Who is Ricky Santos?

by Chris on May 2, 2008 3:35 PM CDT in 2008 Off Season

YEAR	CMP	ATT	YDS	CMP%	YPA	LNG	TD	INT	SACK	RAT
2004	272	425	3318	64	7.81	60	31	10	23	148.94
2005	301	429	3797	70.2	8.85	66	39	9	21	170.32
2006	293	432	3125	67.8	7.23	43	29	7	35	147.5
2007	256	350	2972	73.1	8.49	58	24	7	30	163.1

One of the more curious names to attend the Chiefs' mini-camp this weekend is New Hampshire QB Ricky Santos. He was on his fair share of sleeper lists before the draft but ultimately wasn't picked by any team. He signed as an undrafted free agent with the Kansas City Chiefs, presumably because he saw potential to make the team with our current crop of quarterbacks. In fact, that's almost exactly what Santos' agent Brad Blank said about coming to the Chiefs:

"We picked a place where the players he's competing against (for the third spot) don't have as strong a pedigree," Blank said. "His chances are as good as the other two guys'."

New Hampshire is a I-AA school, so Santos' competition level in college was relatively weak compared to any D-I school. He was the 2006 Walter Payton Award winner, which is given to the top I-AA offensive player. Past winners include Tony Romo, Brian Westbrook, Steve McNair and Dave Meggett.

The knocks on Santos are familiar - his smaller size, the prolific passing system he played in and his lack of "legitimate" competition. He's describe, in very sports cliche terms, as a guy "who makes plays".

What catches my eye is that rather nice TD to INT ratio.

Santos is also often described as being a small quarterback, even though he has almost identical stats as current Chiefs' QB Brodie Croyle. Both are just over six feet tall and right around 200 lbs.

Santos seems to have been surrounded by doubters ever since high school and he seems to thrive on that. The Chiefs starting QB will be Brodie Croyle this season. But that doesn't mean Santos is automatically out of the mix. I suppose he has an outside shot to beat out Tyler Thigpen for the #3 spot on the QB depth chart but I doubt it. Herm Edwards has openly spoken of his affection for Thigpen, ever since the Chiefs scrimmaged the Vikings last preseason. The Chiefs snatched Thigpen off of the waiver wire and put him on the active roster to guard against other teams from signing him.

At the very least, the Chiefs have an underdog story to add to their rather bland QB narrative. I have to say the last Walter Payton Award winner to play in the NFL, Tony Romo, isn't doing too bad for himself.

Don't expect Santos to make the Chiefs squad but his name may pop up here and there on various practice squads or as a #3 guy somewhere.

0 recs | Comment 14 comments | Add your comment

Read Related

Story-email Email | Print |

Comments

What Caught My Eye

Was that completion percentage that never fell below 64%...along with the TD/INT ratio you mentioned. True, you can’t tell how a 1-AA guy is going to translate, but I’m curious to see what kind of arm this kid has.

Supporting the lesser of two evils is still supporting something evil.

by UCrawford on May 2, 2008 4:23 PM CDT reply reply 0 recs

The word on the internets

is that his arm is a bit weak. But he’s accurate, obviously.

by Chris on May 2, 2008 4:30 PM CDT up reply reply 0 recs

Wasn't he the qb for the guy that broke

the career receiving TD’s. I seen him on the 1-AA tourny last year or the year before I don’t remember anything special but he was accurate in the snow.

by TXroyal on May 2, 2008 5:46 PM CDT reply reply 0 recs

Senior Year?

He had a drop in attempts his senior year.. it almost looks like he missed a few games. Was he hurt? If so, what was the dilly-o?

If we could get our hands on a machine… like the one in The Fly. We could take Croyle and this Santos kid and merge them in to one. We’d take the strong arm, questionable accuracy/decision making of Croyle and mix it with the weak arm, good accuracy of Santos. Then due to the still average size, this new creation would get injured in his first game.

Of course in 1-AA the passing windows should be a bit bigger than 1-A, and way bigger than NFL. I guess we’ll see how he does in OTA’s/Camp.

by Ochophosphate on May 2, 2008 8:39 PM CDT reply reply 0 recs

Santo's drop in his senior year.

Ricky Santos’ stats dropped in his senior year largely because the very weak UNH defense spent far too much time on the field, and time of posession for the offense was way on the short end. You can’t score if you don’t have the ball. In his final college playoff game he took his team down the field and put UNH ahead of Northern Iowa with around a minute to play, but as usual, the defense couldn’t get a stop. If UNH had a good defense, his stats would have been much better. His stats also suffered from sitting out the second half of lots of games due to blowouts.

by ofladrt on May 4, 2008 11:03 AM CDT up reply reply 0 recs

NFL rules are biased

Consider this: After failing to garner an invite to the NFL combine despite a reportedly solid showing in the Hula Bowl, BC’s Pro Day would have provided Santos the opportunity to work out in front of representatives of 22 NFL teams. Santos was initially invited to work out at BC by Eagles Head Coach Jeff Jagodzinski. The NFL, however, did not allow Santos to participate, over the protestations of his agent Brad Blank:

"It would have been a real opportunity for him…We looked into it, and the league explained that Bellingham is not in a major metropolitan region, as explained by Rand McNally.  It’s a shame."

After having been left out in the cold by the NFL, Santos was left to work out in a dusty indoor track at UNH (as opposed to BC’s indoor facility), with scouts from a mere 3 teams (Eagles, Patriots and Steelers) in attendance.

The NFL’s application of this rule appears to accomplish little, besides denying Santos the opportunity to get a legitimate NFL tryout. Consider the following:

*
      Santos’ hometown of Bellingham is 38 miles from BC, while UMass-Amherst, which sent 7 players to BC’s Pro Day, is approximately 85 miles from BC;

http://ctsportslaw.com/2008/03/24/nfl-rule-costs-unh-quarterback-golden-opportunity/

by Lanier63 on May 3, 2008 10:36 AM CDT reply reply 0 recs

Croyle, Thigpen, Santos?

Would the Chiefs “sacrifice” this season enough to cut Huard and keep Santos, if he’s legit. Thanks for the link, Lanier! Interesting article. And would we actually consider it a sacrifice? And I am generally more pro-Huard than most. I think he does a good job. But if the goal is success in another 2-3 years, why not groom three young ‘uns?

To add to another person’s point, though, I would only do it if they felt Santos hard starter potential. I’m not sure it makes sense to lose the tutoring that Huard brings if Santos doesn’t have the capability to be the leader at some point. And I realize he’s not that tall, but as was pointed out, he’s about the same height as Croyle.

by sunny D on May 3, 2008 11:17 AM CDT reply reply 0 recs

I agree with you, definitely.

I like Huard a lot, I think he’s a gamer, and I think he got his ass handed to him behind a weak line last year. My guess is that the only reason to keep him around would be the veteran presence and tips/coaching he can provide to the two other youngsters on the roster. Obviously that’s the role of the QB coach as well, but if this is a rebuilding year w/ a strong emphasis on youth, having a veteran back-up should be because he can aid in the development of the youngsters, NOT so that he can come in and win games if the starter gets hurt.
Personally, I’d much rather see Thigpen/Santos come in if Croyle gets hurt, based on the same principle we’re applying to Croyle: You don’t know what you have in the QB until he really plays some.
We know what we have in Huard, so unless he’s instrumental in development (and/or if we can successfully get Santos or some other young qb onto the practice squad), I don’t think Huard is worth the roster spot the next couple years.
Am I missing anything here?

by thehulk on May 4, 2008 12:01 PM CDT up reply reply 0 recs

Salary cap?

I’m guessing that cutting Huard would impact salary cap to a small degree. I’m no pro at salary cap issues, but basically we will have to count some portion of Huard’s contract whether he plays or not. So with a new guy like Santos, for example, we’d pay the new guy’s salary, plus still have to count some of Huard’s contract. Correct? I don’t believe that’s a large enough amount to be a deal breaker in this scenario, though.

by sunny D on May 4, 2008 1:55 PM CDT up reply reply 0 recs

Huard signed a 3-year deal last year,

If I remember correctly, paying him a couple million (maybe 3?) a year, but I don’t know how much of that is signing bonus and how much is salary. I’m sure if we hang out for a bit, Chris will link us to salary cap info. Signing bonus is what we’re on the hook for, I’m pretty sure teams aren’t obligated to pay any salary of a player once he’s cut, just whatever prorated signing bonus is left over.
Actually, I think Chris already has a link up on the main page for salary cap status, or at least he did a few weeks ago.

by thehulk on May 4, 2008 3:15 PM CDT up reply reply 0 recs

actually,

checking the link on the main page, looks like Huard’s salary last year was 1 mil, and he had 2.75 mil in signing bonus, so depending on how much of the total signing bonus is left, he definitely could have some salary cap effect for the next couple years, if we still owe him a lot of signing bonus. It all depends on how the contract is structured…

by thehulk on May 4, 2008 3:18 PM CDT up reply reply 0 recs

Ricky Santos

I watched Santos for four years, and I have never seen the weak arm some folks talk about. I have seen him throw the ball across the field successfully.
Another knock is his size, which is only slightly below NFL average.
Another knock on Santos is his level of competition, but he beat all three 1A teams that he played against, and UNH beat Delaware which had a much better defense, and Joe Flacco. Flacco looked good, but Santos looked better, which is probably why he won the Peyton Award as the best player in 1AA football, where Flacco was also playing.
Santos broke just about every QB record that UNH ever had by wide margins. If he is given a fair chance, he will be the starting quarterback for Kansas City, and lots of NFL scouts will be cleaning egg off their faces.

by ofladrt on May 3, 2008 11:59 AM CDT reply reply 0 recs

Ricky Santos

I also have watched Santos for 4 years and, if he makes the team, you Chiefs fans are going to absolutely love this guy! He’s a leader, he’s tough, and he makes things happen. His teammates will love him also. I think he’ll be a great addition to your club.

by SANTOSFAN on May 5, 2008 8:24 AM CDT reply reply 0 recs