It's the slowest time on the NFL calendar right now, and news is hard to come by. Most teams wrapped up their offseason activities over the past two weeks, and now everyone's on break until late July when training camp starts up. That leaves a lot of time to think up some truly wonderful What If's – there's nothing better than going into training camp with wildly out-of-touch expectations.
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Fortunately, ESPN has made that real easy for us this week. Buried deep down in Mike Reiss' notebackk from Patriots' minicamp is an interesting little nugget about rookie linebacker Cam Riley. Riley went undrafted this year and signed with the Patriots about a month ago – he's also, apparently, impressed a bunch of people since.
It sounds like the Patriots have been impressed with Cam Riley so far
"Undrafted linebacker Cam Riley (Auburn/Florida State) had two pass breakups in the final spring practice, serving notice that he could be a worthy under-the-radar player to watch in training camp.
'He's been great so far. He has improved each and every day,' inside linebackers coach Zak Kuhr said of Riley (6-foot-4, 228 pounds), who totaled 167 tackles, 3.5 sacks, 3 passes defended and 1 forced fumble in college. He's learning what it's like to be a pro and there really hasn't been any slip ups, so I'm excited about his path right now."'
This is probably just the very beginning of Best Shape Of Their Life's SZN, but it's fun to read about right now. And if anyone can get the best out of a promising undrafted linebacker, it's probably Mike Vrabel. It's not like the Patriots' linebacker depth chart is blocking him from making the final 53-man roster, either.
If anything, let this be the start of your Hipster Cam Riley journey. You knew about him before everyone else did. His ascension didn't surprise you whatsoever. You know ball.