Oregon players who participated in the 2007 NFL Combine Feb. 21-26 now head back to training before Pro Day on March 8 and 15 in Eugene. Pro Day is another opportunity for players to showcase talents to NFL Scouts on a much smaller scale than the combine.
Currently none of the Ducks are projected by Scouts, Inc. to be first-day picks in the NFL Draft in April, which gives added importance to perform on Oregon’s Pro Day.
Jordan Kent follows up his pre-combine correspondence and talks about his time at the NFL Combine.
The combine is over now and it was quite the experience. It was extremely busy with long days. The minute you get there, you have to go to a hospital for lab work, and injury analysis. Pretty much you list every injury you’ve ever incurred in your athletic career and have X-rays taken of those parts.
I had about 17 X-rays.
The following day was the weigh in and measurement day, where you walk onto stage in tights in front of hundreds of scouts and your height, arm length, hand size and weight are measured. The rest of the day involves a 4-5 hour period of rotating to about six rooms where various team doctors examine your joints and mobility and report it to the other representatives in the room.
In the evening you have informal interviews in a large room where each team has a table, and representatives from each literally come up to you every minute and ask you to come sit down at their table and talk with one of their coaches.
Some players had formal interviews scheduled where you sit in a hotel room surrounded by a team’s head coach, and other staff members and they ask you all sorts of questions ranging from if you have a girlfriend to diagramming a play and coverage – at least that’s how it was in my meeting with the Raiders.
The third day had a variety of psychological testing, ranging from the Wonderlic to three different types of personality tests. The final day was the workout day, which included position drills and running tests.
Obviously the big names such as Brady Quinn, JaMarcus Russell, Calvin Johnson and Adrian Peterson are drawing a lot of attention, with constant coverage of their drills on the NFL network. The two guys who have been doing really well who I actually traveled with and train with are Laurent Robinson from Illinois State and Legedu Naanee from Boise State.
They both were in the top ten in the 40-yard dash and vertical jump, and had great hands in the position drills. Overall, it was a great experience, very tiring though as the days went from 6 a.m. to almost midnight some nights, but I felt I did a good job in all of my interviews and made a good impression.
I’m coming back to Eugene soon to finish up my training and rehab in hopes of working out a week or so before the draft. Until then, take care.
-J.K.