Vinopal to Cowboys

Submitted by Jon06 on

Ray Vinopal of Pitt and Thomas Rawls of CMU, both former Wolverines, have been signed by the Dallas Cowboys.

http://www.nfl.com/draft/story/0ap3000000490294/article/2015-undrafted-freeagent-deals-for-all-32-nfl-teams

Update: Rawls has disappeared from the list of new Cowboys. Somebody else made a thread for him. Let's make this one about Vinopal.

Magnus

May 3rd, 2015 at 12:33 AM ^

It actually doesn't, though. Vinopal did not excel - he simply became a starter. He was already playing a lot at Michigan when he was a freshman, but he wanted to be closer to home. He didn't do anything special at Pitt, and now he's an UDFA signee. If you think that's some sort of awesome accomplishment and was something he couldn't have done if he had stayed at Michigan, check out Jordan Kovacs (who was at Michigan and latched on with the Dolphins) or Brennen Beyer (who had a very mediocre career but still signed as an UDFA with the Ravens).

I'll give you Furman. He went to Oklahoma State and had a pretty good year in the Big 12.

But then Thomas Rawls went to CMU, averaged 5.25 yards a carry, gained 1100 yards, and scored 10 touchdowns. Those are pretty decent numbers, but they were also in the MAC. There are lots of guys who could go from Power Five conferences and then go put up equivalent numbers in the MAC. Mike Jones went to WMU and had somewhere around 100 tackles, IIRC. Richard Ash went to WMU and had a decent year. Neither one latched on with an NFL team (although Ash still has a chance, I guess, since the draft just ended).