{"id":9385,"date":"2017-04-30T23:47:22","date_gmt":"2017-05-01T03:47:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=9385"},"modified":"2017-04-30T23:47:22","modified_gmt":"2017-05-01T03:47:22","slug":"dukes-heading-to-the-nfl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=9385","title":{"rendered":"Dukes Heading to the NFL"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;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&#8217;s often better to be signed as an Undrafted Free Agent than a late round pick. The UFA&#8217;s are often selected by teams specifically looking to fill needs while the late-round picks may have been selected as a &#8220;best player available&#8221; to a team with a logjam ahead of them at their position.<\/p>\n<p>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&#8217;s for teams&#8217; rookie camps vary, Davis was actually able to also accept an invite to the New York Jets camp so he&#8217;ll have two shots to make an impression.<\/p>\n<p><img data-attachment-id=\"9106\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?attachment_id=9106\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/55f041bb06c3e.image_.jpg?fit=760%2C506&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"760,506\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"reynolds high 5\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/55f041bb06c3e.image_.jpg?fit=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/55f041bb06c3e.image_.jpg?fit=760%2C506&amp;ssl=1\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-9106\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/55f041bb06c3e.image_.jpg?resize=300%2C200\" alt=\"reynolds high 5\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/55f041bb06c3e.image_.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/55f041bb06c3e.image_.jpg?w=760&amp;ssl=1 760w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/>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.<\/p>\n<p>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&#8217;s Dalton Crosson getting chances. We&#8217;re still hoping Khalid will find a home at some point though! And we&#8217;d love to see Gage Steele find an opportunity too.<\/p>\n<p>In other news, Softball is flat-out rolling right now but we&#8217;re hoping we&#8217;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&#8217;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!).<\/p>\n<iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fjmusportsblog.com%2F%3Fp%3D9385&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=true&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light&amp;height=80\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:80px;\" allowTransparency=\"true\"><\/iframe>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;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&#8217;s often better to be signed as an Undrafted Free Agent than a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1732,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=1732","url_meta":{"origin":9385,"position":0},"title":"Stephon Robertson Is CAA Defensive Rookie of the Year","date":"November 22, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The CAA announced its awards for the 2010 football season today and JMU's Stephon Robertson was selected as the Defensive Rookie of the Year. The redshirt freshman linebacker was JMU's second leading tackler and the twelth leading tackler in the CAA.\u00a0Stephon graduated from Edison High School in Alexandria and had\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Football&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3864,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=3864","url_meta":{"origin":9385,"position":1},"title":"Bryant and Allen Sign NFL Deals","date":"April 29, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"All three days of the NFL draft came and went without any JMU Dukes getting picked this year. Two players were fortunate to sign deals as free-agents though. D.J. Bryant signed with the Houston Texans and Mike Allen signed with the Cleveland Browns. Contrary to some reports, Kerby Long has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Football&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7684,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=7684","url_meta":{"origin":9385,"position":2},"title":"Friday Ramblings: Let&#8217;s Go Streaking","date":"May 1, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"As you are probably aware, JMU softball is a bit of a juggernaut. Coach Mickey Deane and the Dukes avenged an earlier loss to Virginia Tech by sweeping the Hokies in a double header Wednesday night. Over 1,200 fans showed up at Veterans Memorial Park and witnessed the pair of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Football&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7692,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=7692","url_meta":{"origin":9385,"position":3},"title":"Four More Dukes to Get a Shot at the NFL","date":"May 3, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The NFL Draft came and went this year without any JMU players being drafted. Free Safety Dean Marlowe had an outside shot after participating in the NFL Scouting Combine, but his name was never called. That's not too surprising, seeing as how about 320 players participated in the combine and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Football&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Maine James Madison Football","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/100811-jmu-um-ftb3-mr.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1173,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=1173","url_meta":{"origin":9385,"position":4},"title":"Trio of Solid Debuts for the Dukes","date":"August 14, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Three former JMU Dukes got their first taste of live action in the NFL pre-season last night. Scotty McGee and Mike Caussin suited up for the Jags as they faced off with the Eagles, and Arthur Moats and the Bills played the Redskins at Fed Ex. All three players put\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Football&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/64369_Jaguars_Camp_Football-292x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6715,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=6715","url_meta":{"origin":9385,"position":5},"title":"Softball wins CAA; Stanton, Wells, Scott get NFL invites","date":"May 11, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Good news on a couple fronts in JMU Sportsland this weekend. First and foremost, a huge congratulations to JMU Softball for taking down the CAA title (is it too much to dream this is the last ever CAA title in any sport? Don't answer that, of course it is)! The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9385"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9385"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9387,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9385\/revisions\/9387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}