PROVO, Utah – Sixteen former Cougars from the 2016 football team participated in BYU’s NFL Pro Day on Friday morning at the Indoor Practice Facility.
The participants met with team representatives, performed various combine tests and demonstrated position-specific skills throughout the day in front of scouts from 28 NFL teams. Current BYU players and coaches also attended along with participant families, friends and media.
Former players who participated included running backs Jamaal Williams and Algernon Brown, along with wide receivers Nick Kurtz, Colby Pearson, Mitchell Juergens and Garrett Juergens. Offensive linemen Parker Dawe and Andrew Eide also participated along with quarterback Taysom Hill. On defense, linemen Travis Tuiloma and Logan Taele were measured and met with scouts but did not do any athletic testing due to injury recovery. Harvey Langi and Sae Tautu worked out while defensive backs Michael Davis, Kai Nacua and Eric Takenaka all participated. In addition to BYU’s 2016 graduating seniors, former BYU offensive lineman Brad Wilcox and defensive lineman Graham Rowley also worked out at Pro Day.
The group started the day with official measurements and went on to the bench press, vertical and broad jumps. The workouts then moved to the 40-yard dash, 3-cone drill and short and long shuttles before position workouts.
Each scout was responsible for keeping their own numbers so all results reported are unofficial.
Both offensive linemen, Eide and Dawe stood out on the bench press with 33 and 30 reps, respectively. The twins, Garrett and Mitchell Juergens also impressed with 21 reps and 19 reps each. Williams, who already participated in the NFL Scouting Combine but didn’t do the bench in Indianapolis, participated today and put up 18 reps.
In the vertical, Nacua, Tautu and Hill were top performers. Nacua had the best mark at Pro Day with a 39-inch leap while Tautu and Hill both posted 38.5 inches. Mitchell Juergens also had one of the top jumps at 37 inches.
The 40-yard dash was one of the highlights of the workouts. Davis ran the fastest time with a 4.34 time on his second run. Pearson posted a 4.43 and Hill ran a 4.44 in both of his attempts. Tautu also ran a fast time for a defensive lineman at 4.55 while Langi shined with a 4.62 after not running at the NFL Combine.
After athletic testing, participants worked out for scouts in their position groups with specific drill work.
The 2017 NFL Draft takes place Thursday-Saturday, April 27-29, in Philadelphia.
Quarterback Taysom Hill
On what happens next
“Just get ready to go. Stay in shape and stay by the phone and hopefully go visit some programs. I’ll see what the next step is.”
“My expectation was initially to just run a 40 and I wanted to run in the low 4.4s and I came in and did that. My rehab went a little faster than what I had planned and expected so I went ahead and did the other stuff on short preparation. I was happy with what happened today.”
What were workouts like to prepare for this?
“A lot of it is very similar to what we are doing at BYU. We squat heavy and do stuff like that in hopes that it transfers over to be faster here. We obviously spend more time working on starts and getting ready to go for the drill specific part of this day. I worked out twice a day for the last three months and did my rehab on top of that. It was busy.”
On continuing to play despite injuries and opportunities beyond football
“I love the game. The time frame to play this level is short so I am just going to take advantage of it.”
Running back Jamaal Williams
“Some things met my expectations and some didn’t, but overall I felt like I had a great Pro Day. Really, all you can do is just come out and do your best. I am really happy about my effort and the hard work I’ve put in.”
“I feel like just being in Utah and being in the comfort zone I am in and feeling more comfortable where I am at there is not a lot of stress to get in my mind to play with me. I felt like it was a great day and I did better here.”
On draft expectations
“I don’t really have an expectation. I know I am going to go as far as people think I am going to go but I know I could go higher by the way I came out and did on Pro Day. My expectation really is to come out and just watch the first few days and know my name is going to be called. The important thing is just to get on a team and show what I’ve got, make the team and contribute.”