NFL Draft Diary: Elijah Shumate stays ready for scouts
Former Notre Dame safety Elijah Shumate is doing an NFL Draft Diary for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com at key points leading up to the actual draft, April 28-30 in Chicago. This week, in the third installment, Shumate checks in after performing at ND’s Pro Day and visiting with the Super Bowl Champion Denver Broncos.
The most important thing I feel I need to do from now until the NFL Draft in three weeks is just training hard every day, because you never know when some team is going to want to work you out and take a closer look at you.
So far, I’ve met with the Detroit Lions, and then Tampa Bay and New England both worked me out with their position coaches around Pro Day. Then on Monday, Denver flew me out there, and I got to meet with all the coaches and see the facilities. What a blessing that was.
I still don’t have any idea what round I’ll go in, but I feel like I’m continuing to put myself in the best position.
At Pro Day, I just did the position drills and the two tests that I didn’t do at the NFL Combine — the 20-year shuttle and the three-cone drill. (Shumate’s 4.10 seconds in the shuttle would have rated as the third-best time at the combine among safeties.)
I thought seriously about re-running my 40-yard dash at Pro Day to get a faster time, but coaches I met with kind of talked me out of it, telling me that my testing numbers were already really good.
I had gone to Pro Days at ND in the past just to watch a couple of times when I was a young player, and that experience really relaxed me this time, because I knew what to expect and what the format was.
I knew there were going to be a lot of scouts and coaches there, because we have so many guys rated high at their positions. It kind of reminded me of the Pro Day I watched as a freshman when Manti Te’o was going through it after we played for the national championship.
One of the coolest parts of this Pro Day was how well Ishaq Williams did in his testing. It wasn’t a surprise to me, though.
Honestly, he’s always been an extremely athletic, strong, physical guy. And we had been working out together here at Notre Dame in the days leading up to Pro Day, so I knew he was going to do it and he knew it too.
I’m kind of excited to see where he ends up, but wherever he goes, they’re going to get a special player.
We’re still working out together all the time. Everett Golson and Will Fuller were working out with us before Pro Days, but they’ve gone back to where they were working out before. Chris Brown also joins us sometimes, when he’s not training in Chicago.
I’m taking my last class at Notre Dame, so graduation is just around the corner. I’ve decided I’m going to watch the draft back home in New Jersey. I can’t wait until it’s here, but I’m just going to keep working until it does.
— As told to staff writer Eric Hansen
ehansen@ndinsider.com
574-235-6112
Twitter: @EHansenNDI
