Indiana has seen 10 alumni drafted into the NFL in each of the last six NFL Drafts, and 2020 presents another opportunity to extend that streak. The 2020 NFL Draft, which will be hosted and broadcasted virtually due to the COVID-19 outbreak, begins with the first round Thursday night at 8 p.m. ET. No Hoosier has been drafted in the first round since wide receiver Thomas Lewis was picked No. 24 overall in the 1994 NFL Draft by the New York Giants, and no Hoosiers are expected to go in the first round this year either.
The first round will be broadcasted Thursday, while the second and third rounds will be broadcasted Friday at 7 p.m. ET and the final three rounds will be broadcasted Saturday at noon ET.
“I have full confidence that we have guys in this class that are going to get opportunities to go play in the NFL, whenever they get drafted or taken as a free agent,” head coach Tom Allen said via Zoom conference call Wednesday morning. “As I told them, you just need one team to believe in you, one team to give you a chance. And when they do, you show you belong. I feel confident we'll have some guys that'll have that opportunity.”
The coronavirus outbreak has greatly limited the chances some Hoosiers have at being taken in the draft. Allen pointed to former Indiana guard and current Washington Redskins guard Wes Martin, who was not invited to the NFL Combine in 2019 but performed well in Indiana’s Pro Day to land on some teams’ boards and was eventually drafted, as an example of someone who might not have had that opportunity in a pre-draft process like 2020’s.
Resources have been scarce for Indiana’s top-three NFL prospects – Simon Stepaniak, Nick Westbrook and Reakwon Jones – as Stepaniak has been rehabbing an ACL injury at home in Ohio, Westbrook has been working out with sandbags in “Rocky workouts” at home in Florida, and Jones has been jumping fences with former Hoosiers Donavan Hale and Jonathan Crawford wherever they can find vacant fields in Florida to do speed and core training.
None of the prospects were able to have traditional Pro Days, and the closest any of them came to a Pro Day was kicker Logan Justus, who released live footage of him kicking field goals and kickoffs.
As Indiana’s prospects await the NFL Draft process to begin, these are the profiles they’ve built for pro teams to analyze.
Simon Stepaniak
Position: Guard
Height: 6-foot-4
Weight: 321 pounds
Career stats: Appeared in 41 games (started 31), six allowed sacks
Teams showing interest: Jacksonville Jaguars, Miami Dolphins, San Francisco 49ers
What separates Stepaniak from his teammates in the draft process is that he was invited and participated in the NFL Combine in February, before the full effect of COVID-19 was felt in sports. He was the lone Hoosier to get his name in front of scouts on the biggest stage, and, while nursing his ACL injury suffered in bowl practices, Stepaniak recorded the second-best bench press performance at the combine.
Now, Stepaniak is rehabbing at home in Ohio with Athletico and is expected to make a full and timely recovery if training camp and the NFL season can commence in August and September.
Nick Westbrook
Position: Wide receiver
Height: 6-foot-3
Weight: 219 pounds
Career stats: 144 receptions, 2,226 yards, 16 touchdowns
If this list of NFL Draft prospects was handed to anyone who watches Indiana football before the 2017 season, they probably would have guessed that wide receiver Nick Westbrook had the best chance of being drafted. After a massive 995-yard season, Westbrook tore his ACL on the opening kickoff of the 2017 season, and Indiana fans have been waiting to see the same Westbrook from 2016 ever since. There’s no reason to believe Westbrook doesn’t have the same abilities he had before that ACL injury, except that he didn't carve out a No. 1 role after 2017 and never came close to his season performance of 2016.
Westbrook flashed at the Shrine Bowl in January in front of more than 20 NFL scouts, and he carried that momentum into his pre-draft workouts in Seattle. Once COVID-19 hit the Washington state area hard, Westbrook left for home, recording a modest Pro Day video before leaving. Now he’s using his father’s photography equipment to work out with his mother at home.
Reakwon Jones
Position: Linebacker
Height: 6-foot-2
Weight: 233 pounds
Career stats: 100 tackles, 8.0 TFLs, 2.0 sacks, 2 forced fumbles, 1 touchdown
Teams showing interest: Los Angeles Chargers
Linebacker Reakwon Jones’ career finally culminated with a full-season profile in 2019, as he led the young Indiana linebacking corps and jumped out to NFL scouts as a potential edge-rushing linebacker. In his time at Indiana, he’s seen some of the best linebackers he’s played with make attempts at the NFL, with little to no staying power. Will one season starting at the Big Ten level be enough to be drafted? Maybe. But it seems likely he will at least be signed after the draft to begin his own shot at finding a home in the League.
Jones, like Westbrook, is also in Florida, searching for any way to improve his speed. He spent time at the Tropical Bowl in January, where he received the feedback from NFL scouts.
Donavan Hale
Position: Wide receiver
Height: 6-foot-4
Weight: 218 pounds
Career Stats: 85 receptions, 1,217 yards, 11 touchdowns
Donavan Hale is much like Nick Westbrook as a prospect. He has the size and has flashed the athletic potential to get a shot at the NFL. He also missed the 2017 season with a season-ending injury. The peak Hale performances included physical catches on the outside, which is a valuable trait to have as a receiver going into the NFL. He often took over stretches of games with his physicality.
Hale is in the same boat as Jones, trying to find open fields in Florida with his cousin, Jonathan Crawford.
Logan Justus
Position: Kicker
Height: 5-foot-11
Weight: 182 pounds
Career stats: 32-of-39 on field goals, 77-of-80 on extra points
Logan Justus, a former walk-on kicker and the most efficient kicker in Indiana history, won’t hear his name called during the draft but could certainly be an option for teams to bring in during the offseason to see if he sticks. He released live footage of
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