ROOKIES HAVE SOMETHING TO PROVE
Collins, Gurley, Ray cope with adversity, injury
La’el Collins could have arrived at last month’s NFL rookie symposium and looked at his peers with envy.
From the players drafted in the first round to those selected some 200 picks later in the seventh round, each had something Collins did not: draft status.
“I know where I would have been. I know I would have been drafted in the first round, and I’m good with that,” Collins told USA TODAY Sports. “I know my talent. That doesn’t make me any less of a player.”
If not for an unfortunate set of circumstances involving the death of Collins’ ex-girlfriend shortly before the draft, Collins would have been a high pick. Instead, he went undrafted, signed a free agent contract with the Dallas Cowboys and will begin his career without much of the fanfare that comes with being a first-round pick.
The Cowboys asked for the NFL to make an exception for Collins, and he was invited to Ohio — the only undrafted player who joined the more than 250 drafted players at the league’s annual rookie education program.
After the stress of draft week, with the concurrent police investigation — Collins passed a polygraph test and was not considered a suspect — he is happy to be part of an NFL team and with his fellow rookies, no matter how he got here or how much money it might have cost him.
Collins’ three-year contract with the Cowboys is fully guaranteed and worth $1.599 million, significantly less than he would have made as a first-round draft pick.
“Yeah, but at the same time, that doesn’t matter. I’ve been playing this game for a long time, I’ve got nothing but love and passion for this game, and I know that one day, in the future, everything is going to work out for me just the way I want it to work out,” Collins said. “All I have to do is continue to work and continue to do the things I’ve always been doing, and I’ll be fine.”
Indeed, Collins understands that with the current rookie wage scale, the most lucrative contract for most players is their second one. And as an undrafted player, he could earn that second contract after the 2016 season.
He figures to start his first training camp as a backup guard, but it would hardly be surprising if he made a push for a starting job by late August. But after his tumultuous spring, Collins said he sees an even bigger role for himself than just playing football.
“Now that I’m doing what I always dreamed of doing, it’s how can I take my story and share it to the world? Share it with other kids that are coming up that are facing adversity, that are already going through things that can either make them or break them,” Collins said. “I want to kind of put them in a mind-set to where no matter what you go through or what you do, you could always overcome it. That’s really my dream, my goal and the next thing I want to do.”
GURLEY ON SCHEDULE
Todd Gurley doesn’t keep an official count of how many days have passed since he had surgery on his torn anterior cruciate ligament, but he knows when he reaches big dates and milestones.
“Oh, snap. I just ended up on seven months. I’ve been feeling good,” Gurley said. “I had surgery on the 25th of November, so seven months; it’s gone by fast. I’ve been doing everything rehab-wise and position-wise.”
Those months flew by in a haze of rehab and draft-related travel, and it wasn’t until the St. Louis Rams selected him with the 10th pick on April 30 that Gurley was able to put all of his focus on his recovery.
He had nearly two uninterrupted months to work with the Rams training staff and start learning from the team’s coaches, and he’ll spend the remainder of his offsea- son in St. Louis rather than going home to Georgia or taking a vacation elsewhere.
Gurley figures every minute he can spend working on his rehab, the better his chances of being on the field for St. Louis’ opener Sept. 13 vs. the Seattle Seahawks.
“I want to be out there definitely for camp. But they’re not going to rush anything, and I’m not going to rush anything,” he said.
RAY LEARNS ROPES
Patience was the key word for Shane Ray’s rookie offseason with the Denver Broncos.
A toe injury, suffered while he trained for the draft, lingered for months, and he wasn’t cleared to participate in team drills until the final organized team workouts in mid-June.
“It was definitely frustrating for me, because I’m such a competitor and I hate watching. I’ve never been injured to the point where I’ve had to sit out for any extensive time, so for me, I just wanted to be out there and play football,” Ray told USA TODAY Sports. “Everybody has such high expectations for you being a firstround pick, so I just want to go out there and show everybody why the Broncos decided to make the decision on me.”
While Ray was sidelined for workouts in May and through most of June, he spent much of his time standing behind the defense, mimicking the actions of Broncos pass rushers Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware, both of whom have offered to mentor Ray as he starts his NFL career.
That included working on dropping back into coverage, something he rarely did as a defensive end at Missouri, and learning different pass-rushing techniques.
It all felt worth it when he was finally able to go through three practices last month.
“It’s the best I’ve felt in six months,” Ray said. “As soon as I got on the field, I was flying around, doing the same things I was doing in the SEC, and it felt great.”
Those practices helped him finally start to see defensive coordinator Wade Phillips’ plans for him, whether as a backup outside linebacker used to spell Miller and Ware or perhaps in a specialty pass-rushing package in which all three could be used together.
“If that’s what Coach Wade wants to do, I’m sure he’ll put a package together,” Ray said. “I know I’ll be the best prepared for whatever they ask me to do.”