{"id":19713,"date":"2016-01-11T09:01:33","date_gmt":"2016-01-11T17:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/freeney-2-skins-starters-others-from-street-to-playoffs\/"},"modified":"2016-01-11T09:01:33","modified_gmt":"2016-01-11T17:01:33","slug":"freeney-2-skins-starters-others-from-street-to-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/sports\/freeney-2-skins-starters-others-from-street-to-playoffs\/","title":{"rendered":"Freeney, 2 Skins starters, others from ‘street’ to playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

ASHBURN, Va. \u2014<\/strong> A veteran of more than 50 starts in his first four NFL seasons, linebacker Mason Foster spent most of September as a free agent. He was in limbo, sleeping on the futon of his college roommate and best friend, an assistant strength and conditioning coach at the University of South Dakota.<\/p>\n

Foster was waiting for a phone call from a team. He had been cut by the Bears about a week before the start of the regular season; a couple of days later, a cousin helped load up a truck and make the 7-hour drive from Chicago to Vermillion, South Dakota.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was confident the opportunity would come. But it\u2019s tough. You\u2019re just sitting there. I sat there for weeks, watching games,\u201d Foster said. \u201cMy friend wrote up a workout plan for me and let me stay on his couch and we just worked out the whole time. I wanted to play meaningful games and help a team. And it\u2019s all happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Late in September, he got that call \u2014 from the Washington Redskins, who signed him after a tryout. And now Foster is a starting middle linebacker for the NFC East champions as they enter the playoffs, hosting the Green Bay Packers on Sunday.<\/p>\n

His story is not unique. For all of the time and money teams invest in trying to figure out which college players to draft or which big-name free agents to add in the offseason, sometimes key playoff contributions come from guys who arrive \u201coff the street,\u201d in the league\u2019s lingo.<\/p>\n

A year ago, for example, Chris Matthews got cut at the end of training camp by Seattle and was available to anyone in need of a receiver. Eventually, Matthews made his way back to the Seahawks and made a mark down the stretch, recovering an onside kick in the NFC championship game, then catching four passes for 109 yards and a touchdown in the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

Scan the rosters of the 12 postseason teams, and there are plenty of players brought in late, often because of injuries that prompted a GM to seek help.<\/p>\n

The NFC\u2019s No. 1 seed, Carolina, picked up starting cornerback Robert McClain and nickel back Cortland Finnegan after Charles Tillman and Bene Benwikere were sidelined.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re veterans, and that\u2019s the biggest thing,\u201d Panthers coach Ron Rivera said. \u201cIf we were talking about playing two straight-off-the-street rookies, yeah, there would be some concern.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shiloh Keo \u2014 signed by Denver after he made a Twitter plea \u2014 filled in because of four injured safeties and made a late interception in a Week 17 victory that clinched the AFC\u2019s No. 1 seed for the Broncos.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a great example of: If you think you can play, hang in there,\u201d said Denver coach Gary Kubiak, whose team signed offensive lineman Tyler Columbus about 48 hours after he was released by Atlanta.<\/p>\n

After losing running backs Dion James and LeGarrette Blount \u2014 himself a street free agent last season \u2014 to injuries, New England brought in Steven Jackson, who initially told coach Bill Belichick he didn\u2019t think he was in good enough shape. Pittsburgh added Chris Boswell in early October, its fourth kicker of the season, and all he did was go 29 of 32 on field-goal attempts and 26 of 27 on extra points. Houston used a pair of midseason pickups at quarterback on the way to an AFC South title, Brandon Weeden and T.J. Yates.<\/p>\n

Arizona, the NFC\u2019s No. 2 seed, added pass rusher extraordinaire Dwight Freeney, safety D.J. Swearinger and defensive tackle Red Bryant along the way.<\/p>\n

Freeney was close to retiring for good when the Cardinals called in mid-October after the team\u2019s best outside rusher was injured; by December, he was earning $100,000 in incentive pay per sack.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo months ago, I didn\u2019t know if I was going to play,\u201d Freeney said. \u201cBut the things we\u2019re going through now is why I decided to come back.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to Foster, the Redskins signed another starter, cornerback Will Blackmon, a ninth-year veteran released by Jacksonville. Third-down back Pierre Thomas and kicker Dustin Hopkins came in \u201coff the street,\u201d too. Reserve cornerback Cary Williams was signed just last week for depth. Those types of resourceful moves are part of why general manager Scot McCloughan is being lauded as one of this season\u2019s top executives.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say it always works out for player and team, of course.<\/p>\n

Last season, Pittsburgh signed running back Ben Tate for the playoffs after Le\u2019Veon Bell hurt his knee. Tate fumbled and gained only 19 yards in the Steelers\u2019 wild-card loss.<\/p>\n

There can be reasons other than financial ones why a player\u2019s former team decided to let him go and no one else signed him. Plus, a new acquisition needs to learn a system and playbook without training camp or exhibition games.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of onus on us to get ready ourselves,\u201d Washington\u2019s Blackmon said. \u201cScot brought in guys who are professional, who are veterans who have played a lot of football, so he doesn\u2019t have to worry about if they\u2019re going to be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 AP Pro Football Writers Dave Campbell and Arnie Stapleton, and AP Sports Writers Genaro Armas, Bob Baum, Tim Booth, Jimmy Golen, Will Graves, Joe Kay, Steve Reed, Kristie Rieken and Dave Skretta contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ASHBURN, Va. \u2014 A veteran of more than 50 starts in his first four NFL seasons, linebacker Mason Foster spent most of September as a free agent. He was in limbo, sleeping on the futon of his college roommate and best friend, an assistant strength and conditioning coach at the University of South Dakota. Foster […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-19713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19713\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19713"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=19713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}