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When you are as highly-touted of a pass rusher as Oregon’s Kayvon Thibodeaux, you attract some of the best mentors you can ask for.
As Thibodeaux gets ready for the NFL draft, he has spent the past several months training and working on his game, all the while preparing for the combine and Friday’s Oregon Pro Day. During that process, he said that he reached out to some of the best players to ever play his position in the NFL, Von Miller, and Aaron Donald.
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Thibodeaux said that they gave him some advice that he has taken to heart throughout the entire run-up to the draft.
“I would say ‘stay true to you,'” Thibodeaux said. “You know, I reached out to Von Miller and I reached out to Aaron Donald, you know, just talking about how their process went and what to do. And you know, Aaron Donald was a guy who was overlooked, and he was a guy who, you know people didn’t even… they thought he was too small. Whatever the criticism, whatever it was, it was there.”
Thibodeaux has faced a lot of criticism throughout the draft process, with a few analysts questioning his drive and work ethic, and others thinking that he — who was at one point thought of as the No. 1 overall pick — would fall in the draft closer to the No. 10 spot.
Thibodeaux said on Friday that the two NFL legends encouraged him to just control what he could control, and focus on being the best version of himself.
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“We had a talk about just being who you are and being confident that everything you’ve done to get to this point is what’s going to keep you going, so don’t really worry about people who aren’t putting that work in,” Thibodeaux said.
No matter where Thibodeaux ends up going in to draft, Oregon fans feel confident that he has a chance to be one of the greats at his position down the road. If he keeps up his hard work and can take the advice from some of the best to ever do it, he should have a bright future ahead of him.
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