As over a dozen NFL scouts watched their every moves, ten Wildcats participated in Weber State’s Pro Day.
The event was held on March 31 with scouts from coast-to-coast at the ready with stopwatches and clipboards.
The two most well-known drills at Pro Day are the 40-yard dash and the bench press. The bench press is set at a constant weight, so all the players are measured on their ability to bench press 225 pounds.
Of the Wildcats participating, Tre’von Johnson has the greatest chance of becoming an NFL player.
“I’m going to get a shot,” Johnson said. “Whether that’s day three or priority free agent, but they said I’ll be in the league next year.”
He also ran an unofficial 4.51 40-yard dash and finished 19 bench press reps.
Jared Afalava was the only other linebacker participating in the drills. Afalava joined the Wildcats before his junior year, after spending two years at the University of Nebraska, and he played in only three games last season.
Rounding out the defensive performers was Cordero Dixon, who participated in last year’s Pro Day, and safety Josh Burton, who ran his 40-yard dash in 4.78 seconds.
Calvin Steyn was one of the offensive lineman showcasing his skills in front of the scouts. Listed at 320 pounds, Steyn was the team’s heaviest player and ran the slowest 40-yard dash with an unofficial time of 5.59.
The other offensive lineman was Cameron Young, who started all 47 games over his four-year career at WSU.
Young paced the field on the bench press finishing 31 reps in front of the scouts. His unofficial 40-yard dash time was 5.19 seconds, which is slightly higher than teams typically look for in offensive lineman, though Young is not concerned.
“Very rarely are you going to see an offensive lineman run at his full speed 40 yards downfield,” Young said.
Working behind the offensive lineman, as they did in games, were the runners. Fullback Cory Thomson spent three years at Weber State as an integral member of the team on offense and special teams.
He transferred to WSU from Simon Fraser University in Canada where he also played fullback. The other running backs were Haini Moimoi and Emmanuel Pooler.
Moimoi ended up with 17 bench press reps and Pooler picked up 18 reps before running an unofficial 4.64 40-yard dash.
The only wide receiver from the Wildcats who competed in the Pro Day was Ross Stribling.
The Los Angeles native ran a 4.84 40-yard dash and 11 bench press reps. With the first round of the NFL Draft kicking off on April 27, all of the Wildcats still have a chance to impress NFL teams in workouts and interviews.
Weber State head football coach Jay Hill believes that his former players can prove they belong in the NFL.
“There’s some talented guys that have played a lot of good football,” Hill said. “No one knows for sure with the NFL, but I think there’ll be some guys for sure with a shot.”
