Saturday I watched the draft at my house [in Williamsburg] with my family. I had some family come down, some intermediate family from my mom’s side. My brother and his wife were there at our house. My mom cooked, and basically we just sat around and watched the draft. It didn’t really bother me to watch the draft. Some people say they can’t watch it because it drives them crazy, but I pretty much watched it for the whole day Saturday.

When Sunday came around, pretty much the same thing. I sat at my house and watched it on Sunday. By about the middle of the 5th round I started anticipating that I might get that call. I was watching it a little more intensely. After awhile, it was just like “I don’t know.” I just kept telling myself “maybe in the next round” and so forth, but it never came. I watched almost every single pick.

I thought I would get drafted. I was thinking anywhere from the 5th to the 7th. I was really confident that someone would take me in the draft. But you know, it didn’t happen. When the 7th round came around, and I was looking at the teams that had picked, and any teams I thought would pick up a quarterback such as myself, a mobile quarterback. Then I saw the backup quarterback from USC [Southern California’s Matt Cassel to New England] go, I pretty much knew then that it wasn’t looking too good.

During the draft, there were teams calling me and telling me they were interested, not really knowing how interested, but a lot of teams were talking about free agency. But I still didn’t know going into the draft what teams were really thinking. I mean some teams would call and get your draft day phone number, but you didn’t know if they were going to draft you or just call you about free agency.

Everybody was just sitting around and waiting. It wasn’t like everyone was just watching the TV, everybody was pretty much doing their own thing, but it was kind of disappointing. I know my mother was disappointed, my dad was disappointed. We were just sitting there watching, and I don’t know, I guess we just had high expectations. Not necessarily that not getting drafted is the worst thing in the world, but it was just something that we were expecting.

The draft ended early on Sunday. I think it was about 7 or 8, I really don’t know. During the 7th round Arizona called me, and they told me that if they didn’t take me with the next pick then they really wanted me to sign with them as a free agent. That was right before the draft ended. By the time the draft ended, within a minute or two Atlanta called. They spoke about free agency. Then Arizona called back and spoke about free agency. So I was talking to Atlanta and talking to Arizona almost at the same time.

I was doing the actual talking to the teams, not going through my agent. The quarterbacks coach called me from Atlanta [Mike Johnson] and I talked to the quarterbacks coach at Arizona also [Mike Kruczek]. Basically they were just doing their sales pitch. Telling me that the opportunities there, the quarterbacks there, the systems and what they would like to get from me and things I could do to help them. It was kind of weird because everything is going so fast and you really don’t have that much time, because if I don’t sign with them, they are going after other people to make sure they get somebody for the positions that they are looking for.

I didn’t have a chance to talk to anybody else like my agent or my family. When I was talking to Atlanta, my agent was actually on the phone, so we were kind of going back and forth. At the time I was looking for somebody to talk to. I was going to call Coach [Kevin] Rogers and talk to him, and talk to my parents, but it really wasn’t enough time to do all that. I even asked a guy one time if I could take a half an hour to think about this, and he was like “well, if you take that half hour, I’m going to tell you right now that I’ve got to call other people.” It was almost like do or die.

It wasn’t a lot of time to try and sit around and contemplate. But I already had a good idea of what teams were interested. I already knew Atlanta was interested and I had thought about that situation even prior to the draft. I never really thought about Arizona until late in the draft when I talked to Coach Rogers and he told me he had talked to the Cardinals' quarterbacks coach. He talked to Tampa Bay also. Those are the three teams that called me after the draft. I already had a pretty good idea and a good feel.

It was a decision that came down to what I felt would be the best opportunity for me to get on an active roster as soon as possible. In Atlanta, they’ve got three quarterbacks, when most teams carry four, and the fourth quarterback is usually in NFL Europe or on the practice squad. The deal with Atlanta: they’ve got Ty Detmer, Matt Schaub and Mike Vick. Ty Detmer’s 37, so he’s heading into his last years. Matt Schaub, which was a value pick, is probably going to be wanted around the league. He’ll probably end up getting traded so Atlanta can get something in return at the end of his third year of his contract. This will be his second year coming up. Even if he doesn’t get playing time this year, he has value in the league.

Basically, I never even got off the phone with Atlanta. Even when I talked to Arizona, Atlanta was still on the phone. I’m on my cell phone with one team and on my house phone talking to the other. Atlanta offered me a deal, then I went to Arizona and told them the deal Atlanta was offering me, and they said they could offer me more than that. It wasn’t really necessarily about the money at the time, because the amount of money that I’d be making is just going to be pocket change compared to the amount that I could be making if I make the right decisions. When it came down to it, Atlanta offered me more money, but that didn't really make a difference. I told them what I wanted, what I’d like to see them offer compared to Arizona, and they agreed. They sent the contract the next day, I signed it, and I’m on my way to Atlanta on Thursday [April 28].

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As of right now, I have a two-year contract. The way I look at it right now is to go in this year and be the fourth quarterback, and it's very likely they are going to carry a quarterback on the practice squad. The practice squad doesn’t make the amount of money as you do if you are on the roster. That’s the way I’m looking at it right now. Detmer has a one-year contract. I don’t even know about the NFL Europe thing. Maybe they will send me there, maybe they won’t. I’m anticipating that next year [2006] I’ll at least come in and be the third string quarterback. I don’t really have a preference right now for NFL Europe or playing on a practice squad. I’ll have to wait and see.

We’ve got a four day mini-camp starting up this Thursday. Then after that, we report back on May 16, and from May 16 we’ll be there from June 12. So we’re there for a while then. Then we have a little time off, and I think we actually report again, I don’t know, it may be around the 25th of July. The first preseason game is in Tokyo, and I think that's on the 6th of August.

One thing about the preseason is that Atlanta plays five games, as opposed to four for most other teams. And they don’t play Mike in the preseason. He might get a series or two. Then they’ll play Matt, and Matt will get some reps. Then they won’t really play Ty because he’s been in the NFL so long and knows the system. So it’s a good opportunity for me to have a lot of reps in the preseason.

I’m excited about the opportunity. I think its going to take a little bit of time to adjust, but at the same time it’s like going off to college again and starting something new. It’s a chance and opportunity to discover new things about myself. So it’s something that I’m really excited about and I’m looking forward to it.

I think I'm mentally prepared for the business end of pro football. I’ve been through a lot of things in my career, and when you really get down to it, it’s almost a business in college. It will probably be a step up business-wise, but I think I’m mentally prepared for a lot of things that are going to be thrown my way.

I talked to the quarterbacks coach yesterday, and he told me there is going to be a lot learned in a little bit of time. We’re going to jump right into it. Also another thing that he mentioned to me was about special teams. He said I’ll get an opportunity to meet with the special teams during the next four days and I’ll have the opportunity then, so we’ll see how that goes.