Published Apr 7, 2019
Indiana Football: Jonathan Crawford Finds Comfort In Pro Day
circle avatar
Stu Jackson  •  Hoosier Huddle
Staff Writer
Twitter
@StuJTH
Advertisement

Don't get it twisted - Jonathan Crawford was honored to attend last month's NFL Scouting Combine.

Still, something about the familiar sense of working out in the W. Jay and Nancy Wilkinson Performance Center and on the turf inside Mellencamp Pavilion had the former Indiana safety more at ease while taking part in IU's pro day earlier this week.

"It was very similar, but I would say I'm more comfortable being around the boys you've been training with," Crawford said Tuesday. "Teammates cheering each other on, it's a lot better than the combine."

For the Large, Fla., native, pro day was a chance to improve upon his combine results and also a second opportunity to impress NFL evaluators.

When Crawford worked out before all 32 of the league's teams at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on March 3, he recorded 16 bench press reps, a 31.5-inch vertical jump and a 115-inch broad jump.

During pro day, he did not participate in the bench press or vertical jump. However, he did feel could improve his vertical. And he did - by two inches - before from 28 of the league's 32 teams who were in attendance. He also posted a 4.62 in the 40 after opting not to participate in that at the combine.

"I feel like I could've got higher, but it is what it is," Crawford said. "I felt like I needed to run fast. I'm not sure what I did, hopefully I ran fast, but I felt like that was a big thing for me."

Crawford said he met with multiple teams at the combine but didn't have any meetings or visits scheduled following IU's pro day besides attending the Indianapolis Colts' local pro day in two weeks.

Beyond that, he'll be spending the time between now and the draft continuing to train in Bloomington as he's done for the last three months, sans the two weeks he spent back home.

"Sticking to it, get back to real football," Crawford said. "A lot more field stuff, so that's what I'm going to stick to."

A four-year starter at IU, Crawford wrapped up his career joining longsnapper Dan Godsil as the first Hoosiers to start in 50 games. He was a three-time honorable mention All-Big Ten selection and 275 tackles, 182 solo, two sacks, eight for loss, 19 takeaways, one pick-six, seven fumble recoveries, three forced fumbles, 19 pass breakups and two blocked kicks.

----

Talk about it inside The Hoops Forum or The Football Forum

Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes

• Follow us on Twitter: @IndianaRivals

• Like us on Facebook.