On the message board there’s already a thread going with some specific numbers, reps, broad jumps, and all that good stuff so I’ll spare repeating a lot of those details for now. Pro day began around 1:00pm and consisted mostly of measurements and then weight reps and broad jumps. The original schedule had the guys hitting the stadium around 2:30 for work in the field but they were ahead of schedule. I got in around 2:20 and had missed the 40 yard times but I did get to see the guys on the O-line do a bunch of drills, the DBs, the WRs/TEs, and the kickers.
First off the guys on the O-line, while I think I caught only half of the drills it would seem that Opperud and Burton were having pretty good workouts, Sabin was there as well. The guy giving them the individual workouts was none other than Seattle Seahawks Oline coach Tom Cable. Cable was paying pretty close attention to both Chuck and Oppy. I really couldn’t say if they did “good enough” or “great” in Cable’s eyes but they seemed to come away from it pretty happy about it over. While Cable worked the guys out about 3 other scouts were sitting back watching them.
While the O-line worked out the DBs did their drills on the other side of the field, fielding passes from Cole Bergquist. Trumaine Johnson, Donny Lisowski, Houston Roots, and Andrew Badger all worked out as well as a few other Frontier-league kids (one who was rumored to have a 4.29 40). Tru was expectantly head and shoulders above the rest of the group and had a very good workout. He showed off his athleticism and speed well, many of the drills had the players opening their hips and turning back to coverage and then going after a pass – Tru was on the money with every drill. Behind Tru both Roots and Lisowski worked out well, I came away highly impressed with Lisowski who rocked it out there. Donny ran a sub-4.4 in the 40 yard dash and had guys watching him closely going into the drills. He was good (not great) with opening his hips up and changing direction and of course his strong point was closing to the ball. I believe Donny caught just about everything thrown his way and would haul the catches in and sprint full speed back to the LOS (which not a lot of other guys did continually). Roots was looking good with agility as well, he had a few passes get behind him and he did seem to slip on one drill. I’ve not heard yet how Roots did in the 40. Badger did well, he went up and jumped high for a few passes, he didn’t look as “polished” as the top 3.
As the DBs finished up it was the WRs/TEs/RBs turn to run some routes and catch passes. A very interesting thing was that both McSurdy and Shaw were being worked out by the scouts as fullbacks also. I suppose both would make great mutli-purpose guys that could block, play special teams, and catch/carry as needed. In terms of route running and pass catching I think Shaw did a little better, I believe he played running back in high school and for the scout team too his first few years with the Griz. McSurdy would sometimes use his body to make catches, Shaw was mostly all-hands and would quickly “secure” the ball after a catch. The WRs had Jabin Sambrano, Antwon Moutra, and a kid out of Carrol (I think) running and the TEs had just Middleton. Jabin did really well, he showed off his explosive speed and great hands making multiple big leaping catches on the sideline. His burst of speed off the line was really good too (word is 4.42 40 dash) and I feel that he did some good stuff out there today to catch some eyes. When asking Cole Bergquist afterwards he said they all did great, “But Jabin was THE MAN.” Moutra ran well too, I see his 40 time was at 4.7, that doesn’t surprise me when comparing Moutra and Sambrano’s initial burst of speed coming off the snap – Jabin was doing better. Middleton was running quickly and catching really well, he made quite a few tricky grabs. I don’t know how he did in the 40 or with the rest of his numbers but he was catching stuff really well. In the era of teams wanting “fast” TEs I’m not so sure he showed enough, especially since it was reported his bench reps were a little low. The WR from Carroll was a big and tall kid but he really lacked a lot of the finesse and quicks that the rest of the guys had.
Finally there were the kicking drills. Brody McKnight had a huge day, he hit all of his kicks solid and didn’t miss a single fieldgoal attempt. He hit two from 45, two from 50, and then two from 55 and one from 60! Those deep kicks were great ones too and all cleared with room to spare. Honestly I swear one of his 45 yarders that he kicked into the south endzone (the rest went into the north) hit the seats about 7 rows short of the scoreboard, that thing would’ve been good from 70. Brody told me on the sideline that he did 23 (or 24, can’t immediately recall) reps of 225, I didn’t ask his 40 time though. McKnight got a lot of scouts attention as all the rest of the drills were done but there were still 10 scouts watching him kick. His kickoffs had about a 4.2 hangtime (per his twitter account) and almost all were either in the back of the endzone or out the back of it, I think he had just one come close to the goal line, maybe 2 or 3 yards deep into it. Wren was also there kicking, as we’d usually see in practices he had tons of high/deep/long smashes, he had one guy taking down numbers in terms of distance and hangtime. He only had 2 mis-hit kicks that I saw.
As I was walking out I noticed Severin Campbell who had worked out and we chatted for a bit as we walked up the tunnell. Due to his injury last year he is allowed to work out for this pro day, and apparently he did really well. He told me he ran a 4.68 40 yard dash and did 26 reps on the bench. We talked about where he’d ideally line up and it sounded like being a pass-rushing OLB in a 3-4 scheme would certainly be his thing.
Overall today I based upon chatter in the stands and what I saw I’d say that Tru did nothing but help his stock, Chuck and Oppy obviously got some good attention, McKnight made the biggest waves with the best individual workout, and Campbell and Lisowski might’ve had the best showings of guys that I’d presume the scouts didn’t even know about before the workouts. Additionally with reported word that McSurdy ran two 40 yard dashes that were under 4.7 (4.68 reported the official) his stock probably rose today as well. That said I did miss a lot of stuff so that’s not to say some other guys I’ve not reported on (like Waldhauser and Alt’s workout or Shaw and McSurdys) went good/bad/or what.
Most all of the team was there in support, it’s always cool to see these guys supporting each other, and overall it appeared to be a pretty successful pro day.
Go Griz!
