In the weeks leading up to the NFL Draft in April, linebacker Pete Fleps was one of a handful of SMU players believed to have a shot at getting chosen. When that didn’t happen, teammates Aldrick Robinson and free agent hopefuls Youri Yenga and Sterling Moore stayed in Dallas, working out with their former SMU teammates as they waited for the NFL owners to lift their lockout. Robinson had been drafted by the Washington Redskins; Yenga and Moore were hoping to earn contracts as free agents.

SMU graduate Pete Fleps put off the start of his business career to go after a job with the St. Louis Rams (photo by G. Newman Lowrance/St. Louis Rams).

But a fourth Mustang, and a player many believed had a chance to earn a contract offer, was nowhere to be found. Linebacker Pete Fleps, who finished second on the team in 2010 with 123 tackles and tied for second with 6.5 tackles-for-loss, had shown enough that a few NFL teams had called SMU defensive coordinator Tom Mason to ask about him. One even told Mason that if Fleps did not already have an agent, he would need to get one.

Mason didn’t blink at the fact that Fleps was not working out with his former teammates. “Pete is so smart and so disciplined,” Mason said, “I’m sure he was lifting and running every day. He always takes great care of himself, so I’m sure he was doing what he needed to be ready when (the lockout) was lifted.”

Mason was wrong.

“The (St. Louis) Rams had interest in me (before the draft), and made it sound like there was a pretty high likelihood that they would draft me in the seventh round,” Fleps said. “At the same time, I was also interviewing for jobs, and ended up getting a really good business job with business consulting firm in downtown Dallas, prior to Pro Day.

“When the draft didn’t work out, I kind of had the expectation that football would be over. I kept my options open, and wanted to see what would happen, but during the lockout, I put football on the backburner. I had committed to that business job, and I was looking forward to going into the business world. So for that part of the summer, I was casually working out at Dedman (Center), but I was also playing in a summer lacrosse league. I was not training for football at all.”

Fleps might have moved on from football in his mind, but the NFL wasn’t ready to give up on him.

“When the lockout ended,” Fleps said, “my agent called and said, ‘the Rams still want you. Are you interested?’ I talked to employer, and they were really excited. They told me to go for it, and said they would delay start date. So I really have a great opportunity with them — which I got in writing — to work for them, but to try the NFL first.”

Moving from SMU to the Rams means making the huge leap from the college game to the professional level. For Fleps, it also means moving from Mason’s 3-4 defensive scheme to the 4-3 preferred by Rams head coach Steve Spagnuolo. The system is not totally foreign to Fleps, but the last time he played in a 4-3 — during June Jones’ first year at SMU — he played outside, at the SAM spot.

“Pete never should have been playing outside,” Mason said. “He’s a natural inside player, but our numbers at those positions dictated that we needed to play him outside that year, and he did a good job. But when he moved inside, that was where he belonged, and it showed.”

The other major adjustment, Fleps said, was the in the complexity of the St. Louis defense. With all due respect to Mason, Fleps — who was widely regarded as one of the Mustangs’ most studious players — said he felt a little overwhelmed when he was given his new playbook by the Rams.

“It’s so much more complicated,” Fleps said. “When I first got my playbook, my head spun around. The thing is, all of the rookies this season are at a disadvantage, because we didn’t have mini-camps or OTAs (Organized Team Activities), so we (rookies) really had no time to get used to the defenses and offenses.

“They gave us our playbook, and told us to read sections 1-5 that first night. That has been the biggest part — the mental part, the learning and studying. That first two weeks, every second when you’re not sleeping, you’re trying to get in your playbook as much as you can, trying to study as much as you can. All of the rookies are like that: even on the shuttle to the hotel, we have our noses in our playbooks. It’s a new system with new terminology — it’s a lot to learn.”

Fleps has learned, and it has paid off. Although he ranks third on the Rams’ depth chart at middle linebacker behind starter James Laurinaitis and Josh Hull, he has played — and made plays — in each of the Rams’ first two preseason games on defense and on special teams.

“I’m playing on all special teams — kickoff, kickoff return, punt and punt return,” Fleps said. “Not necessarily with the first units, but I’m playing them. For someone in my situation, that would be my ticket to making the team, to play special teams and do it well.”

It would be understandable if Laurinaitis, who is just 24 years old, were a little hesitant to share what he has learned in the NFL with a rookie who plays the same position. But Fleps said he and Laurinaitis have become friends, and that the veteran linebackers have been quick to help mentor their younger teammates.

“I have befriended James, and he has been a great help teaching me and answering questions,” Fleps said. “He knows the defense backward and forward, and has been a really big help. All of the veteran linebackers pretty easy-going, and they always answer questions.”

Fleps said the veterans have been so welcoming that he has not yet endured any of the typical rookie hazing that many NFL veterans still dish out. “I have just had to buy sunflower seeds and carry their pads, things like that,” Fleps said. “Nothing too bad.”

For the time being, Fleps said he is enjoying every second of the NFL experience.

“This is a full-time job, but I’m playing a game that, in and of itself, is always fun if you’ve got a passion for it,” he said. “The first two weeks, were really tough — I’m in a new area, a new situation, and I’m on the bottom of the food chain, trying to catch up. The first two weeks were really challenging.

“But when you think about it, playing this game at this level, and having this opportunity … it’s really a blessing.”