NFL Draft: HBCU Standout Shines at Pro Day
As we enter the month of April, all eyes are on what teams will do in the 2022 NFL Draft. The Senior Bowl and Scouting Combine are important draft events that are now past us, but pro days will be key events to keep an eye on for draft prospects. Players like Will Adams from Virginia State can showcase their skills in front of NFL scouts. Not only did he prove himself, but he also showed teams why they shouldn't pass on him in this draft.
What Adams did during testing was nothing short of spectacular. He ran his 40-yard dash in 4.57 seconds, which is very respectable. He had a vertical jump of 40 1/2 inches and a broad jump of 10'3," which is phenomenal and shows how explosive an athlete he is. What you see on his film is a physically imposing type of safety, with great size and a well-built frame. At 6-foot-1 and 186-pounds, Adams repped 225 pounds on the bench 21 times. There's obvious strength to his game, and he proved that with an impressive testing number.
While there is the valid question of small-school players making the transition to the higher level of competition, we've seen several players recently show why they shouldn't be slept on. Names like Jeremy Chinn (Southern Illinois), Kyle Dugger (Lenoir-Rhyne), and Kareem Hunt (Toledo) come to mind as players who have had success, but weren't players that played at schools like Alabama or Ohio State. You can even go back as far as Jerry Rice (Mississippi Valley State) and Walter Payton (Jackson State), who played at smaller schools and went on to have Hall of Fame careers.
While Adams isn't as polished as prospects like Chinn, Dugger and Hunt, he possesses the ceiling and is a ball of clay that defensive coordinators will enjoy molding into a solid player. Those testing numbers, combined with his physical style of play, will be enough to get him drafted this year, and he will likely have a role on special teams to start his career with the potential to find himself on the defensive side of the field at some point.
