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Ryan Becker: In the Cards?

PostPosted: Sat May 02, 2020 3:54 am
by PonyPride
In the Cards?
SMU tight end Ryan Becker hopes to turn free agent contract into NFL career

For college football players across the country hoping to play in the NFL, the spring after their final seasons is all about training — for Pro Day, for the Combine, to impress scouts. They train to drop precious tenths of a second off their times in the 40-yard dash, or to raise their numbers of repetitions in the bench press, all in the hopes of catching the attention of the league’s talent evaluators. Some scouts get so enamored with a player’s “measurable” that he forgets what that player did on the field.

But every year, after players get drafted or signed as undrafted free agents, stories begin to emerge about a player who wasn’t the headliner on his college team or maybe lacked something in the physical tests but produced at such a level that his new team can’t let him go.

After he was hired in January as SMU’s new offensive coordinator, Garrett Riley coupled his immediate recruiting responsibilities with watching the Mustangs’ 2019 games, to evaluate the personnel he was inheriting for the 2020 season.

“Coach Riley, when he was watching cutups of last year’s games, he was asking ‘who’s 14?’” tight ends coach Josh Martin said. “He’s really good.”

No. 14 was tight end Ryan Becker. In a time when media and fans scour the internet, reading about players’ on-field statistics, Becker’s numbers — he caught 16 passes for 198 and five touchdowns in 49 games over his SMU career — don’t exactly jump out. But as soon as the NFL Draft ended April 23, Becker became one of three Mustangs headed to the next level, having agreed to a free agent contract with the Arizona Cardinals.

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Re: Ryan Becker: In the Cards?

PostPosted: Fri May 08, 2020 8:34 am
by Thumper
It's weird to say, considering how many passes he caught at SMU, but it wouldn't shock me if he makes the team.
Good luck, Ryan