FOXBORO — If you’re not one of the roughly 250 players selected the weekend of the NFL Draft, sometimes, it’s not such a bad thing. But just in case, you might want to have your cell phone fully charged by the time the end of the draft rolls around.

Patriots quarterback Brian Hoyer and linebacker Gary Guyton were two guys who didn’t hear their names called on draft weekend. At the time, it was a disappointment — especially for Hoyer, who had an ESPN crew watching him throughout the entire process throughout last year’s draft.

“From the information that I had been given from my agent and from ESPN themselves, saying that they think I’ll be a pick, I was like, ‘Well, if I could have this documented, well, why not?’ And it kind of went the wrong way,” the former Michigan State signal-caller recalled ruefully on Thursday.

But things quickly turned for Hoyer after the draft ended. He was now a free agent, and instead of him waiting on teams to call his name, they were now waiting on him to make a decision about where he wanted to go.

“When the draft’s over and you don’t get drafted, your phone … you wish your phone was ringing like that during the draft,” he said with a smile. “You’re getting calls, you’re on the phone, another person’s calling in and you’re like, ‘Yeah, OK, I appreciate the offer, I’ve got to call you back. I’ve got to talk to my agent.’ And things are just rattling off.

“I think I decided to come to the Patriots 10 minutes maybe after the draft was over,” he said. “Once New England called me, my agent was like, ‘Look, I have a good feeling about this.’ And I was like, you know, Bill Belichick, Tom Brady — if those are two guys you ever want to learn from and you have the opportunity to do it, I might as well do it now and you never know when it might happen again. So it wasn’t a hard decision for me.”

Gary Guyton was an undrafted free agent out of Georgia Tech who ended up sticking with the Patriots. (AP)

Guyton, who sat by the phone waiting for the call that never came during the 2008 draft, was also a free agent when the final pick was made that year, but heard from Belichick shortly afterward, who made a pitch for Guyton to come to New England. That led to a memorable exchange between the two where Guyton asked Belichick, “Why didn’t you draft me?” Belichick’s answer: “I don’t know.” (Belichick later confessed: “We definitely blew it on that one. He should’ve never gone as a free agent.”)

But like Hoyer, Guyton — a Georgia Tech product — made the experience work for him.

“This is a good situation for me,” Guyton said Thursday. “I wasn’t drafted, got picked up and made the best of my opportunity and now it’s working out for me.

“Will [not getting drafted] be something I forget? No. The draft is a big day for kids. For young guys like myself, that’s what you dream about every day. Will it affect me? No. Will it make me or break me? Nah. It will be something I remember, but it’s OK though.”

Any advice for the guys who might not hear their names called?

“Just make sure your phone works,” Guyton said with a smile.