Cohl Cabral was plopped on his couch in Southern California just before 9 a.m. Saturday morning. His immediate family was around him. His extended relatives were virtually a part of his big day, on screens via Zoom and around his house. And Cabral’s phone was never more than a few inches away.

For the next seven hours, 149 different names would pop up on Cabral’s television screen. Through the final four rounds of the NFL Draft, Cabral knew his odds dwindled with every selection.

“The hardest part is sitting there watching guys come off (the board) who you know, or you worked out with or trained with because, in a way, you start to doubt yourself,” Cabral said. “In all honesty, it completely sucks.”

And perhaps the worst part was when his phone buzzed. Every family member wants to be in the loop, they want to know what’s going on, what’s his agent saying, when might he get the call? Then the phone rings and they gather close. They stick their ear in the direction of Cabral and try to decipher the phone call. They get in extra close so just in case that phone call is the phone call, they'll be within arm's reach to start celebrating.

That’s what most people see on TV. They see the prospect in his home, picking up the phone and speaking with his new team. His family members scramble to find the right draft hat. They break out their phones to capture the greatest moment of the kid’s football life. And they pack in real tight as he’s thanking his new coach or general manager or whatever.

But, before that, there are other phone calls. Those that do not change any lives but rather induce panic into them.

Last Saturday, Cabral had plenty of those.

“I already knew if someone (I knew) called me, it was going to be a long call for them. Anyone who knew me knew not to even bother picking up the phone (to call),” Cabral joked. “My old coaches, they were texting me like, ‘Hey, I’m going to call you at some random point today just to piss you off.’ (I’m) like, ‘(If you do), you’re going to get kicked in the nuts next time I see you,’”

As time wore on Saturday, so did his stress. He moved outside, then back inside, then in front of a vent, then in front of a different TV. Rinse, repeat. It’s almost reverse superstition. If things aren’t going your way, perhaps moving spots will shift your luck.

On this day, it didn’t matter where Cabral sat. Every time his phone rang, it always seemed to be from his agent delivering some sort of speculation or false hope.

“I’m like, ‘Dammit, you keep making my heart drop for no reason,’” Cabral said of his agent.

At the end of seven rounds and 255 picks, Arizona State’s center didn’t receive the life-changing phone call. He didn't see his name pop up on the television. Instead, he signed with the Los Angeles Rams as an undrafted free agent. He’s still getting his shot at the NFL, just not in the way he hoped.

“I was really surprised,” Cabral said of being undrafted. “It was a really long day, to be honest with you.”

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As the draft was winding down, Cabral and his agent were already speaking to the Rams and outlining his free agent contract. That’s draft commonplace -- iron out the paperwork as soon as possible and if another team swooped in and drafted him, all the better.

Los Angeles had reached out to Cabral a week before the draft and then before he sat down at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Cabral’s agent told him the Rams had interest and may pull the trigger on him late in the draft. If not, the Rams still wanted to set an undrafted free agent contract set up with the center.

And while “about six other teams” made offers for Cabral’s services, he and his agent decided on Los Angeles after a careful consideration of each team’s depth chart. The Rams, they realized, had the biggest need on the offensive line, a scarce depth in the trenches that may afford Cabral a better shot to make the 53-man roster. And the fact that it’s Cabral’s hometown team was merely a bonus.

“I’m walking into a room that’s kind of limited but it’s like, ‘Hey, I’m ready to add to the depth that’s needed here and come in and compete for a spot,’” Cabral said. “(When camp starts), you’ve got to show the coaches that they need to keep you on the field. That they have no choices but to leave you out there or find you a way to get on the field.”

Following the combine, NFL.com graded Cabral at a 5.87 on its scale -- which basically equates to a backup or special teams player. Stacked up against every other center in the draft, Cabral was eighth. Thing was, only six were drafted, and none in the final two rounds.

This go-around, scouts were supposed to be drooling over Cabral, he figured.

At the end of his junior season, there were some that thought he may forego his senior season. He was able to garner advice from the NFL’s advisory committee and, in essence, they told him it would be best if he returned to school.

He obliged. And, last year, after a few weeks where the Sun Devils moved him to left tackle to compensate for a lack of depth, Cabral only allowed one sack, zero quarterback hits (aside from the sack) and was third in the Pac-12 among centers with 10 quarterback pressures.

Playing alongside a band-up and youth-laden offensive line, Cabral was the practically the only thing ASU could count on with its offensive line.

Even though the draft didn’t go as he planned, he doesn’t regret going back to Tempe for his final year. There was a lot more football he needed to learn, he admitted and working with ASU offensive analyst and NFL Hall of Famer Kevin Mawae for another year “was something that was very beneficial.”

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For Cabral, the shock of not being drafted has an explanation. He was invited to the NFL Combine but was a limited participant. He threw up 20 reps on the bench press and met with a few teams for 15-minute intervals where teams would teach him offensive installs for five minutes, talk to him for five minutes and then quiz him on the installs for the final five minutes.

During the middle portion of one interview, a team asked the 6-foot-5, 300-pound center if he had a joke. “I was like, ‘Not particularly,” Cabral said with a chuckle. To him, it didn’t do a whole lot for either party.

“I needed a pro day to kind of show off my athleticism,” he said. “Let teams see me. Get out and move in front of them.”

Unfortunately for Cabral, the COVID-19 pandemic canceled every pro day and in-person meeting between prospects and NFL teams in mid-March. Not only could Cabral not defy the criticism about his athleticism, but he could hardly show off his football intelligence that Arizona State has raved about for the last four seasons.

“Cohl Cabral is a low-end center prospect,” Kyle Crabbs, an NFL Draft analyst for The Draft Network wrote. "He does not have the mobility, short area quickness or core strength to shine as a centerpiece of an NFL offensive line; but he is a mentally sharp player with plenty of experience who should be able to latch onto an active roster as a depth option.”

Cabral still produced a virtual pro day, where Mawae put him through the position work he would have done at pro day, it wasn’t the same.

Regardless, Cabral still has an opportunity in the NFL. That isn’t lost on him. To him, it’s best to throw out every statistic about undrafted players in the NFL. He just has to be good enough to stay on the field.

“I could care less. You're going to keep me around whether I'm an undrafted guy or a drafted guy,” Cabral said. “You take (the cuts) out of (the coaches) hands by getting yourself on the field and putting yourself in a situation where you may be a starter or the first guy up if someone goes down and now they can’t get rid of you.”

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