Football | March 4
DeKALB, Ill. – A total of 14 former Northern Illinois University football players, as well as several other local products, worked out under the watchful eyes of professional scouts representing 12 National Football League teams as NIU held its annual Pro Day Wednesday.
Players began the day with weigh-ins and measurements, including height, hand size and wing span, before starting the "testing" portion of the day with the bench press and vertical leap in the Northwestern Medicine Sports Performance Center. NIU offensive lineman
Jordan Steckler led the way with 26 reps of 225 pound in the bench press with tailback
Marcus Jones close behind at 24 reps.
Jones' vertical jump of 34 inches was also in good company in the group, behind only Marshé Terry's 36.5-inch leap among the former Huskies, and just ahead of
Spencer Tears' 33.5.
The action moved inside the Chessick Practice Center, where three Huskies surpassed the 10-foot mark in the broad jump with Terry's 10-3 leap leading the way, followed by Tears at 10-2 and
Mykelti Williams' 10-1. In the 40-yard dash, Jones posted a time of 4.53 for the fastest time of the day by a 2019 Huskie.
Dwayne Milton, who played for NIU in 2016 and '17 before transferring to St. Francis where he became an NAIA All-American, ran a 4.5 40 in his second attempt.
Terry (4.61), Tears (4.63) and Williams (4.69) posted the next fastest 40 times. Timing continued with players asked to run the three-cone and shuttle runs.
The day concluded with scouts putting players through positional drills split into the offensive and defensive line, defensive backs and then receivers, running backs and quarterback.
NFL teams represented included the Green Bay Packers, Los Angeles Chargers, Chicago Bears, Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars, New York Jets, Denver Broncos, Arizona Cardinals, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, San Francisco 49ers, Carolina Panthers and Detroit Lions.
NIU coaches and players were interested observers of the activities
"Obviously Pro Day is for these young men and their futures," said NIU head coach
Thomas Hammock. "Hopefully they will keep training, keep themselves in football condition and be ready for whatever opportunity presents itself in the future. I've been a part of a lot of Pro Days so it's nice for me to be on this side of and kind of sit back and watch."
Hammock and his 2020 NIU Huskies open spring practices Thursday and Friday with a pair of closed acclimatization sessions. The team will then take a break for spring break before resuming practices the week of March 16. A complete spring schedule and preview will be available Thursday on NIUHuskies.com.
-- NIU --
