The progression of Devlin Hodges from tryout participant at rookie minicamp to starting quarterback for the Steelers was one of the stories that gripped fans not just in Pittsburgh, but across the league in 2019.
Plenty of people got caught up in the rags-to-riches nature of the story, as Hodges went from being a player who was not only not drafted by any NFL team, but also not signed by one in the aftermath of the draft.
He was instead one of the handful of players who accepted an invitation to rookie minicamp who caught the eye of the coaching staff, earning a spot on the 90-man roster. From there, he continued to progress to the point where he was starting for the Steelers in a Week 6 victory by the team in Los Angeles against the Chargers.
It marked the first of three-straight victories in games started by Hodges, something that put him in beyond rarified air. No undrafted quarterback in a non-strike season had won his first three NFL starts in the Super Bowl era.
But because of the coronavirus shutdown, we won't see another story like it in 2020. We also won't see another player such as Terence Garvin, who earned a spot on the Steelers' roster in 2013 at a tryout and turned that into a five-year NFL career.
Like all other teams, the Steelers couldn't hold any tryouts at their rookie minicamp last weekend. How can you try out when the team isn't on the field?
So, essentially this season, if you didn't get drafted or signed in the immediate aftermath of the draft, you might be out of luck.
NFL teams signed just under 425 undrafted rookies in the aftermath of this year's draft. That number could change slightly as rosters continue to be adjusted, but it's not likely to change significantly.
That also was a slight downtick in the number of undrafted rookies signed by teams from a year ago, when around 450 were brought in by teams following the draft. The Steelers, who typically bring in 12 to 15 undrafted rookies to supplement their draft class, signed only 10 this year despite being limited with just six draft picks.
"We signed a bunch of XFL players," Steelers GM Kevin Colbert said immediately after the draft. "We’ll be signing less college free agents. It’s a little bit of an unknown market."
The undrafted, unsigned market? It's completely unknown and will continue to be so.
The Steelers weren't the only team to stay away from the undrafted rookie market. The Colts also brought in 10 undrafted players, while the Texans (9), Bills (8), Patriots, Lions, Raiders and Broncos (7) and Redskins (4), all had less than that.
Of course, it might not matter for those players, anyway. Given the fact coaching staffs might not get an opportunity to see these players on a practice or playing field anytime soon, they're already facing very long odds to make a roster, anyway.
For a team such as the Steelers, who have a long history of undrafted players making impacts -- including one, Donnie Shell, who will go into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this year -- that's significant.
"We’re not in the evaluation stage," Mike Tomlin said of his team's OTA sessions. "We’re in a teaching and instructing stage right now, and we will be in that until we get into a football-type environment and a training camp-like setting and we’re playing a game. All the things we’re doing for them right now is preparing them for that."
"Everybody is in the same boat right now," said rookie running back Anthony McFarland, a fourth-round draft pick. "It’s all up to you. It’s all about learning and getting into the playbook every day."
