Dukes Heading to the NFL

It’s been a bittersweet weekend for a bunch of Dukes considered NFL Prospects. It was not all that surprising, or disappointing, that no Dukes players were selected in the actual draft and as players and their agents have learned over the years, it’s often better to be signed as an Undrafted Free Agent than a late round pick. The UFA’s are often selected by teams specifically looking to fill needs while the late-round picks may have been selected as a “best player available” to a team with a logjam ahead of them at their position.

On the sweet side of the ledger, OL Mitchell Kirsch signed with the Chicago Bears, a squad in rebuilding mode that already has former Duke Daniel Brown who contributed a good deal late last season at TE. The Bears also invited special teams standout Rashard Davis to their rookie mini-camp. Because the schedule’s for teams’ rookie camps vary, Davis was actually able to also accept an invite to the New York Jets camp so he’ll have two shots to make an impression.

CB Taylor Reynolds, one of the players with the best JMU backstories in program history (bailed on a QB shot at his hometown school and hated rival Delaware, was switched to CB almost immediately in classic Mickey fashion his freshman year and suffered some unnecessary slings and arrows from fans during his learning curve early in his career before turning into an absolute stud his last couple seasons and earning this opportunity), will be taking his talents to the NFC Champion Atlanta Falcons after signing a free agent deal this weekend too.

On the bitter side however, somehow RB Khalid Abdullah has not yet gotten a call from a pro team. And this despite a number of less-talented backs (our completely unbiased opinion of course) including guys like New Hampshire’s Dalton Crosson getting chances. We’re still hoping Khalid will find a home at some point though! And we’d love to see Gage Steele find an opportunity too.

In other news, Softball is flat-out rolling right now but we’re hoping we’ll cover them in more detail later this week before the postseason begins with the CAA tourney. And the Duke Club found a new man to lead that critically important element of JMU Athletics that we’re very excited about but will cover in more detail this summer (hopefully after a program-defining run from Softball takes us deep into June!).