The surprising upside of being an undrafted free agent in the NFL

AS THE NFL draft spun through its three-day cycle this spring, Ivan Pace Jr.’s phone never rang. Through seven rounds and 259 selections in Kansas City, Missouri, all 32 teams passed on the linebacker out of Cincinnati.

He said it was “heartbreaking” not to be drafted, but at the end of the draft, it might have left Pace in a more advantageous spot.

Pace was in position to be a priority undrafted free agent. In years past, that might have meant a small signing bonus or having his pick of the best potential paths to a 53-man roster spot. But in the past handful of seasons, it’s also meant something else.

The way some NFL teams create UDFA contracts has evolved from strictly using a capped-out signing bonus to offering some guaranteed money on the base salaries of contracts, which is another way to lure a player to their squad.

Not every UDFA gets this type of offer, and for some, it isn’t as lucrative. But for Pace, it worked out. He signed with the Minnesota Vikings with a $216,000 base salary guarantee and a $20,000 signing bonus, according to Roster Management System.

It’s an example of the new way teams operate. And in a league where typically close to a third of the players start as undrafted free agents, a shift in how those players are acquired can be significant.

In 2020, NFL teams spent $8,787,100 on base salary guarantees for UDFAs. In 2021, teams spent $7.175 million. Then in 2022, the number more than doubled to $14,902,500. Four teams spent more than $1 million on base salary guarantees for UDFAs in 2022 — the Dallas Cowboys, Jacksonville Jaguars, New Orleans Saints and Philadelphia Eagles, according to documents provided by Roster Management System.

In that three-year span, only four teams did not give any money in base salary guarantees: the Pittsburgh Steelers, Seattle Seahawks, Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Rams.

“It’s factually a huge, major distribution of talent,” said one longtime NFL agent who spoke with ESPN on the condition of anonymity. “So all 32 teams are not on a level playing field. So the teams that are doing it are putting themselves in such an advantageous position to acquire talent.”

This trend can leave top undrafted players better off than their peers taken in the later rounds. While often the only guaranteed money offered to late-round picks is a signing bonus, which is slotted by the collective bargaining agreement, there is no limit to what teams can offer UDFAs in base salary guarantees. There is also the upside of getting a say in where you play.

This creates a competition point, said one NFL front office executive who spoke with ESPN on the condition of anonymity. The hours after the draft can become a bidding war for priority UDFAs, driving up guarantees.

Pace said his fit with the Vikings — he spoke with defensive coordinator Brian Flores during the quick-decision undrafted period — played the largest factor in where he ended up signing. But he was aware of the financial stake.

“That played a role in what team I was going to go to, too,” Pace said. “I talked to my agent, and the Vikings came out to be the best fit for me, playingwise and moneywise.”

AS ATLANTA FALCONS general manager Terry Fontenot watched players go in the 2023 NFL draft, he and his staff updated their front and back boards.

Fontenot’s front board is for players he believes will get drafted, while the back board is for those he thinks might not. His team has heavily scouted players on both boards. Once the draft is over, undrafted free agency begins.

After April’s draft, New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen called undrafted free agency “the second draft.”

“The scouts and the coaches do a really good job, so they’re grinding film on a lot of these guys you don’t expect to get drafted,” Fontenot said on Day 3 of this year’s draft. “Some of them go. Some of them don’t. We already have a good feel for it. Once we get through the front board meetings, that’s what the coaches and scouts are grinding on these guys, just back-to-back, watching all these players that you don’t expect to go, for whatever reason.”

Jacksonville, in some ways, took a different strategy this year, loading up on late-round picks. Whether by design or happenstance, general manager Trent Baalke recognized the changes taking place in the undrafted cycle.

“That landscape has changed,” Baalke said after April’s draft. “So we’re out there, these seventh-round picks are getting less money than the college free agents are getting right now in terms of guaranteed dollars and everything else.

“So when you have 13 picks, it allows you to draft some of those guys that you would normally be fighting for in college free agency.”

Every team operates differently — some choose not to give guarantees and others are willing to open their checkbooks much wider.

It’s a calculated bet, the NFL front office executive told ESPN. The higher the guarantee, the greater the belief the player will be, at worst, on a practice squad somewhere in the NFL.

Because while hundreds of thousands of dollars in guaranteed money sounds great, and is a good backstop for a player, it’s not exactly what it appears. If a player has a base salary guarantee of $216,000 or less — the amount guaranteed to practice squad players in 2023 — and spends the entire season on a practice squad, he essentially gets the same money he would have without the guarantee.

The guaranteed salary figures are eclipsed if the player gets called up, due to the NFL minimum salary weekly NFL check of $41,667.

“You’re making a real commitment to a player who just wasn’t drafted,” said Mike Tannenbaum, ESPN’s NFL front office insider and the general manager of the New York Jets from 2006 to 2012. “It’s real money. It’s basically, unless a player is just an egregious flop on the field, they are going to be on your practice squad at a minimum.

“Like, you’re taking some of the, ‘Hey, free agents have to prove it,’ you’re taking part of that narrative really off the table.”

And even if that player is cut, if another club picks him up at any point — to the 53-man roster or the practice squad — the contract transfers to the new team for as long as the player is with his new team.

“Conceivably, these guys can make your roster,” the NFL agent said. “So if they make your practice squad, or at worst, make someone else’s practice squad.

“So really, up to 217 [thousand dollars] is Monopoly money.”

IT’S NOT CLEAR if one moment created the movement toward UDFA base salary guarantees. It evolved because of the rules in the CBA, multiple sources who spoke with ESPN on the condition of anonymity said.

The CBA has a cap on the amount of signing bonuses a team can give out to UDFAs — in 2021, it was a combined $160,000 — and it grows each year. In 2023, the signing bonus cap per team is $172,337, per Roster Management System.

But there is no cap on how much base salary money a team can guarantee a UDFA.

Pace’s Minnesota teammate, Andre Carter II, received the highest base salary guarantee for an undrafted free agent this offseason: $300,000. Seventy-one undrafted free agents received six-figure base salary guarantees this year, according to Roster Management System, and 12 have guarantees of $216,000 or more — the equivalent of a full year on the practice squad.

And there’s evidence the guaranteed money could continue to escalate. In 2020, the highest UDFA base salary guarantee went to Jacksonville corner Luq Barcoo at $160,000. Barcoo made the Jaguars and played in three games. The next season, the highest guarantee went to Jets tight end Kenny Yeboah at $180,000 — he played in 19 games for the Jets the past two seasons.

Last year, Philadelphia guaranteed quarterback Carson Strong $300,000. Cut out of camp, Strong spent one week on Arizona’s practice squad and is now not on an NFL roster — meaning the Eagles ate a lot of Strong’s guarantee.

Another longtime NFL agent who asked for anonymity said he believes the league will eventually try to control the guarantees because the dollars keep escalating higher than what some draft picks receive.

For example, the only money guaranteed to running back DeWayne McBride, the Vikings’ seventh-round pick, was a signing bonus of $110,404. Including signing bonuses, 64 undrafted players received more than McBride’s bonus in guarantees.

While McBride will receive the money no matter what, the Vikings have actually given more guarantees to Carter and Pace. Unlike McBride, those players could also pick from the teams that offered them the most to create a more desirable pathway to a 53-man roster spot.

And on Tuesday, Carter and Pace were both named to the Vikings’ 53-man roster, while McBride was cut.

The anonymous NFL front office executive likened it to Mr. Irrelevant — Rams defensive tackle Desjuan Johnson — getting a $77,784 signing bonus. Approximately 100 undrafted players, the executive said, had base salary guarantees higher than that.

“Psychologically, getting drafted, that has the prestige and the certainty of what you’re going to get,” Tannenbaum said. “But given some of these aggressive guarantees, you could make the argument that, ‘You know what, maybe we’re better off not getting drafted at all.'”

ESPN Vikings reporter Kevin Seifert contributed to this report.