Wisconsin Football Pro Day Notes
MADISON, Wis. - Several former Badgers worked out for NFL Scouts at Wisconsin's Pro Day on Wednesday morning at the McClain Center, hoping to boost their stock ahead of the NFL Draft at the end of April.
Notes from Wisconsin's Pro Day are included below.
-- Offensive tackle Tyler Marz only ran the 40-yard dash during his appearance at Wisconsin's Pro Day, which came as a bit of a surprise after he posted did just 19 reps at 225 pounds at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis. Marz did improve on his previous 40-yard dash by clocking in at 5.41 seconds on Wednesday. He ran a 5.54 40-yard dash at the combine, but not trying to improve on his bench press mark seems like it could come back to bite him.
-- Joe Schobert improved on his 33.5 inch vertical jump from the Combine by recording a 35.5 inch vertical at his Pro Day. Schobert elected not to run the 40-yard dash or try the bench press again after he posted pretty good numbers at the combine last month. Schobert ran the 40 in 4.76 seconds and did 22 reps on the bench during his time in Indianapolis.
-- Joel Stave did not run the 40 or do the vertical jump again after a good performance at the combine, where he ran the 40 in 4.8 seconds and was a top performer at his position with a 33.5 inch vertical.
-- Stave did throw for the NFL scouts in attendance, though. I had Stave down for completing 50 of 55 passes. Three of those incompletions were drops where Stave hit his receivers in the hands, and two of the incompletions were bad throws on Stave's part. All in all he looked pretty good, but it's hard to get a good reading when a quarterback is throwing to receivers without any defenders on the field.
-- Former Wisconsin defensive end J.J. Watt was on hand to watch his brother Derek work out for the NFL scouts. Watt had an impressive 9' 8" broad jump during the workout, and also did 19 reps on the bench press. It was a good performance for him overall, and could be enough to help him get a look from some NFL teams.
-- Michael Caputo impressed with a 35.5 inch vertical jump during his workout, but did not try the bench press.
-- Tanner McEvoy projects to a couple different positions at the next level, but he certainly showed off his athleticism during his workout. He did not run the 40-yard dash on the advice of his doctor, but did 16 reps on the bench press and had a 9' 9" broad jump.
-- Darius Hillary was probably hoping for a better performance on the bench- he did just eight reps, and seemed to struggle through the drill.
-- All in all 31 scouts were in attendance at Wisconsin's Pro Day, representing 26 NFL teams. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Ottawa Redblacks also had personnel people in attendance from the Canadian Football League.
-- Green Bay Packers general manager Ted Thompson and director of player personnel Elliot Wolf were in attendance today. Thompson is a regular attendee of Wisconsin's pro day.
-- Texans head coach Bill O'Brien was also on hand to take in the UW pro day, and spent a lot of time talking with head coach Paul Chryst.
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John Veldhuis covers Wisconsin football, basketball and recruiting for BadgerBlitz.com on the Rivals.com network. Follow him on Twitter at @JohnVeldhuis.