How pro days will help decide the 2021 NFL Draft – especially at the top

The lead-up to the NFL Draft looked quite a bit different this year, and has been highlighted by two words: pro day.

The NFL Combine is usually the marquee event for draft prospects, as coaches, scouts and team executives travel to Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis to evaluate 323 invitees of college football's elite.

The 2021 event was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, so much of the focus turned to pro days, which took on extra significance for would-be draftees and NFL teams.

What is a pro day?

The purpose of the event is for college football players to undergo various testing and showcase their skills via individual drills in front of talent evaluators.

Colleges typically host pro days on their campuses, which allows student-athletes comfortable atmospheres and familiar circumstances to put their best foot forward.

Prior to 2021, a college would put on a singular event for all of its athletes hoping to be drafted, but once the scouting combine was canceled, teams and players had greater flexibility in the planning and scheduling of pro days.

What was different this year?

In addition to the workouts, athletes at the NFL Combine are medically evaluated and interviewed by NFL teams. This year, the league still conducted medical examinations for many players, and franchises will hold videoconferences for the interview process.

The NFL partnered with universities to ensure consistency in the drills and testing at each school, and video of workouts was readily available to NFL personnel.

Because of COVID-19, each NFL team was allowed a maximum of three attendees at each pro day, and everyone in attendance was required to wear masks and practice social distancing.

The limited numbers created problems for teams in some instances. It is common for head coaches and GMs to attend pro days, which would leave one spot for a position coach. But at schools with multiple first-round prospects, a team might want to scout multiple positions, leading to a difficult decision as to who is in attendance.

Why were pro days so important?

With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, pro days were the only real option for teams to evaluate prospects in person, so they mattered more than ever this year. And because of that and the limited attendance numbers, several schools and players held more than one pro day.

A second pro day allowed athletes a chance to show consistency or improve on their initial performances. A second event also gave teams the opportunity to send personnel who missed the first because of schedule conflicts (such as two pro days being held the same day, which happened this year).

Some of the second pro days were closed to the media and by invitation only.

How did the top QBs fare at their pro days?

Presumptive No. 1 overall pick Trevor Lawrence kicked off the pro days with a 52-throw workout at Clemson's indoor facility in front of Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer – owner of the first pick – and representatives from 16 other NFL teams.

Lawrence held his showcase a month before Clemson's official pro day, as he has a labrum surgery on the books before summer workouts begin. Lawrence's measurements came in at 6-foot-5 and 213 pounds, with 10-inch hands.

BYU quarterback Zach Wilson also held just a single pro day. After the New York Jets shipped Sam Darnold to Carolina, popular opinion pointed to them picking up Wilson with the No. 2 selection.

Wilson turned heads with the most attended pro day in his school's history, going viral when he threw a perfectly placed pass across his body. Every NFL team was present except the Los Angeles Rams, as the 6-foot-2, 214-pound quarterback impressed with a variety of flashy throws.

Following Wilson were Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields and Alabama quarterback Mac Jones, who have pundits debating which of them will be the third signal-caller selected come April 29. 

Fields ran a blistering 4.44 40-yard dash time, showcasing his dual-threat abilities at 6-foot-3 and 230 pounds and dazzling with his arm in front of 31 NFL teams.

That same day, his cohort Jones struggled with a few overthrows. 

Both QBs opted to have a second pro day, and on the second go-around, Jones improved his stock with his 65-toss script of impressive deep passes and play-action throws, showing off his accuracy and touch.

Finally, North Dakota State QB Trey Lance is arguably the biggest wild card of the draft, and he proved any doubters wrong by highlighting his cannon of an arm and mobility at 6-foot-4 in front of the 30 representatives from NFL teams who attended NDSU's first pro day.

Lance's second pro day further proved his worth, as many teams with first-round picks — including the San Francisco 49ers, the Atlanta Falcons (who hold the No. 4 pick), Denver Broncos and New England Patriots — were in attendance.

How did teams feel about the pro-day-heavy format?

New York Jets GM Joe Douglas took a positive approach in a USA Today story on pro days: "This year we don’t have a combine, but we have pro days. So we’re going to make the most of it. And I know our guys are excited to get out and start attacking these pro days."

In a piece about Tennessee's draft preparations, Titans GM Jon Robinson expressed some skepticism about this year's process.

"What are the players actually going to do, and is it worth the trip to a particular college?" he said. "Can you have interaction with the coach? With the player? We're just being mindful of all of the state guidelines as it relates to travel and then the campus guidelines when we're on campus."

Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst, in an article from the Green Bay Press-Gazette, noted that he would trust his team's experience in navigating the uncharted waters.

"We’re fortunate to have some guys that have been in this thing for 15-20 plus years, so I feel really good about if I can’t make it to some of these [pro days], that the eyes we’re going to have on these guys are going to be able to get us the information we need to make good decisions."

Last but not least, in a Q&A with Sports Illustrated, Chicago Bears GM Ryan Pace broke down the whole process and how his team approached it.

"First off, you’ve really got to rely on your area scouts, and we have. They’ve done a great job in the fall getting all of the information they can because our interaction is much less," he said. "We don’t have the combine interviews. We don’t have the 30 visits. We can go to the pro days, but there’s very little interaction. We have to be resourceful going forward. We’ve got to maximize the conditions we’re operating under, and it’s going to be different.

"We’ve all gotten really comfortable and familiar with using the Zoom calls, but sometimes it’s not the same as having that interaction. We’ve just got to maximize the conditions we’re under. We were just meeting with our coaches today on their pro day schedules. It’s things like that, appreciating our coaches traveling all around the country and going above and beyond, doing their job to attend these pro days, along with our scouts. And we’ve just got to be resourceful in this process along with every other team."

Exactly how will all of this impact the ultimate outcome of the NFL Draft?

We'll find out next week.

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