Week in review: pair of rookies cut, Lee emerging as leader

As NFL OTAs come to an end, so do the hopes of making an NFL team for many undrafted free agents around the league. Penn Staters were not immune from that disappointment this week.

For a few established Penn Staters in the NFL, the week was far from disappointing as they have already started to increase their roles for this upcoming season.

Here’s what happened with Penn Staters in the NFL this week:

Moye Waived By ‘Phins, Claimed By Saints

At first, this week seemed to be a very bleak one for the career of rookie wide receiver Derek Moye. On Tuesday morning, Moye was cut by the Miami Dolphins, ending hopes of a redux of the Devlin-to-Moye connection. (I checked and confirmed that there were a whopping 2 instances where Devlin completed a pass to Moye in 2008.) The move came right after the team signed Chad Ochocinco, so my conspiracy theory is that Moye was a casualty to the Dolphins wanting to have a more entertaining season of Hard Knocks.

As soon as it seemed that Moye’s NFL dream could be over, a knight in less-than-shining armor swooped in to save him, as he was claimed off of waivers by the New Orleans Saints. His chances of making the team are still very slim, as the Saints currently have 9 wide receivers on their training camp roster. Hopefully for Moye, Roger Goodell will wake up especially irked one morning and 5 of those 9 will be suspended for the season. One can always hope…

Lions Release OL Quinn Barham

It looks like we have seen the last Quinn Barham creating holes for Stephfon Green to break through. Both players were originally signed by the Detroit Lions after not being selected in this year’s draft. While Green still remains with the Blue and Silver Lions (and according to this, has a real shot of making the team), Barham was let go on Tuesday and appears to have cleared waivers. There is always the chance that he could take a stab at joining the AFL or the CFL, but I think it’s safe to say there will be no NFL for him.

While another team make take a shot on him, like the Saints with Moye, such a scenario seems unlikely as he wasn’t considered much of an NFL prospect at any point in the 2012 Draft process, while Moye was rated as high as a second-day draftee at one point.

Gbadyu Joins Manheim Township High Coaching Staff

Speaking of undrafted free agents not making it in the NFL, former PSU linebacker and 2011 Oakland Raider undrafted free agent Bani Gbadyu tweeted on Tuesday that he had joined the football coaching staff at Manheim Township High School in Lancaster, PA.

It’s not fair to say that his chances of playing pro football are completely shot, as a certain noteworthy Penn Stater took the same path once upon a time, and ended up being the Arena Football League’s Player of the Week once!

Kapinos Can Finally Breathe Easy

After spending the past 2 seasons battling (and losing to) Daniel Sepulveda for the Steelers’ starting punting job, Jeremy Kapinos seems to have finally won the job for himself. As Ralph Paulk of the Pittsburgh-Tribune Review writes, Kapinos feels to have been made a better punter because of those battles, but is relieved to not have to look over his shoulder all of the time.

Sean Lee Becoming Vocal Leader for Cowboys

In a bit of news that should be surprising to no one, third-year linebacker Sean Lee is asserting himself as one of the leaders of the Dallas Cowboys defense. Perhaps he has been made a bit more comfortable with the addition of former Penn State teammate Dan Connor this offseason, but whatever the reason is, you knew it would happen sooner rather than later.

Lee is coming off of an outstanding season, in which he amassed 105 tackles and 4 interceptions in only his second year in the NFL. He’ll look to build on that in 2012 and I would be willing to bet a decent amount of money that he will find his way to Honolulu.

Discovered This Week: Wallace, Evans, Poti in AFL, CFL

It’s hard enough to keep track of all the Penn Staters in the NFL, so every so often I lose track of the AFL/CFL/UFLs of the football world. After catching up on the transaction logs of past few months, I discovered a few new Penn Staters playing in other leagues. Check out the complete player list for the full list of Penn Staters in other leagues.

For more great articles, check out PSU in the NFL.