Around The NFL

No. 62 is former Dartmouth offensive lineman Delby Lemieux, here joining other Minnesota Vikings rookies at Children's Hospital in St. Paul. Find a story HERE.

Curious what the financial arrangements are for Lemieux and other undrafted free agents? Per a story carried by MSN, the Ivy League product signed an $82,500 guaranteed contract, with a $7,500 bonus. Should he stick with the team his three-year UDFA deal would be worth $3,107,500. 

Find the Big Green graduate's Vikings bio HERE.

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Former Dartmouth defensive back Tyron Herring '23 signed this week with the Cleveland Browns. An undrafted free agent after playing two season as a grad transfer at  Delaware, Herring had previously been a practice squad member of the Green Bay Packers and later signed with the New England Patriots. (LINK)

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Still another onetime Big Green standout is opening eyes in the NFL after a grad transfer year at Duke. Here's Tampa Bay Buccaneers General Manager Jason Licht as quoted in a story headlined Buccaneers' potential Calijah Kancey replacement could be right under their nose (LINK):

"Josiah Green, I was going to bring up. Very good athlete from Duke; defensive tackle. (He was at) Dartmouth before that making a lot of plays."

The story wraps up this way:

(J)ust how much Green comes along, in (concert) with how healthy and effective Kancey is over the next two years, may be key factors in the former first-rounder's long-term future in Tampa Bay. Ideally, Kancey rights the ship and Green also makes his mark and carves out a role.

For the time being, though, Kancey is a question mark and Green is a UDFA catching plenty of attention.

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Sticking in Florida, the news was unfortunate earlier this month for former Big Green corner Isaiah Johnson '22, who tore his ACL last December while practicing with the Miami Dolphins. Johnson, who spent two seasons as a grad transfer at Syracuse, has been waived by the NFL team for a "failed physical." From the story (LINK):

Johnson has appeared in four career games with Miami (2025), recording three special teams tackles. He entered the NFL as an undrafted college free agent with the Dolphins in 2024 and spent two seasons on the practice squad (2024-25). He played his final two collegiate seasons at Syracuse (2022-23), where he appeared in 25 games with 19 starts and totaled 115 tackles (74 solo), two interceptions, nine passes defensed and one forced fumble. He transferred to Syracuse from Dartmouth (2018-21), where he totaled 55 tackles (38 solo), one interception returned for a touchdown and seven passes defensed.

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The 7220sports.com website out of Wyoming has a piece about current grad transfer defensive end Teddy Gianaris under the headline, Welcome To Wyoming Football: Thaddeus Gianaris.  Here's what Wyoming head coach Jay Sawvel had to say in the story (LINK):

Thaddeus is a unique guy. First of all, he's an astronomy major at Dartmouth and an Ivy League grad. So when you say smart guy, yes, he's uber-smart. Thaddeus has a tremendous motor and works extremely hard. We're going to be really happy that Thaddeus is in the program this year. I think there's a lot of traits that Larry Wilson had a year ago, playing for us at defensive end. Thaddeus has many of those same traits, but he's probably a better overall athlete, so that translates really well. And, look, Thaddeus was a good player in the Ivy League, you know? I mean, when you watch these transfer type things and stuff like that, like, Ivy League football is pretty good."

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EXTRA POINT
I found myself thinking about the Julia Roberts movie Erin Brokovich while I was reading a New York Times story about a mom in Montana trying to stop development of a giant AI data center. If you want to know just how large those data centers can be, this line from the third paragraph of the story puts it in perspective:

The development, part of a nationwide boom in facilities that can power artificial intelligence, would be the size of about 3,800 football fields.

And that's not a typo. Take out the end zones and you could fit almost 4,500 football fields in the data center's proposed footprint.