Tyson Bagent Talks 2023 NFL Draft, What He Brings to the NFL out of Shepherd
Former Shepherd quarterback Tyson Bagent comes from an athletic family -- and that's including the most unorthodox of sports.
One of his father's biggest accomplishments is being named a national champion arm wrestler.
"My father played baseball at Shepherd and he's also a national champion arm wrestler. That may sound a little strange, but he's the greatest left-handed arm wrestler that ever lived," Bagent said."Both arms were the champion of the world at one time or another."
It doesn't stop there, either.
"And then my brother, also a quarterback, played at the same high school I played at and won a state championship and will attend Shepherd University in the fall as a quarterback. My sister just got into volleyball but it's a fitness family and something I'm glad they introduced to us at a young age."
But Tyson Bagent is about to take the largest step of anyone who shares his last name, defying the odds as he prepares to possibly be selected in the 2023 NFL Draft coming out of a smalltown school by the name of Shepherd University.
But a helmet sticker is just that at the end of the day and Bagent is confident in what he brings to the table, as he should be after he was able to hang with some well-known quarterback prospects at the Reese's Senior Bowl earlier this offseason.
"I think I showed that it's not a strange thing that I'm here," Bagent said. "I'm right where I'm supposed to be. I do everything the same way that everybody else does. I'm excited to continue to execute on the terminology, be able to play at a more rapid pace and take advantage of all the opportunities that come my way."
Finishing out the 2022 season with 400 completion on 572 attempts, 4,580 passing yards and 41 touchdowns, Bagent is one of the best players to ever see the field at the Division II level and has been honored as such.
"Obviously, I won the Division II Heisman, which I think opened a lot of doors in my life and being able to make those two playoff runs during my junior and senior year," Bagent said. "It shows that I'm able to come in clutch in big games and execute when the stakes are high."
He feels confident that Shepherd, while under the radar from the national perspective, plenty prepared him for the NFL level.
"I think Shepherd is a severely underfunded Division II program that has a constant rotation of coaches coming in year in and year out," Bagent said. "It's a bad thing but also a good thing in the sense that I was able to be surrounded by a lot of people who understood the game of football and all have their little niche with how they approach the game. So I think just expanding my mind where Football IQ is concerned, that helped a lot."
The scheme the team ran, in Bagent's eyes, has all of the elements of the pros.
"Shepherd is a multiple personnel, no-huddle, spread offense with built-in five-step pass game and RPOs to build off of our run game, which is primarily inside and outside zone," Bagent said.
"We run a little bit of counter, we run a little bit of pin and pull. I think it translates well to the NFL. The same order of operations. Here, you're going to get the formation, you're going to get the pass protection or the run play, and then you're going to get whatever concept and tags at the end of that. Same thing as Shepherd, just a couple more tags here and there and it's different terminology. So being able to relate the words that you used in college to correlate with the words you're using (at a place like the Senior Bowl) has helped me a lot and helped me to get better on the field."
In addition to being incredibly solid as a passer, Bagent is also a freak athlete that brings all the physical traits to be desired despite not receiving the same amount of attention for them that some of the other prospects who have been praised for the same thing have,
"Yeah, I think there's no doubt (I have underrated athleticism)," Bagent said. "I think I tested well at the NFL Combine and I'm excited to see what those numbers look like in relation to all the other quarterbacks. If there's one thing that is for sure, it is that I'm going to be as ready as I have ever been whenever I show up."
The player Bagent says he watches the most film of and models a lot of his game after is none other than former LSU great Joe Burrow -- a quarterback who is first and foremost a solid pure passer with uncanny mental processing ability with a level of athleticism that may never rival the likes of Lamar Jackson, but certainly did things for the Tigers on the ground when they needed it in Baton Rouge.
"I think that (Joe Burrow) is not the best at anything, but he's great at everything," Bagent said.
"I think that's how I go about everything. I wouldn't say I'm ever focused on one particular aspect of my game, I'm focused on upgrading every part of my game every offseason. You can just tell he's super prepared and that he's got a high IQ. That's how I like to think about myself."
It's going to take a while and some thing coming together before Bagent has an opportunity to enter the level of conversations that Burrow was in, but he's dedicated to continuing to prove his doubters wrong and show he has a seat at the table with the Power 5 names of the FBS.
"(Entering the NFL has) been my dream since I was a little baby. So, just once again, I truly cannot believe that I am here and I'm taking in everything I can to the maximum extent. I feel like I'm right where I'm supposed to be, doing exactly what I was put on Earth to do. It's been an emotional roller coaster ride, but I wouldn't want to do anything else in my life."
