Washington Football Team’s greatest undrafted free agents

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5. Mel Kaufman

They don’t come any steadier than Mel Kaufman. He was not big. He was not fast. The man who would eventually replace him, Wilbur Marshall, made everyone forget Mel. But time lends perspective, and it may be easier to appreciate just how smart and efficient Kaufman was as a defensive captain on three dominant Super Bowl teams in the ‘80s. Kaufman died way too soon of pancreatitis at the age of 51. It’s long past time to remember him.

4. Mark Murphy

Murphy played on those same defenses as Kaufman, and he was the primary signal caller in the secondary. He was tall and rangy, and his preparation allowed him to overcome his lack of speed. He never seemed out of position. But what was most surprising about Murphy was the way he hit. Like Todd Bowles, Murphy would go on to even greater success in his post-football career, serving as president of the Green Bay Packers for more than a decade. On the field, he was an All-Pro in 1983, when he led the league in interceptions.

3. Neal Olkewicz

I told you there were a lot of linebackers on this list. Olky is the last of them. He played next to Mel Kaufman, and in front of Mark Murphy. That means that those highly-underrated WFT defenses of the ‘80s had three regulars who were UDFAs. You think Bobby Beathard and those coaches knew what they were doing? Even more-so than Kaufman, Olkewicz was too slow and too small to make it in the NFL. All he did was handle the most important position on the defense — the middle linebacker spot — for the most glorious decade in team history. All he did was make tackle after tackle after tackle. All he did was win the hearts of everyone who loves an underdog.

2. Jeff Bostic

If you want to be picky, the Washington Football Team was the not the team that initially signed Bostic as a UDFA out of Clemson. Philadelphia gave the undersized-yet-pudgy center a brief look before cutting him. But as the 1980 season approached, WFT found itself in need of a long snapper, and that was something Bostic could do. That is how he entered the league. He left it 14 years later, as WFT’s longest-tenured center (a mark he shares with Len Hauss), Pro Bowler, multiple-time world champion, and charter member of the most famous offensive line in history — the Hogs. Bostic was smaller than most centers in the ‘80s, but he was very quick and fared very well against the newly-minted 300-pound nose tackles that were all the rage in the league at the time. Great lines require great centers. The Washington Football Team found one who was passed on by every other team in the league.

1. Joe Jacoby

Remember that thing about Mike Shanahan moving Darryl Young from defense to offense? He may have been recalling Joe Gibbs and Joe Jacoby a few decades earlier. The truth is, Jake was never a defensive player. Coach Gibbs just thought he was. And the soft-spoken giant was too timid as a UDFA to correct his coach. But it eventually worked itself out, and under the tutelage of line coach Joe Bugel, Jacoby would become one of the best left tackles in all of football.

His battles with the great Lawrence Taylor are the stuff of legends. He played along with Bostic, HOFer Russ Grimm, Mark May, and assorted others, and together, they redefined what an NFL offensive line could be. Along with Brian Mitchell, Jacoby is the one Washington Football Team player the fans consider most-deserving of induction into the Hall of Fame. There are currently 17 UDFAs in the HOF as players. Jacoby is now eligible for consideration by the Seniors Committee and many of us hope that he will become the 18th UDFA on this list.

A decent track record, if understandably weighted toward the glory years of the 1980s. Maybe twenty years from now, someone will be compiling this same list, with Johnathan Johnson at the top. Let’s play some football and see how that turns out.