Green Bay Signs Undrafted, Ultra-Athletic Converted Basketball Player Dale Moss

The best receiving tight end in the league, Antonio Gates, played no college football before excelling in the NFL. Nick Saban wanted him to play only football at Michigan State. Eventually he transferred to Kent State to exclusively play basketball, but the NBA was lukewarm about his prospects, so he worked out for NFL scouts and was signed by the San Diego Chargers.

South Dakota State WR Dale Moss has a leg up on Gates—he actually played football last year.

With an extra year of eligibility after playing basketball for four years, Moss was a natural. He led the team with 61 catches, 949 yards and six touchdowns in just nine games.

His pro day was the stuff of scouting legends, with Moss running a 4.45 40, with a 41.5-inch vertical and 6.32 three-cone time.

At 6'3" and 213 pounds, that profile would easily make him the most impressive athlete at wide receiver in the NFL combine. His three-cone would have been the fastest by .27 seconds, and his vertical would have been the second-highest. His 40 would have been less than a 10th of a second off of the fastest WR time at the combine.

Moss likely fell out of the draft due to his lack of experience at wide receiver, but he had interest from "several teams", according to Terry Vandrovec from the Argus Leader. Vandrovec reports that Moss signed a three-year contract "minutes" after the draft was over.

The length of the contract indicates that Moss was one of the top undrafted free agent targets of the Packers, if not the top target. The South Dakota State Collegian points out that four former players from the school have played for the Packers, including 1997 Super Bowl player Adam Timmerman.

The Green Bay Packers are strong at wide receiver. Right now, they're five deep with Greg Jennings, Jordy Nelson, James Jones, Randall Cobb and Donald Driver, although the 37-year-old Driver's future with the team is cloudy.

In December of 2011, undrafted free agent WR Tori Gurley chose to stay on the Packers' practice squad after the Vikings offered him a spot on their active roster. Green Bay Press-Gazette writer Rob Demovsky reported that the Packers' status as a playoff team and the ability to learn from some of the best receivers in the game kept Gurley in Green Bay. 

Surely, those factors played into Moss' decision, and he cited the fact that the Packers' WR corps contains "some guys that are close to the end of their contracts" in his decision to sign with the team, according to Jim Madalinsky from KELO.