Former Northwestern linebacker Pat Fitzgerald knows the deal. Even if you’ve twice been named the nation’s top defensive player, there are no guarantees when it comes to draft day.
NFL scouts play by a different set of rules.
“It’s not about productivity,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s about projections.”
And it may be about more than that.
“It was a Northwestern thing,” said fellow linebacker Tim Scharf. “Once we saw Darnell Autry slip to the fourth round, we understood. I’m not naming names, but there were guys taken (before us) who can’t carry water for us.”
Scharf still managed to get picked by the New York Jets with the first pick in the sixth round. Defensive back Hudhaifa Ismaeli got scooped up by Miami in the seventh round. And Autry was taken by the Bears in the fourth.
But Fitzgerald’s name, through two days, seven rounds and 240 picks, never was called.
Check that. There was a Pat Fitzgerald taken in the seventh round by Buffalo, but he’s a tight end from Texas.
“Of course I’m disappointed,” said Fitzgerald, who prepped at Sandburg in Orland Park. “I think I deserved to get drafted, but I guess I wasn’t what teams were looking for. I look at this as a way to prove myself all over again.”
The knocks on Fitzgerald are that he is a bit too small (6 feet 2 inches, 233 pounds) and too slow (4.8 seconds in the 40-yard dash) to be an NFL star. Some teams also felt that Fitzgerald was not the same player since he broke his left leg late in the 1995 season.
Whatever the case, Fitzgerald is ready to earn a job as a free agent.
“Wherever I go as a free agent, they’re going to get a steal,” he promised.
Fitzgerald already has been offered a tryout with the Jets. Scharf, his roommate for the last four years, hopes the two can play side by side.
“I think it’s ridiculous he didn’t get drafted,” he said. “But the phone’s been ringing. I anticipate him beating out some draft picks.”
Scharf had just 61 tackles last season, but his workout numbers (4.56 40, 400-pound bench press) were excellent, as is his football IQ.
Scharf used those smarts Sunday, when he got a call from Jets coach Bill Parcells.
“He’s intimidating,” Scharf said. “I didn’t want to say a word and screw anything up.”
Ismaeli, who was suspended late in the season after allegedly failing two drug tests, was seen as a high-risk pick. But Miami coach Jimmy Johnson was persuaded to take a chance by Dolphins punter John Kidd, a former Wildcat.
