This week, the SEC cancelled all remaining spring competitions amid COVID-19 concerns. In their official announcement, the plans to halt play include abandoning spring football scrimmages and each school’s pro day.
Pro days are the last setting in which college football standouts perform drills before a plethora of NFL coaches and scouts prior to the NFL Draft.
If a player wasn’t invited to the NFL scouting combine or performed less-than-ideally at the combine, this is typically their last chance to turn heads and earn a drafted rookie contract instead of going undrafted and having a lower-dollar contract with far fewer guarantees.
For several recently departed Georgia Bulldogs, it’s going to be a bit more difficult finding opportunities to prove what they want to prove.
Tyler Clark, defensive tackle:
Clark has been projected as a late-round pick on some of the many mock drafts floating around the internet. The recent graduate out of Americus considered declaring for last year’s NFL draft but chose to return to Athens following a lower-than-preferred draft grade. In his senior season, he recorded a career high in tackles for loss and tied his career high in sacks.
Former Georgia defensive tackle and NFL veteran Toby Johnson took to twitter to voice his displeasure over Clark’s omission from the NFL Combine.
Tyler Clark will certainly show up on a professional roster at some point before the ensuing NFL season, but the cancellation of pro day isn’t doing his career any long-term favors.
Jake Fromm, quarterback:
Georgia’s golden boy is one of three quarterbacks to go undefeated against Florida in more than three starts (including John Rauch, Buck Belue), but many Georgia faithful were surprised he chose not to go for a perfect 4-0 record against the reptiles. Fromm delved into what went behind that decision in the days preceding his performance the NFL Combine.
The problem for Fromm was that the aforementioned performance ended up being pedestrian.
Taking reps after former teammate Jacob Eason, an eventual Washington transfer for whom he took over in the 2017 season opener following an Eason leg injury, Fromm was decidedly the less impressive quarterback (at least in that specific day’s drills) between the two.
Fromm’s last season in Athens was the least productive of his three total campaigns. The judgment to declare early made sense as his draft stock has still been high and it’s easy to see his final collegiate season as a statistical outlier under a new quarterbacks coach.
Looking forward to a league that places value on quarterbacks ahead of almost every other positions, the cerebral Jake Fromm is sure to end up on a roster and still projects as draft pick. If he had received the opportunity to participate in a pro day, however, he could solidify himself as a second-day pick (draft rounds two through four) as opposed to a third-day selection (rounds five through seven) or even as an undrafted free agent.
Tae Crowder, inside linebacker:
Tae Crowder’s path to the University of Georgia was a meandering one.
Crowder was a last-minute addition to the Dawgs’ 2015 signing class, receiving his scholarship offer the morning before National Signing Day. He hadn’t taken an official visit. He spent no time in personal meetings with Georgia coaches. Yet he committed on the spot.
“It was always my dream to play at the University of Georgia,” Crowder told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2015.
As Harris County’s offensive player of the year during his senior season, Crowder came to Athens as a dual receiver and running back.
He was quickly moved to inside linebacker, and, after redshirting his first year in Athens, spent another year fine-tuning his linebacking skills before spending three years starting, recording 122 tackles, and grabbing two takeaways along the way(s).
Considering his history of position changes and a lack of invitation to the NFL Combine, Crowder loses a lot of face time prior to the draft.