More so than players at any other position, quarterbacks are linked for the long term with and forever compared to the fellow signal-callers in their draft class.
There were 13 quarterbacks selected during the 2020 NFL Draft including former James Madison standout Ben DiNucci.
“You got Tua, Jalen, Joe, Jordan Love and the list goes on and on,” DiNucci, a seventh-round choice of the Dallas Cowboys, said. “And to be able to say my name was called and to be associated with those guys is so cool.”
Joe Burrow won the Heisman Trophy while leading LSU to the College Football Playoff crown this past season before the Cincinnati Bengals drafted him first overall last week. Jalen Hurts, the second-round pick of the Philadelphia Eagles and an offseason training buddy of DiNucci, took two schools – Oklahoma last season and Alabama earlier in his career – to the CFP. Tua Tagovailoa, who the Miami Dolphins drafted with the fifth pick, stepped in for Hurts at halftime of the Crimson Tide’s 2017 CFP championship victory over Georgia and remained Alabama’s starter since.
DiNucci didn’t put together as gaudy of a résumé as some of his aforementioned draftees did in college, but he was the Colonial Athletic Association Offensive Player of the Year and guided JMU to an appearance in the FCS national title game as a senior.
He took advantage of the platform JMU provided and proved the decision he made two offseason ago, leaving FBS Pittsburgh behind and joining the Dukes, was the right one for him.
“I owe JMU everything,” DiNucci said. “It’s a school that really gave me a second chance and if I would’ve stayed at Pitt, I don’t know if these opportunities would’ve presented themselves.”
The four former Dukes who earned their NFL shot via undrafted free agency this past Saturday – tight end Dylan Stapleton (Houston Texans), wide receiver Brandon Polk (Los Angeles Rams) and defensive ends Ron’Dell Carter (Dallas Cowboys) and John Daka (Baltimore Ravens) – expressed similar sentiments about their time in Harrisonburg even though their paths and DiNucci’s sojourn to pro football weren’t exactly the same.
Stapleton used JMU as a springboard from Division II Slippery Rock, where he began his college career, to the NFL. He started 24 games during his two seasons with the Dukes, becoming an All-CAA choice this past fall.
“If you would’ve asked me a couple of years ago if I would be on the Houston Texans, I’d say ‘no way,’” Stapleton said. “So it’s surreal. It’s amazing. I’m blessed to have an opportunity to play in the NFL. I never expected it when I committed to Slippery Rock and I never really envisioned me being on an NFL roster, but it’s been an amazing experience.”
Carter transferred from Rutgers to JMU prior to the 2017 season, primarily to play college football with his older brother, Robert Carter Jr., who was a special teams standout for the Dukes at the time.
And then all Ron’Dell Carter did was become a two-time team captain, the CAA Defensive Player of the Year in 2019, and gain an invite to the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl in his three seasons at Madison ahead of Cowboys signing him.
“Without JMU, I’m not here right now. Without all my coaches,” Carter said before rattling off a long list of current and former JMU head coaches and assistants including second-year coach Curt Cignetti and former coach Mike Houston, “it’s not possible.”
Polk — like DiNucci, Stapleton, and Carter — might not have been on NFL radars if he didn’t finish up his eligibility with the Dukes. In his graduate season after leaving Penn State, he caught passes for more than 1,000 yards and recorded 11 touchdowns.
Daka, who was with JMU for all four years of his college career, said the program helped him mature.
“JMU gave me the chances I needed in order to reach the level where I could get this opportunity,” Daka said.
And now all five of them begin the quest to stick with their respective teams and succeed beyond solidifying a roster spot.
Of course, when it comes to being judged, DiNucci will face it most harshly simply because of his position. Again, he was one of the 13 quarterbacks drafted last week and was part of a uniquely historic NFL Draft – for years to come, fans will always remember the year league commissioner Roger Goodell announced choices from his own basement.
“I think I proved myself wrong,” said DiNucci, who last spring at this time was in the thick of a position battle to be JMU’s starting quarterback after the then-recently hired Cignetti opened the job. “If a year ago, you would’ve said the Dallas Cowboys would be drafting me, I would’ve said, ‘You’re crazy.’
“But that’s kind of been my M.O. my whole life and as long as I’ve played football. I’ve always been doubted. I’ve always kind of been that underdog story and every day that I’ve gone into the facility, I put my head down, went to work and let my actions speak louder than my words, so here we are again.”
And who knows?
DiNucci could become to the 2020 NFL Draft what middle- or late-round picks like Russell Wilson or Nick Foles, a pair of third-rounders who have since each won a Super Bowl, have become to the 2012 NFL Draft.
Or he could become what Dak Prescott, DiNucci’s new teammate, the Cowboys’ starter and a former fourth-round choice, has meant to the 2016 NFL Draft. Or even what Marc Bulger — a former Pro Bowler, sixth-round selection the same year of another sixth-round choice (Tom Brady) was drafted and who first-year Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy compared DiNucci to — turned into for the 2000 NFL Draft.
