March 28, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Patience key for UMaine’s NFL hopefuls

A week ago, a trio of University of Maine football players watched the 63rd NFL Draft with a faint glimmer of hope they might be fortunate enough to be drafted by one of the league’s 30 teams.

Seven rounds, eight days, and 241 picks later, Derek Carter, Rameek Wright, and John Tennett are still awaiting word from their agents that a team wants to sign them to a free-agent contract.

“No offers yet,” said a restless Carter Thursday night. “Several teams are interested, but we don’t have anything concrete yet.”

“My agent seems to be pretty optimistic. I talked to him yesterday and there are three teams [San Francisco, Oakland, Philadelphia] holding minicamps now who have interest,” said Tennett Friday. “After the camps, they’ll re-evaluate their situations and rookies and hopefully bring me in for a look.”

All three expected to have at least an invitation by now after suffering through two days of intense draft coverage and plenty of post-draft analysis. Instead, they’re learning how to stretch the limits of their patience.

“All of this waiting has been tough,” Carter admitted. “It’s difficult to focus on other things.”

But that’s exactly what the Black Bear senior defensive back has had to do. He has two classes and an internship to worry about as he closes in on graduating with a degree in health and fitness May 9.

Fellow wide receivers Wright and Tennett are in the same boat, although Tennett has already finished his undergraduate workload in education and is currently taking one graduate course while awaiting graduation next month.

“Eventually, I want to get into coaching and I think one good thing about all this is it’s a good experience to be able to pass on to younger kids,” Tennett said. “It may not be the pros, but a lot of kids will probably go through this when they’re applying for college.”

All three players not only continue to work out six days a week, they have stepped up their training now that they don’t have to worry about running fast times in the 40-yard dash for scouts.

“We only worked out for one team, so I don’t really think it’s that much a surprise we haven’t signed with anyone yet,” said Wright. “My agent’s talked to a few teams.”

Carter’s agent is confident he’ll get a shot.

“He’s promised me he’ll get me signed and give me a chance to go out on the field and show what I can do, and that’s all I want. But it’s taking a lot longer than I thought it would,” said Carter.

All three hope things will heat up in the next two weeks, as most NFL teams wrap up their early rookie minicamps.

“It could really take all the way up to training camps in July before we sign with anybody,” Wright said. “Hopefully, it won’t take that long.”

If it does, Tennett is ready for life without football. Well, not totally without football since he eventually plans to get into coaching.

“It’s tough, but it really shows you the business aspect of sports,” he said. “It’s just like applying for a job, having to interview, and then wait for an answer.”

Tennett, Wright, and Carter are just hoping the answers are worth the wait.


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