RUTH: BEHIND THE SCENES AT 2023 OREGON FOOTBALL PRO DAY

A dozen of Oregon’s top athletes had one final chance to showcase their skills as the NFL Draft creeps closer.

BY BRADY RUTH • TWITTER @BRADYRUTH10

The NFL Draft is coming. Oregon’s guys are ready.

Alongside scouts, agents, coaches and the players’ families, I got the chance to attend and cover Oregon football’s Pro Day on March 14, and I was able to watch 12 players from this last 10-win season pitch their cases to the NFL on why they deserve a spot on a professional roster.

“I’m proud of myself for training to get here,” Oregon safety Bennett Williams said after his day concluded. “Showing out here today with obviously the emotions and the nerves and feeling it all. I feel good about it.”

Surrounded by dozens of media members, we speculated, critiqued and prophesied the futures of Williams and the other Oregon players participating in their special day. Fully knowing myself and most of those in attendance could never achieve what those young men were doing, I was lucky enough to just get to be in awe and witness Oregon’s Pro Day.

It was an experience I’d yet to cross off my list. It was a day of wide-eyed amazement, waiting around and collecting quotes from the players one final time.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I had watched the NFL Combine on television a handful of times and seen Pro Day clips from various schools on social media platforms. But attending, I knew, would be a whole different perspective. Some of the logistics and operations of Oregon’s Pro Day were surprising.

For one thing, most of the specialized position drills were actually run by scouts. One set of NFL scouts directed Noah Sewell through his linebacker drills while a different group of professionally affiliated scouts led offensive linemen Malaesala Aumavae-Laulu, T.J Bass, Ryan Walk and Alex Forsyth through several footwork, blocking and agility progressions. I’m not sure why I assumed Oregon’s coaching staff would be running the show on their own turf, but I was surprised to see that Dan Lanning and the rest of his staff were primarily there for moral support.

I expected to see Christian Gonzalez in a similar role to Lanning.

Gonzalez, who’s projected by many to be an early first-round pick, already had a stellar day at the NFL Combine, and I didn’t think he had anything else to prove. But he participated in some defensive back-specific drills with Williams.

“I wanted to come out and show that [the NFL Combine] wasn’t just a one time thing,” Gonzalez said. “It’s what I do.”

Another surprise was how little the drills seemed to actually apply to football. Sure, they all displayed the players’ supreme athleticism and coordination. But there weren’t any pads, contested route running or covering, or much decision making that we all know is such a big part of the game.

“It’s a different type of training,”

Gonzalez said. “You’re going to train like a track athlete getting ready for that 40 [yard dash] and vertical and all that. You kind of get away from the in-game workouts and training, but you got to get ready for the Combine.”

Gonzalez said he has several meetings and tours with teams lined up over the course of the next month or so, and then he’s off to whatever team takes him.

It was incredible to see these athletes in their elements. Without the pads and fans and away from the intensity of a game, and without a helmet and face mask to cover emotion, I could see the players’ passion, drive and joy they get from this game we love so much at Oregon.

I watched DJ Johnson, Chase Cota, Sewell, Gonzalez, Williams and more pull off athletic feats that I could never dream of achieving. It was humbling and mesmerizing.

There was an undeniable tension as the futures of these young men rested on the opinions of the scouts in attendance.

But the themes of the day could be summarized as support and hope.

The players’ support systems were on full display with family, friends, coaches, trainers and agents in attendance. The Oregon coaching staff had the loudest cheers of the day, but they weren’t the only ones acknowledging the raw talent of these Duck athletes. The scouts would provide tips, encouragement and support for the players, their teammates were loud in their comradery and the parents’ nervous excitement was on full display.

With 31 of 32 NFL scouts in attendance (the Rams were the day’s lone no show), the former Oregon Ducks showed out one last time in Eugene. Now, they – and the rest of Duck nation – await their fates and futures as the NFL Draft looms near. Williams and other players mentioned they still have some training and traveling to do, while Gonzalez seems to think April 27 can’t come soon enough.