4 lesser-known UDFAs who could make the jump to the NFL

Bryan Mills, Cornerback, Seattle Seahawks

Seattle Seahawks Head Coach Pete Carroll is generally regarded as something of a guru of the defensive backfield, with the famed “Legion of Boom” symbolic of the top-notch defensive backfields he has presided over in Seattle.

When contrasted with the club’s rich history at the position, it is all the more striking how far the team’s cornerback situation has digressed from those halcyon days of the early-to-middle 2010s. Far removed from the days of Richard Sherman, the team is just recently removed from the days of Shaquil Griffin, not to mention his presumed 2020 starting cohort Quinton Dunbar.

It is within Seattle’s new reality that Bryan Mills enters the scene. Despite his stellar on-field collegiate performance, Mills slipped into the ranks of the undrafted likely due in large part to a single season of play at a lower level of competition.

However, nothing about Mills’ college career trajectory changes the fact that at 6-foot-1, 175 pounds, with quick feet, natural match-and-mirror ability and a knack for making plays on the ball, he checks a lot of boxes on a Carroll wish list.

With the likes of D.J. Reed, Tre Flowers, Pierre Desir, Ugo Amadi and fellow rookie Tre Brown serving as his in-house competition for snaps opposite starter Ahkello Witherspoon as well as from the slot, the path for Mills from UDFA to the first unit could perhaps be less daunting than it would appear.