Cal Pro Day: Bynum, Curhan and Johnson All Pleased With Rainy-Day Performances
Rain greeted five former Cal football players hoping to show their best during Thursday’s Pro Day at Memorial Stadium, but that didn’t dampen their reaction to the opportunity they had to perform in front of 31 NFL scouts.
“The day went great. Most of all, I had fun,” said cornerback Camryn Bynum. “I’ve been training for 3 1/2 months and my biggest goal was to just show what I can do, not even chasing numbers.
“But having fun and showing, `OK, he’s been training hard.’ Not be nervous or do any of that just because I know it’s natural. I’ve been doing this so long. Just a glorified Thursday with a couple more eyes on me.”
Cam Bynum runs the 40
Photo by Al Sermeno, KLC fotos
Still, for NFL scouts numbers matter. Bynum, who is 6-foot, 200 pounds, ran the 40-yard dash in 4.49 seconds, leaped 10 feet, 9 inches in the standing broad jump, ran the 3-cone drill in 6.98 seconds and the 20-yard shuttle in 4.01.
Here's more from Bynum on how his Pro Day experience went:
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Offensive lineman Jake Curhan also came away satisfied that he showed himself effectively to NFL personnel people.
“I think for the most part it went pretty well. I was pretty happy with most of the testing.” he said. “I thought I killed the field drills. Perfect weather for football — rain was coming down. I felt right in my element, ready to go.”
Curhan, who is 6-foot-6, 330 pounds, posted a 5.42 time for the 40 and 4.80 for the 20-yard shuttle.
Here’s more from Curhan about his Pro Day experience:
Defensive end Zeandae Johnson also came away smiling after recording a 4.82-second time for the 40, a 27.5-inch vertical leap and 22 bench press reps of 225 pounds.
“I think I did really well. I put up 22 on the bench — for a guy with long arms, that’s a great number to have,” the 6-foot-4, 290-pounder said on the video below. “As far as the 40 went . . . got a 4.8 so feeling good about that.”
A total of five former Cal players participated in Pro Day, also including defensive back Traveon Beck and wide receiver Jordan Duncan from the 2019 Bears’ roster.
— CAMRYN BYNUM, cornerback:
Bio: Expected to be the Bears’ highest draft player — perhaps in the fourth or fifth round — Bynum is Cal’s only player to start all 42 games from 2017 through 2020. He had 188 career tackles, six interceptions and 29 pass breakups. Bynum was a first-team All-Pac-12 player in 2020 after earning second-team honors as a junior i 2019.
Here’s more from Bynum on the versatility he believes he brings to playing DB in the NFL, despite the fact that he has lined up exclusively at corner:
— JAKE CURHAN, offensive line:
Bio: Curhan started all 40 games he played in his Cal career, all at right tackle. But the 6-foot-6, 330-pounder spent time working at both guards positions at practices leading to the Senior Bowl as scouts wanted to see if he projects as a versatile, multi-position player.
Jake Curhan in the cone drill
Photo by Al Sermeno, KLC fotos
Curhan talks more in this video about transitioning to guard:
— ZEANDAE JOHNSON, defensive line:
Bio: Johnson played in 41 career games with 18 starts during six seasons at Cal through 2020. A defensive end the past couple seasons, he posted career totals of 59 tackles, including 9.5 tackles for loss.
Johnson says the feedback he got at the Hula Bowl All-Star game included the importance of demonstrating explosiveness. He talks about that in the video below:
Cover photo of Zeandae Johnson by Al Sermeno, KLC fotos
Video of Camryn Bynum's 40-yard dash by Jim Plain, Cal football
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo
