With pro days canceled, non-combine draft prospects are using home videos to get the attention of NFL teams

Pro day workouts are an important part of the NFL predraft process, particularly for those players who weren’t fortunate enough to score an invite to the late-February scouting combine in Indianapolis.

But when the coronavirus outbreak forced the cancellation of pro days last month, all of those non-combine players were left hanging. They had no way of providing testing numbers, or even accurate heights, weights, and arm lengths to teams.

“Pro days are a critical time for those non-combine and small-school kids,” said Jim Nagy, the executive director of the Senior Bowl. “Because if they didn’t get invited to an all-star game, [pro days] are the only way the league can see how they stack up with the big-school guys.

“If you’re a Division II kid and you get invited to the Senior Bowl, you get a chance to compare yourself to the best of the best. But if you don’t and you didn’t get invited to the combine and don’t have testing numbers, the league doesn’t know if you’re just a good FCS or Division II player or a legitimate pro prospect.”

Shortly after the on-campus pro days were canceled, Nagy came up with a way to help the non-combine players: show them how to shoot their own pro day video.

Obviously, it wouldn’t be as effective as working out in person in front of NFL scouts and coaches. But at the very least, it would provide them with some accurate measurables to give to their potential NFL employers.

“Right after they started canceling the pro days, I had some [player-representation] agencies reach out to me about timing their players,” Nagy said. “I had an agency that had a lot of Day 1 and Day 2 clients that wanted to fly me out to California and time a lot of guys that hadn’t had their pro days yet.

“Well, immediately, my wife said, ‘You are not doing that. You are definitely not doing that.’ Then we talked about, well, maybe they could get a bunch of their kids on a flight” to Mobile, Ala., where Nagy lives, and he could test them there.

“But this was when everything was starting to crest and things were closing. Once that started to happen, I was like, ‘I’ve got to do something to help some of these kids.’ I just felt compelled to try to do something. That’s when I thought of having them make their own pro day videos.”

Nagy, who had spent nearly two decades as an NFL scout before becoming the Senior Bowl’s executive director last year, ran the idea by several NFL general managers.

“I called them and asked them if this would be valid for you guys; if it would be a good idea,” he said. “They were like, ‘Oh, man. That would be great. We would definitely take that.' Once they told me they felt it would be worthwhile, I decided we have to do it.”

Nagy made a “How to Run a Pro Day” video series and put it on the Senior Bowl website. It showed players and their agents and trainers how to do everything: from getting accurate heights and weights to properly filming all of the drills, including the vertical jump, broad jump, three-cone drill, 20-yard short shuttle, 225-pound bench press, and the 40-yard dash.

“Even if teams are skeptical of the 40-yard dash times, you still have the rest of the workout,” Nagy said. "You still have all of the legitimate side measurables.

“We showed them not only how to conduct it, but how to film it. So, if they put the cameras in the right position, they should have legitimate short-shuttle and three-cone times. Same with the vertical jump and broad jump.

“They’re really able to check every box outside of the 40. And if people film it the right way, you should be able to get a really close 40 time as well.”

Nagy said more than two dozen players or their agents have sent him videos that he forwarded to NFL teams. Many others just put their video out themselves on social media.

The stay-at-home orders, and the closing of all nonessential facilities in most states, has made it a bit of a challenge for players to make their own pro day videos.

“It took a while to find a place to do it,” said Luq Barcoo, a non-combine cornerback from San Diego State. “Places were getting shut down pretty quickly. One minute, I thought we were going to do it here, and the next minute we had to move it someplace else. And then that place ended up getting closed and we’d have to find another place.”

Barcoo finally found a park in National City, Calif., outside of San Diego, with a football field that hadn’t been shuttered yet. He did all of the running drills there, including the 40. The vertical jump, 225-pound bench press, and physical measurements were filmed at a gym owned by one of his trainers.

Nagy put a disclaimer on the Senior Bowl website warning players that, per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, he was not encouraging large group participation for timing, testing, and filming of the videos.

“It basically [should be] just a filmer and the athlete,” Nagy said. “Hopefully people have been mindful of that.”

Well, sort of. Barcoo said there were a total of 12 people involved in shooting his pro day video, including four cameramen. But he insisted that everyone adhered to the social-distancing guidelines.

Barcoo, who figures to be a late-Day 3 pick or a priority free agent, posted his pro day video on Twitter last week. He said he’s gotten positive feedback from NFL scouts.

“I feel it was an overall success,” he said. “A lot of teams have seen it. Others are going to see it. I’m excited about that.”

Barcoo had a 41-inch vertical jump and an 11-foot, 3-inch broad jump, and ran the 40 in 4.41 seconds on the video. Teams likely will take the 40 time with a grain of salt.

“Teams are taking everything outside of the 40 seriously,” Nagy said of the pro day videos. “Especially if they followed the guidelines we gave them and they’re filming the entire process so it can’t be altered.

“Now these guys have testing numbers. If they’re an FCS wide receiver and they have a 38-inch vertical jump and a 10-6 broad jump and they’re 6-3 and 200 pounds, at least now teams are able to stack them up in terms of physical traits with guys playing in the league and the people who were at the combine. And that’s all these guys are trying to verify right now.

“When all these numbers come in, rather than a guy being an undrafted free agent, a team might say, ‘Why don’t we just take a shot on him in the sixth or seventh round?’ "