Few of the players at next week's Atlanta Falcons rookie mini camp will have faced as many obstacles to be there as the Air Force Academy's Sam Byers, according to a story by Brent Briggeman in the Colorado Spring Gazette.
In addition to the regular hurdles for any undrafted player trying to make the team during a rookie tryout in May, Byers will be trying to switch lines of scrimmage, moving from defensive to offensive line. Making that an even bigger challenge will be that he had to drop from 295 to 270 pounds in order to pass the Air Force’s stringent academy fitness tests; he’s climbed back to 285, but he’ll need to pack on a good deal more weight to stand up to the punishment of an NFL offensive lineman.
Those hurdles could be easy, though, compared to getting around a new Air Force Academy policy that requires graduates to complete two years of service before pursuing a professional athletics career.
“I’m going to have to be working very closely with the administration at the academy,” he told the Gazette, “and feel how I’m going to contribute to this team with the policy change.”
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