ChiefsPlanet - MU One year later, has Michael Sam been frozen out of the NFL?

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It's not hard to understand why the collective rejection of Sam might raise some eyebrows. You can dissect his college and nascent professional career many ways - But no matter how you look at it, the NFL snub Sam has experienced over the last six months is literally, statistically, factually unheard of.

Sam is the only drafted Defensive Player of the Year of any of the big five football conferences - ACC, Big Ten, Big XII, Pac 12 and SEC - in the last 20 years to not make an active roster his rookie season (one - Anthony Poindexter - was on IR his rookie season and played the following year for theRavens). Two decades of drafted DPOYs since 1994, and Sam is the only one to not make an active roster - The only one of 89 players. 100% of them not named Michael Sam made an active roster their rookie season. 100%.

Is it a coincidence that Sam is the only one? Is it possible that he is so much worse than all of these other players? It might be a consideration if it weren't for Sam's preseason performance.

In four games for the St. Louis Rams during the 2014 NFL preseason, Sam racked up 11 tackles and three sacks (though some count only two sacks, discounting his second sack against Johnny Manziel). That was second and first for the Rams respectively, and his three sacks was fourth-most in the entire NFL, according to NFL.com.

Of the 20 defensive ends with one or more sacks and eight or more tackles this preseason (again, less than Sam's numbers), all but two were on a season-long practice squad or on an active roster. Only Sam and former Saint-Raider-Cowboy Martez Wilson were not with a team in week 8 - and Wilson was a third-year guy who had simply not stood out after three seasons; After he was cut by Dallas, even Wilson got workouts. Sam did not.

Slicing the pie another way, of the 31 rookies since 2010 with two or more sacks and 10 or more tackles in the preseason (again, Sam exceeded those numbers), Sam is one of only three (10%) to not make at least a season-long practice squad. Frank Trotter out of Memphis is the only other defensive lineman with those numbers to not make it; He now plays Arena Football.

"Stats can be misleading," you might say. "He needs to pass the ‘eye-ball' test too."

Great. Let's take a look at Pro Football Focus' analysis of all of the 4-3 defensive ends in the 2014 preseason. They watch every play of every player in every game and grade them. Of their top-70 rated defensive ends from last preseason (Sam was rated No. 45), only three (4%) weren't on an active roster this season, a practice squad at the end of the season, or place on injured reserve:
Israel Idonije - A 33-year-old DE at the end of his career
Kris Redding - An undrafted rookie free agent out of Wake Forest
Michael Sam
Sam falls into such minorities - 1%, 4%, 10% - that no other player falls into even two of those categories. Sam hits all three.

Still have doubts that he should be with an NFL team? Let's look at guys who look just like him.

It's interesting to compare Sam to Nick Reed, the 2008 Pac-10 Defensive Lineman of the Year. He was selected 247th in the 2009 NFL Draft (two spots ahead of where Sam was drafted five years later). Like Sam, Reed was a defensive end (for Oregon) who had an "undersized" label. In fact, Reed was an inch shorter and 10 pounds lighter than Sam. The two players had about the same measurables - 40-time, vertical leap - coming out of college.

Unlike Sam, Reed made the Seahawks' active roster that season after a strong preseason. Sam was cut by the St. Louis Rams after his strong preseason in which he was fourth in the NFL in sacks.

When you look at the defensive ends who have been signed to futures contracts in the last couple of months, two things jump out.

First is how similar they all are statistically. They are all within four inches of height - 6-foot-1 to 6-foot-5. They're all about the same weight - 255 to 280 pounds. They all have about the same 40-yard-dash time: 4.70 to 4.90 seconds. Within a margin of error, they're about the same. Michael Sam fits right into the low end of most of these numbers, but within the margin: 6-foot-2, 261 pounds, with a best 40-time of 4.71.

The other piece is how similar their pass-rushing production was in college. 2.5 sacks, 6 sacks, 3.5, 4.5.... You know the only person whose production in that area is off the grid? Michael Sam. He had 11.5 sacks in his senior season alone, 18.5 for his Missouri career, and at least one every season he was at Mizzou. He had more sacks in one game his senior season than some players just signed by NFL teams had their entire senior season.

Take Zach Thompson. For the record, Thompson is three inches taller but the same weight as Sam. Their 40-yard times and vertical leaps are essentially the same. Yet Thompson recorded 10 sacks his entire college career at Wake Forest; Against stiffer competition, Sam recorded 11.5 sacks in just his senior season at Missouri. You can point to height and weight, speed and strength, but the stature of these two players are separated by little - three inches in height - yet a world of difference in actual production. In the preseason Thompson was graded a -1.9 (yes, that's a negative rating) by Pro Football Focus, compared to Sam's +0.6.

Thompson is a Raven and Sam is not.

When I talked to Gil Brandt, the former Cowboys personnel man who is now with Sirius XM's NFL Radio, he told me that Sam is just too slow and too small. "He's your 53rd guy is what he is," Brandt told me.

Yet just last year Brandt said of the Patriots' Zach Moore that he "has some upside as a player due to his height/weight/speed combination (he ran a 4.84 40 at the NFL Scouting Combine)." He's a couple inches taller, no faster and no heavier than Sam. Yet at Division II Concordia he finished with 4.5 fewer sacks his senior season than Sam did in the SEC. That guy has NFL potential, according to Brandt. Sam does not.

Moore is a Patriot and Sam is not.

Look at Leon Mackey, the defensive end who was signed by the Minnesota Vikings on Jan. 6. Mackey is two inches taller than Sam but the same weight. Sam's 40-yard Pro Day time was a little faster, Mackey's Pro Day bench press number was one rep better. Size, speed, strength - they're essentially the same player. The most glaring difference: Mackey had zero sacks his last two seasons for Texas Tech - zero. Sam had 16.

Mackey, after a stint in the Arena League, is a Viking and Sam is not.

Julius Warmsley. He's a defensive end out of Tulane. Same height and weight as Sam. He's slower than Sam but stronger. In Conference USA he had 14.5 career sacks, four less than Sam had in the SEC.

Warmsley is a Seahawk and Sam is not.

Ryan Robinson. Sam Montgomery. The list of comparable defensive ends in height, weight, speed and strength to Sam who are with a team right now goes on and on. What are the two most distinguishing factors between Michael Sam and all of these men? 1) Sam had considerably more production in college than any of them, and 2) Sam is openly gay.

So far Sam, a similar player to all of these men, has not been given an equal opportunity to any of them.

The question no one I've spoken to seems to want to answer: Why?