In what was undoubtedly a long, grueling weekend for all NFL hopefuls, three former UND standouts found it to be well worth the wait.
Tank Harris and John Santiago will be attending the Minnesota Vikings rookie camp on May 3-5.
Deion Harris will be attending the Green Bay Packers rookie camp on May 3-5 and the Washington Redskins rookie camp on May 10-12. If Deion performs well enough for the Packers they may choose to sign him, which would cancel out the Redskins camp.
To summarize what it means to get a mini-camp (rookie camp) invite I would say this: the players are given an invitation to come to the camp and workout for a couple days and show what they got. They are not under contract but are hoping to earn a contract at the conclusion of the camp.
The players that were signed immediately after the draft are typically called “undrafted free agents” or UDFA. These players account for a spot on the roster and are under contract. However, after the initial mini-camp, they can be cut and replaced with an invited player who performed well.
Tank and Deion are represented by agent Philip Easton of Premier Athlete Advisors. John is represented by agent Chris Martin of OTG Sports.
One other note we wanted to touch on is that of Brady Oliveira. We really felt he was going to get a shot based on the size, speed and durability that he showed in college and during subsequent combine workouts. There is still time for him to get a shot, no doubt. But, the silver lining is that he will go very high in the upcoming CFL draft (Thursday, May 2nd), meaning he will be on a roster and have a chance to work his way back into the NFL via Canadian football.
Photo courtesy of fightinghawks.com