowl champion Bucs, a group that includes Keyshawn Johnson, Joe Jurevicius, Keenan McCardell and Karl Williams. Shaun King, the Bucs' backup quarterback, has already formed a connection with the Wake Forest rookie.
"Our team of receivers is a tough shell to crack, but if there's a front-runner to do it, it's him," King told the Tampa Tribune. Among the veterans, Michael McCrary made the biggest news in the offseason. After hinting that his knee injuries would force him to retire and become a coach with the Ravens, he wavered on that decision throughout July. On July 24, the Ravens released him from his contract to clear salary-cap room.
He has said publicly that his knees will need at least a couple of months of rest and rehabilitation before he plays again, but he hasn't ruled out the possibility of a midseason return, with the Ravens or some other team.
"I like Michael McCrary very much," Ravens owner Art Modell told The Sun in July. "When he is healthy, he is an excellent player. There was a time where we were led to believe he would retire. I don't know what kind of shape he is in, but if he can help us late in the season, and that's when we will need him most, then I wouldn't rule out bringing him back for another season. But I can't answer definitively one way or another yet."