It’s that time of year when NFL prospects come back to their universities from various training facilities scattered throughout the United States, to showcase their talents to prospective NFL coaches and scouts.
On Wednesday morning that was the case for 13 former Badgers as several former UW players looked to take advantage of their pro day to solidify their position on draft boards. Others used it in hopes of getting a undrafted contract or training camp invite.
For Jack Cichy this pro day meant a lot more, as seven months ago he suffered a torn ACL during fall practice. He used Wednesday to impress scouts as he ran an impressive 4.19 in the 20-yard shuttle, 6.88 in the 3-cone drill and jumped a modest 33.5 and inch vertical. His results in the 20-yard shuttle and the 3-cone drill would have put him sixth in the 3-cone drill and fourth for the 20-yard shuttle for linebackers.
“It was really exciting to get back out there,” Cichy said. “I think after the first rep in the pro agility, I got those jitters out and I was confident in the strength in my knee, the only thing I needed to get over was that mental barrier, which I did after that first rep.”
For Garrett Dooley he used Wednesday to greatly improve his 40-yard dash time reducing it from 4.80 seconds at the NFL Combine to 4.62 seconds.
“I was not pleased with my first time at the combine and I was mentally out of wack there,” Dooley said. “What I ran today is a big improvement and is definitely a confidence booster moving forward.”
Dooley did not improve on any of his other numbers so he will stick with his combine-recorded results of 21 reps on the bench press, 33 inch vertical and 4.28 20-yard shuttle.
Complete results from 2018 Wisconsin Football Pro Day: pic.twitter.com/bnylvNLNHG
— Wisconsin Football (@BadgerFootball) March 14, 2018
The two other players that added to their impressive combine performances were Natrell Jamerson and Nick Nelson.
Jamerson added to his impressive 4.4 40-yard dash and 25 reps on the bench from the combine. He improved his vertical by two-and-a-half inches to 38 inches and also improved his broad by three inches.
Nick Nelson ran a 3.88 in the 20-yard shuttle, which would’ve been a combine-best and also, tacked on an impressive 6.69 three-cone drillthat would have been the fourth best for defensive backs at the combine.
The player who had the most eye-popping performance at pro day, though, was Lubern Figaro. Figaro, impressed those in attendance throughout the day starting with his 40-yard dash and continuing on to his impressive broad and vertical jumps. His performance was reminiscent of Serge Trezy performance last year in which that got him a training camp invite.
Leon Jacobs had an impressive NFL Combine two weeks ago only participated in on field drills.Troy Fumagalli, who was in street clothes Wednesday, cited a pelvic injury as the reason why he did not participate in the pro day.
Dooley summed up the experience of the group when he said: “It was cool to see them all again, catch up and see how everyones training sessions have been going. I know we are looking forward to the next fews weeks and everyone had fun today and everyone is definitely happy today is over and the draft is the only thing left.”
