Cal Football: Cancellation of Bears' Pro Day Hurts Ashtyn Davis, Jaylinn Hawkins, Evan Weaver, Jordan Duncan, Others
One of the Cal football activities canceled because of concerns for the novel conornavirus is Pro Day.
Cal's Pro Day was scheduled for March 20, and it was an event where Bears' NFL hopefuls could have impressed NFL scouts with their 40-yard dash times, shuttle times and various skill drills.
On Friday, the NFL prohibited scouts from traveling to visit draft prospects or inviting them to NFL facilities, according to ESPN.
At last year's Cal Pro Day running back Patrick Laird, linebacker Jordan Kunaszyk, offensive lineman Patrik Mekari, tight end Ian Bunting and wide receiver Moe Ways were among those who participated. It helped Kunaszyk, Laird, Mekari and Bunting get picked up by NFL teams as free agents. Kunaszyk, Mekari and Laird all made opening-day NFL rosters, and Laird and Mekari even started NFL games in 2019.
(Click here for a video of Laird's 40-yard dash at last year's Pro Day. Click here for Kunaszyk's 40-yard dash. Click here for Moe Ways' shuttle. See video of the 40-yard dash of nose tackle Chris Palmer here. Some highlights of Cal's 2019 Pro Day were noted here.)
This year, safeties Ashtyn Davis and Jaylinn Hawkins, linebacker Evan Weaver, defensive back Traveon Beck, wide receiver Jordan Duncan and place-kicker Greg Thomas were the Bears players from the 2019 team scheduled to participate in Pro Day. Also, two 2018 Cal players -- tight end Malik McMorris and long snapper Alonso Vera -- were scheduled to participate this year's Pro Day.
(Weaver responds to being named to the first-team All-America squad in video above.)
Davis and Weaver are expected to be taken in the 2019 NFL Draft, and Hawkins has an outside shot at being drafted, so Pro Day was important to them.
It was particuarly important for Davis, who performed only the bench press during the NFL Combine, delaying a 40-yard dash until Cal Pro Day so he could further recover from his offseason surgery following a late-season groin injury, according to CBS Sports.
Bruce Feldman also noted Davis' decision not to run at the Combine in the Tweet below:
Davis, a Pac-12 hundles champion, was probably the fastest player on the Cal team this past season, so not being clocked in the 40 is a setback. Whether he will get that opportunity at some future time before the draft is unclear.
Davis is expected to be the first Cal player drafted, probably in the second or third round.
Hawkins only did the vertical jump and broad jump as well as some defensive drills during the NFL Combine, so he wanted to get a 40 clocking at Pro Day.
Weaver did everything at the Combine, but his 4.76 time in the 40 probably was not as good as he would have hoped. He no doubt wanted to improve on that at Pro Day. He also participated in interviews with the media while at th Combine.
Weaver is expected to be taken in the middle round lof the draft, and although he led the nation in tackles in 2019, there are concerns about his perceived lack of speed. Weaver would like to dispell those notins, and improve his draft status.
Here's a video of Hawkins before the Redbox Bowl talking about his graduation and other things:
