Pitt has a press release with the information.
Three Pitt football players signed free agent contracts with NFL teams this week. Placekicker Josh Cummings signed with the St. Louis Rams, tight end Erik Gill signed with the Dallas Cowboys and receiver Greg Lee inked a deal with the Arizona Cardinals.
Additionally, defensive back Tez Morris will participate in tryout camps this weekend with the Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys. Linebacker J.J. Horne will also workout for the Cowboys.
Gill signs with the Cowboys who also drafted ND TE Anthony Fasano. Going into last season, Gill would have been considered as good if not better. Gill had a horrible season and the result was not drafted while Fasano went in the 2nd round. I have to wonder how much of Gill’s drop-off was due to being distracted by his DUI charge. Or was it simply not fitting right in the offense? He never found comfort, and seemed to drop as many passes as Greg Lee. Not to take anything away from Fasano who performed extremely well this past season. Still, signing with Dallas who also has Jason Witten starting at TE means Gill may end up on the practice squad at best.
Lots of opportunities from the Cowboys. Wonder if it’s in part because of the value received last year in drafting Pettiti. Or perhaps, Pettiti offered them a place to stay as well? Or just because.
Joe Starkey discusses the Greg Lee outcome.
Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt immediately called Lee’s agent, Michael Huyghue, and, according to Huyghue, angrily said, “Are you satisfied?”
Wannstedt declined to detail their conversation but said, “It was not pretty.”
Lee wound up signing a puny free-agent deal with the Arizona Cardinals and will have to buck long odds to make their team.
“I was very shocked,” Lee said Tuesday. “I didn’t expect it to go like that. I just have to make the best of it.”
The knee-jerk reaction among many observers, including this one, was, “Another case of an agent manipulating a kid; how sad.”
Upon further review, it’s really not sad at all, and it’s not the agent’s fault Lee left Pitt. Lee decided near the end of Pitt’s season he wanted to leave school, and he recruited Huyghue, whose company is called Axcess Sports & Entertainment.
“I was just ready to leave,” Lee said.
Starkey doubts that the agent in this case was at fault. Keep in mind the same agent is also representing Josh Lay. Wannstedt, later in the article, seems to concede that it may not have been the agent who was responsible for Lee leaving but thinks someone gave him bad advice.
Wannstedt, who knows his way around the NFL, told them. So did the NFL’s underclassmen advisory committee, which includes general managers.
Oddly, Lee says he can’t imagine why all 32 teams passed.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” he said.
OK, here’s one: He wasn’t very good last season. He also ran a poor 40 (4.64 seconds) at the combine and was injured at his on-campus workout.
Wannstedt wishes he could have prevented this.
“Greg Lee will always be part of the Pitt family,” he said. “And you hate to see family members get hurt.”
Thing is, who’s to say Lee would have played better, run faster or avoided injury next year?
I hope Lee can make it in the NFL. I also hope that Greg Lee will one day take advantage of Pitt’s open policy of letting athletes who leave school school for pro dreams come back and complete their education on scholarship. It’s what allowed Brandin Knight to get his degree this past summer. It’s one of the reasons Sam Clancy moved back to Pittsburgh and is taking classes to finally earn his degree. I think it’s a great program and does much to further the idea of a “Pitt family.”
The other thing to consider if you want to be cynical is that Lee’s early departure opened up one more scholarship late in the game for the 2006 recruiting class (PDF). Considering the late commits — Tamarcus Porter, Elijah Fields, Aaron Berry, Lowell Robinson and McKenzie Mathews. Pitt would have not been able to have one of those players. Right now, which one would we have wanted to turn away?
