Published April 26, 2022 on Defector
Prospect X has his duffel bag packed. It’s a Sunday night in early April, and tomorrow he’ll board a flight to a much larger airport, then get on another flight to visit an NFL team in the Midwest, the first stop of a tour—six teams in seven days—that will take him to nearly every region in the country.
He’s bringing his favorite sneakers with him, Jordan 4s and Nike Dunks, which take up most of the room in his carry-on duffel. He doesn’t plan to dress up much for these visits, preferring not to overthink his outfit. “I know if I am in a suit all day, I am not going to be comfortable,” he says. “I am gonna get grumpy and I am going to keep being in my little mood.”
X isn’t stressed by the idea of back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back job interviews. Maybe part of the reason for this is that he hates using calendars. Instead, he screenshots emails showing his flight info and outlining his visit schedules and uses those photos to remember when and where he’s supposed to be.
After the Midwest, he’ll head to a team in the Southwest, then a team in the Southeast, then back to the Midwest, one day off at home, then back to the Midwest again, and finally, a team in the Northeast. He’s so busy that one AFC North team couldn’t find a window to squeeze into his schedule before the April 20 deadline for teams to complete their allotted 30-visits. (Each NFL team is allowed to bring 30 prospects to their facility to do medical testing and interviews in the lead-up to the draft.)
This amount of attention is very new for X. He wasn’t on the radar as a legitimate NFL prospect until this past season, his sixth year in college, and his first as a starting linebacker.
When scouts visited his school last year, one of his college coaches said they’d first ask about another linebacker who was already a starter, but then they’d ask about X, because he had the Bobby Wagner–type speed and athleticism that NFL teams are searching for at inside linebacker. “They would always be like, what’s up with him?” the coach says. “And I would always say, ‘He’s a pro. I’m telling you, he’s a pro,’ but there was never enough film at backer before this year for them to really grasp it.”
Injury prevented him from breaking into the starting lineup sooner, and even after an impressive special-teams career and a full season standing out on one of the best defenses in Power-Five college football, he still didn’t get invited to the combine, or a top-tier all-star game. It wasn’t until his pro day workout that NFL teams really started taking him seriously. “It’s like a sigh of relief,” he says.
X says that when he talks to NFL coaches, they’ll ask him why he didn’t play in any all-star games. “I wasn’t invited,” he tells them. “They are all surprised by that.”
And why weren’t you at the combine?
“I wish I could tell you.”