Ricky Santos headed to Kansas City

Kansas City here he comes.

Ricky Santos, passed over in the National Football League draft, has himself a free agent deal to join the Kansas City Chiefs.

"I'll find out more in the next couple of days, but it looks like I'll be heading out there this weekend for rookie mini-camp," Santos said late last night.

Brad Blank, the agent for Santos, said that within a half hour of the end of the draft last night, he had received several calls from teams interested in the former University of New Hampshire quarterback.

"There was a little bit of negotiating, but mostly it was looking at the back of the depth chart," Blank said.

Even before the draft, Santos said, they had identified the Chiefs, because of their quarterbacking situation, as a possible landing spot.

When the Chiefs did not pick a quarterback in the draft, the likelihood seemed even better.

Santos knew there was a good chance he might go undrafted, but he had some tense moments after the draft, he said.

"I tell you what," he said. "There were probably 20-25 minutes after the draft when my phone was silent. It seemed like two hours. I was sitting here hoping. Finally my agent called and said Kansas City wanted to make a deal and then the quarterbacks coach called. It was a sigh of relief." Now it's up to Santos to try to beat out guys and earn a backup job.

"He needs to get into a camp and make his magic happen the way he always has," Blank said. "That's the beauty of it. You still have to play the game." Thirteen quarterbacks were selected in the two days of the draft, starting with first-rounders Matt Ryan of Boston College, who went to Atlanta with the No. 3 pick overall, and Delaware's Joe Flacco, taken No. 18 overall by Baltimore.

In between, Dennis Dixon of Oregon was the seventh quarterback chosen, going to Pittsburgh in the fifth round.

Like Santos, Dixon was groomed by Manchester Central and UNH product Chip Kelly. Kelly was the offensive coordinator at UNH through Santos' junior season and last year took the same position at Oregon. Dixon was a Heisman Trophy candidate under Kelly until a knee injury ended his season.

Blank, as others have done, brought up former Boston College star Doug Flutie's name when talking about Santos.

"He's not the 6-5, 240-pound pocket passer everyone is looking for," Blank said. "There's a Doug Flutie element to him.

Flutie had a long career spanning both the NFL and Canadian Football League.

"That's not a bad place to go," Blank said. "The Montreal Alouettes have his rights and have been in touch. But Ricky wants to give the NFL a shot." Santos hopes to follow a couple of his former teammates onto an NFL roster.

Defensive back Corey Graham and wide receiver David Ball, both of whom closed out their collegiate careers with the 2006 team, went through last year's draft.

The Chicago Bears picked Graham in the fifth round and he played with the team last season, mostly on special teams. He was second on the team with 20 special teams tackles. He also scored a touchdown when he ran back a blocked punt seven yards 35-7 late-season win over Green Bay.

Ball went undrafted and signed a free agent contract with the Bears. He spent a couple of stints on their practice squad early in the season and was eventually cut from it and later was signed by the New York Jets. He is on the Jets' offseason roster.