Louis Rees-Zammit

[RiffRaff]

Louis Rees-Zammit has given up Rugby career to try and get drafted into an NFL Team through the NFL International Player Pathway.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/jan/16/louis-rees-zammit-quits-rugby-in-shock-move-to-pursue-dream-of-nfl-career-gloucester-wales

Are there any other rugby players that should make the switch?

 

Edited May 10 by RiffRaff
Spelling error

[johnnydun]

5 minutes ago, RiffRaff said:

Lewis Rees-Zammit has given up Rugby career to try and get drafted into an NFL Team through the NFL International Player Pathway.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/jan/16/louis-rees-zammit-quits-rugby-in-shock-move-to-pursue-dream-of-nfl-career-gloucester-wales

Are there any other rugby players that should make the switch?

 

Finn Russell as a RB.

The wee dip of the shoulder dummy onto a sprint.

[RiffRaff]

1 hour ago, johnnydun said:

Finn Russell as a RB.

The wee dip of the shoulder dummy onto a sprint.

Darcy Graham has a way of eluding big hulking brutes

[ICTChris]

Getting onto an NFL roster as a receiver would be remarkable.  He said in his announcement that his dad played American football so he's obviously familiar with the sport but the guys he's competing with have played all their lives and at a very high level in college football.

 

[Mark Connolly]

*Insert names of multiple England players I'd like to see levelled by a hulking linebacker*

[pozbaird]

3 hours ago, Mark Connolly said:

*Insert names of multiple England players I'd like to see levelled by a hulking linebacker*

*Insert names of multiple Welsh players I’d like to see flattened first*

[Boo Khaki]

3 hours ago, ICTChris said:

Getting onto an NFL roster as a receiver would be remarkable.  He said in his announcement that his dad played American football so he's obviously familiar with the sport but the guys he's competing with have played all their lives and at a very high level in college football.

 

If it is through the International Player Pathway, he wont really have to worry about making a roster because the league will assign him to a team by default and he isn't subject to normal roster strictures, so he will get the chance to attend training camp and so on, up to him how much he does with that opportunity.

Fwiw, the odds of him actually playing meaningful NFL football are remote. There have been a number of transfers from rugby to nfl down the years amd the nearest any of them got to making a significant impact was playing in pre-season then hanging about on practice squads.

The fact he's young works in his favour, but the reality is even at 22 he's lagging 15 years behind  most US players of the same age. It's not unheard of for players to start late and have a worthwhile career, but the mere fact he's big and fast doesn't really mean anything because 99% of the guys on nfl rosters are big and fast, so a lot will depend on how he copes with the mental side of things, learning terminology etc

Edited January 17 by Boo Khaki

[Brummie Clyde]

16 hours ago, RiffRaff said:

Lewis Rees-Zammit has given up Rugby career to try and get drafted into an NFL Team through the NFL International Player Pathway.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/jan/16/louis-rees-zammit-quits-rugby-in-shock-move-to-pursue-dream-of-nfl-career-gloucester-wales

Are there any other rugby players that should make the switch?

 

All of them. Rugby Union is rubbish....

[peasy23]

Henry Mallinder also having a go as a kicker/punter.

[Boo Khaki]

Crazy number of Nigerians on the IPP just now. I suppose it is the most populous country in Africa, and there will be oil industry links with the US so families with young sons moving over and sending them to college etc, but it sticks out like a sore thumb when you'd think the bulk of the players would be coming from countries with more established NFL links.

[Nightmare]

On 17/01/2024 at 21:32, Boo Khaki said:

Fwiw, the odds of him actually playing meaningful NFL football are remote. There have been a number of transfers from rugby to nfl down the years amd the nearest any of them got to making a significant impact was playing in pre-season then hanging about on practice squads.

League instead of Union, but Jordan Mailata has done a bit more than that.

I do think the chances of a skill position player making it are much slimmer, and especially one who is trying to do it purely from the point of being very fast. Let’s see how he can adapt to wearing the pads, and learning the nuances of the WR position compared to playing rugby. As you said, he’s soooo far behind the Americans who have been playing since they were very young.

[Mark Connolly]

2 hours ago, Boo Khaki said:

Crazy number of Nigerians on the IPP just now. I suppose it is the most populous country in Africa, and there will be oil industry links with the US so families with young sons moving over and sending them to college etc, but it sticks out like a sore thumb when you'd think the bulk of the players would be coming from countries with more established NFL links.

Has there ever been a decent Nigerian NFL player?

Spoiler

 

[Boo Khaki]

38 minutes ago, Mark Connolly said:

Has there ever been a decent Nigerian NFL player?

  Hide contents

 

Loads, both current and historical with Nigerian backgrounds. I guess the real point I was making is that the IPP is really intended for the discovery and development of talents that grew up outside of, and detached from the whole US High School/College/NFL football world, so if anything I would have expected to see more names from countries with long-standing domestic leagues, Germany, UK, Japan, or possibly those with proximity, Mexico, Canada (although there appears to be ample opportunity for Canadians conventionally), rather than a West African nation, but again, I suspect that's because of a peculiar set of circumstances rather than Nigeria being a hotbed of American Football talent.

I know a few of the active Nigerian IPP players are actually kids who arrived in the US as teens, played high school football, but because of the comparatively late start were never taken seriously as potential Pros. It's great that they have the opportunity, but it doesn't really marry with what the IPP purports to do.

Right, so after a wee bit of digging it appears that the glut of Nigerian players over the past couple of years is not a coincidence at all, and most of them tried out at a camp hosted by Usi Omenyiora in Africa.

Edited January 19 by Boo Khaki

[pozbaird]

On 18/01/2024 at 07:17, Brummie Clyde said:

All of them. Rugby Union is rubbish....

Agree. Cannot get into rugby union at all. I’ll watch a big game involving Scotland, if it is a World Cup game or the odd 6 Nations encounter, but that’s it. Have been to one rugby union game in my life, Scotland v Ireland at Murrayfield. It was shite.

[Mark Connolly]

19 minutes ago, pozbaird said:

Agree. Cannot get into rugby union at all. I’ll watch a big game involving Scotland, if it is a World Cup game or the odd 6 Nations encounter, but that’s it. Have been to one rugby union game in my life, Scotland v Ireland at Murrayfield. It was shite.

You're shite

[come on shire]

Due to the albeit primitive rule similarities I thought rugby league players would be more likely to try American football.

He could've went north of the border to try Canadian football first to see if he fancied the North American game though.

[Bully Wee Villa]

Hope he does well, just because it would be an interesting story and I don't like the Wales national team. I expect he will be back in rugby in two years, after a bit of time on NFL practise squads, though.

[Bully Wee Villa]

On 19/01/2024 at 19:16, come on shire said:

Due to the albeit primitive rule similarities I thought rugby league players would be more likely to try American football.

Going the other way, I remember reading an interview with someone high up in US Rugby League saying they intended to poach college American footballers who hadn't made the NFL. I don't know enough about rugby league to know if they've had any success with the policy but it seems a sensible enough idea. Rugby league is basically a game of 13 vs 13 running backs.

Edited January 21 by Bully Wee Villa

[peasy23]

I'm surprised more guys with a big boot don't have a go as a punter tbh, big money to be made there, the league average is around $1.5 million a year with the likes of Wishnowsky at the 49ers on double that.

Rees Zammit is trying out as a RB as well as a WR, be interesting to see how much speed he loses once he gets suited up properly. WR will be the much harder of the two to learn imo as route running will be something completely new to him.

[Mark Connolly]

23 hours ago, peasy23 said:

I'm surprised more guys with a big boot don't have a go as a punter tbh, big money to be made there, the league average is around $1.5 million a year with the likes of Wishnowsky at the 49ers on double that.

Rees Zammit is trying out as a RB as well as a WR, be interesting to see how much speed he loses once he gets suited up properly. WR will be the much harder of the two to learn imo as route running will be something completely new to him.

Harry Mallinder had a massive boot, so it will be interesting to see how he gets on.

Jamie Gillan also played stand-off at Merchiston before moving to the US, and he's done OK