Duke gets creative to promote players to NFL scouts
As the world shut down around him last month due to the coronavirus pandemic, David Cutcliffe thought about the unique adverse impact seven of his former players would be facing.
Duke football had a pro day scheduled for March 23, a time for those senior prospects to work out for scouts in preparation for the NFL Draft.
But the university suspended its athletics programs on March 12, the same day the ACC and NCAA basketball tournaments were canceled due to the public health emergency.
NFL teams halted in-person scouting even with the draft five weeks away.
With no pro day, Cutcliffe prepared a digital approach to put Duke’s seven top departing senior players in the best position possible to become professional players.
“We built a really attractive manuscript electronically,” Cutcliffe said Friday.
After Duke saw quarterback Daniel Jones go No. 6 overall in the first round to the New York Giants last year, none of Duke’s players are projected to be selected in the draft’s seven rounds.
But the free agent route has been a popular path to the NFL for Duke’s players lately.
Offensive linemen Matt Skura and Lucas Patrick both went undrafted in 2016 before signing as free agents and eventually becoming starters for the Baltimore Ravens and Green Bay Packers, respectively.
Thomas Hennessy, the New York Jets’ long snapper the last three seasons, started his career the same way out of Duke in 2017.
Linebacker Joe Giles-Harris made the Jacksonville Jaguars roster as an undrafted free agent out of Duke last year.
Later this week, there’s a good chance departing Duke players Edgar Cerenord (defensive tackle), Quentin Harris (quarterback), Tre Hornbuckle (defensive end), Trevon McSwain (defensive tackle), Austin Parker (punter), Koby Quansah (linebacker) and Dylan Singleton (safety) will have to start their NFL careers that way.
Cutcliffe and his staff put together four-minute packages for each player to provide to NFL teams. They included all the information teams would have gathered at pro days — height, weight, strength and speed and also showed how the player’s bodies transformed during their time at Duke.
Highlight clips were included. Cutcliffe wrote biographies for each players, assessing them both on and off the field.
“It’s not ideal,” Cutcliffe said. “But what else could you do? But that’s what immediately went into my mind, is how horrible it was for those guys, that the draft, all along they kept saying the draft’s going to happen on time, which it will. And let’s pray it works. If nothing else, if you’re not going to be drafted, I think having that in hand may even give you a better shot at signing a free-agent contract because of familiarity.”
Cutcliffe said he sent the information to teams from his email address.
“I’m not being arrogant,” Cutcliffe said, “but if my name’s attached to this and it’s going to go to an email to every general manager, they’re going to open it.”
He’s received positive feedback from NFL scouts and general managers. Many have reached back out to him — he included his cell phone number on the emails — about his players.
The former Blue Devils could also put together and disseminate their own workout videos along with their agents. Quansah did that, posting the information on YouTube this week.
In keeping with the government’s social distancing guidelines, the NFL will hold its draft virtually from April 23-25.
Virtual scouting. Virtual drafting.
But despite enduring a 5-7 season and missing a bowl game last season, the Blue Devils found a way to get their names out there to scouts.
I thought it was our responsibility,” Cutcliffe said. “They’re our guys. We say Duke gang for life, and we mean it. So I felt like it was our responsibility to do everything we could in our power.”