News and Notes: New England Patriots Looking For Gems

An eligible NFL draftee who watches the draft come and go without being selected shouldn't let his hopes fade away too quickly...especially if he's on the Patriots radar.

New England has been known to sign undrafted rookie free agents and keep them on their 53-man roster heading into the first week of the season.

Some examples of this are Mike Wright, Pierre Woods and Randall Gay. All of these guys have played a role on the Patriots during their time on with the team, and Gay recently landed a deal with the New Orleans Saints after showing tremendous potential in New England.

With that being said, here's the list of guys the Patriots signed after this year's draft:

• OL Josh Coffman (East Carolina)
• DB Mark Dillard (Louisiana Tech)
• DT Carlos Feliciano (Maryland)
• RB BenJarvus Green-Ellis (Mississippi) (shown in above image)
• LB Gary Guyton (Georgia Tech)
• DL Chris Norwell (Illinois)
• OLB Vince Redd (Liberty)
• NT Henry Smith (Texas A&M)
• TE Jonathan Stupar (Virginia)
• DE Casey Tyler (Portland State)
• C Ryan Wendell (Fresno State)

Rookie Mini-Camps started today, and some of these guys look really good out there, according to Mike Reiss of the Boston Globe.

First round pick Jerod Mayo has been spending his time at weakside ILB, with Bo Rudd at strongside ILB. Shawn Crable and Vince Redd were working the outsides.

During a press conference, Bill Belichick said, "It's always an exciting time of year to work with new kids and see their eagerness and start at a very fundamental level. Just the very most basic terminology and plays and techniques and all that. It's a good reminder of where everybody has come from.

"Certainly these guys have a long way to go, but they're all out there, they seem to have a good attitude, working hard. We met with them this morning, gave them a lot of information, and it seemed like they were able to handle most of it. We'll get those things corrected, give them some more this afternoon, and just keep plugging along.

"It's good to be back out there. We had a lot of bodies out there. We'll have to evaluate some of those and see how that all shapes up roster-wise going forward, by the end of the weekend."

I can't wait to see how much these guys can contribute as we continue the off-season.