Indiana offensive guard Simon Stepaniak, wide receiver Nick Westbrook and linebacker Reakwon Jones are all working to earn a spot in the NFL before the NFL Draft in April and have hit road blocks with the COVID-19 outbreak.
There weren’t many graduates from the 2019 Indiana Football team this offseason, so there aren’t many Indiana representatives entering the NFL Draft pool in 2020. The COVID-19 outbreak made it even more difficult for Indiana graduates – particularly the ones outside of offensive guard Simon Stepaniak, who participated in the NFL Combine in late-February – to make their marks in the minds of NFL scouts for the draft and for undrafted free agent signing opportunities.
“At this point where everything is shut down and seeing all my teammates that deserve that opportunity and could have been there and put on for IU,” Stepaniak said via teleconference on Tuesday. “It hurts knowing that guys are going to have a harder opportunity.”
The players like Nick Westbrook and Reakwon Jones are two of a large pool of draft prospects who are expected to be affected the most among pre-draft circles by the outbreak, as traveling is no longer an option and videos only offer a small glimpse into a player’s skillset. The same problem is hitting college programs, as spring camps have been cut short due to the closing of on-campus facilities. That precaution dove into the private sector as well, with gyms and other various facilities closing across the country and some facilities caring for essential clients only.
With the draft about a month away and getting in the minds of NFL scouts being as difficult as it’s ever been, this is how Stepaniak, Westbrook and Jones have approached the last few weeks.
Simon Stepaniak
Indiana’s right guard is as close to NFL organizations as any of the three former Hoosiers. He participated in the NFL Combine and wowed many scouts with a top-five bench press result. He was limited to upper body drills and interviews because of an ACL injury he suffered during bowl practices in December.
Regardless, Stepaniak said he was just on a FaceTime call with the Jacksonville Jaguars over the weekend and has talked with the San Francisco 49ers, the Miami Dolphins and his home-state Cincinnati Bengals over the phone. At the Combine, Stepaniak said team doctors evaluated his knee and were “very pleased.”
“There’s no hesitation or anything like that,” Stepaniak said. “They think it’s going to be a clean recovery.”
Stepaniak is in Hamilton, Ohio, where he is working on his recovery with Athletico, in partnership with IU’s medical and training staff. He said the most difficult aspect of his recovery, in terms of a lack of facilities, is not having a turf field. He does conditioning work in gym shoes on a rubber floor.
Nick Westbrook
Former Indiana wide receiver Nick Westbrook began his post-graduate process in a strong way, as he made a solid impression at the Shrine Bowl in an attempt to earn an invitation to the NFL Combine. That invitation never came, but the impression was still there.
The Florida native made his way up to Seattle to train and prepare for his Pro Day, but that Pro Day no longer exists.
“I've done everything I can to be ready for this moment and for it not to be there, it's just tough to handle, especially for a guy like me,” Westbrook said Tuesday. “I didn't get a Combine invite, so I have a lot to prove and I felt like I could prove it at the Pro Day.”
After his 2016 season with 995 receiving yards and All-Big Ten honorable mention honor, Westbrook still has plenty to prove after suffering his ACL injury in 2017 and not reaching the same heights he reached in 2016 in any season afterward. But once, the COVID-19 outbreak became better-documented, Westbrook realized he was in one of the most dangerous areas of the country. He flew back home to Florida, and his Pro Day was limited to running drills in Seattle the day before he left.
“It wasn't ideal because I was still in kind of full-train mode and wasn't able to cut back the way I'd want to before a Pro Day,” Westbrook said. “I didn't get my body right. But just recorded all of the drills I needed to do, and then my agent got all the different clips and compiled them all together and sent them out to all the teams.”
Now, Westbrook is back home in Florida, not near a gym, so he trains with his mother using sandbags for “Rocky workouts” in his backyard because he doesn’t have dumbbells at home.
Reakwon Jones
Former Indiana linebacker Reakwon Jones’s offseason began much like Westbrook’s. Jones played in the Tropical Bowl, where he was able to play in front of 20-30 scouts and talk with teams like the Los Angeles Chargers, who he said he felt he had the best relationship with.
After the Bowl, he headed to Colorado to train for his Pro Day, but with the COVID-19 outbreak, Jones needed to go back home to Florida, where he now trains with Jonathan Crawford and Donavan Hale. But it’s not easy. Jones said he doesn’t have any equipment at home except some bands, so he is relegated to conditioning work, stretches, crunches, speed drills and various body weight workouts.
“They closed all the gyms here, they closed all the training facilities and stuff like that,” Jones said. “Now it’s find a field and jump a fence.”
Jones said he’s gotten some NFL scouts’ attention as an edge rushing option, likely because of his slender size. He was second on the team in 2019 with 55 tackles, and finished the year with 3.5 tackles for loss and a recovered fumble for a touchdown. His 16 assisted tackles were the fewest among all Hoosiers with 40 or more tackles.
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