defector.com Open in urlscan Pro
2a04:fa87:fffd::c000:42e8  Public Scan

Form analysis
3 forms found in the DOM

/

<form class="popout__SearchFormWrapper-sc-k1rop4-0 klgTfd irving__query-search-form irving__query-search-form--popout" action="/"><label class="default__SearchLabel-sc-e23kxg-1 jzVwFa"><input type="search" aria-label="search" name="s"
      placeholder="Search" class="popout__SearchFormTerm-sc-k1rop4-1 lchsDB"></label><button type="submit" class="popout__SearchButton-sc-k1rop4-2 dYKMbF"><svg stroke="currentColor" fill="none" stroke-width="2" viewBox="0 0 24 24"
      stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" height="1em" width="1em" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
      <circle cx="11" cy="11" r="8"></circle>
      <line x1="21" y1="21" x2="16.65" y2="16.65"></line>
    </svg><span class="popout__SearchText-sc-k1rop4-3 cBOQou">Search</span></button></form>

<form class="default__SignUpForm-sc-1m0k3h2-2 dqdHij newsletter-block__form"><label class="default__Label-sc-1m0k3h2-4 keCrGP newsletter-block__label" for="email"><span class="default__LabelText-sc-1m0k3h2-5 hsohfX">Email Address</span><input
      type="email" id="email" name="email" placeholder="Email Address" value="" class="default__TextInput-sc-1m0k3h2-3 kgBHHa newsletter-block__input"></label><button type="submit"
    class="default__Button-sc-1m0k3h2-6 dYCHKs newsletter-block__button"><svg stroke="currentColor" fill="currentColor" stroke-width="0" viewBox="0 0 16 16" height="1em" width="1em" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
      <path fill-rule="evenodd" d="M10.146 4.646a.5.5 0 01.708 0l3 3a.5.5 0 010 .708l-3 3a.5.5 0 01-.708-.708L12.793 8l-2.647-2.646a.5.5 0 010-.708z" clip-rule="evenodd"></path>
      <path fill-rule="evenodd" d="M2 8a.5.5 0 01.5-.5H13a.5.5 0 010 1H2.5A.5.5 0 012 8z" clip-rule="evenodd"></path>
    </svg><span class="default__SubmitText-sc-1m0k3h2-7 cJkLMn">Submit</span></button></form>

<form id="PicoSignup-form" class="PicoSignupForm" style="display: none"><input type="email" name="email" id="PicoSignup-form__input"><input type="submit" id="PicoSignup-form__submit-btn" value="Submit"></form>

Text Content

You need to enable JavaScript to view this site.
Skip to contents
Defector
SubscribeMenu
Search
 * NFL
 * Chefector
 * Normal Gossip
 * Zillowing Out
 * MLB
 * NBA
 * WNBA
 * Soccer
 * Tennis
 * Politics
 * Science
 * NHL

 * About Us
 * Send Us A Tip (News)
 * Send Us a Tip ($)
 * Merch Shop
 * How To Comment On Defector
 * How To Pitch Defector
 * Defector Freelancer Policies, Created In Partnership With The National
   Writers Union
 * Masthead
 * Podcasts
 * RSS Feed
 * Terms of Use
 * Manage Your Account

Sign InSubscribe
Follow
 * twitter
 * twitch

NFL


WHO IS PROSPECT X? THE HUNT FOR THE BEST-KEPT SECRET OF THE 2022 NFL DRAFT

 * Share on twitter
 * Share on reddit
 * Share on facebook
 * 191Comments

Kalyn Kahler
11:39 AM EDT on Apr 26, 2022
Craig Jones/Getty Images

Prospect X has his duffel bag packed. It’s a Sunday night in early April, and
tomorrow he’ll board a flight to a much larger airport, then get on another
flight to visit an NFL team in the Midwest, the first stop of a tour—six teams
in seven days—that will take him to nearly every region in the country. 

He’s bringing his favorite sneakers with him, Jordan 4s and Nike Dunks, which
take up most of the room in his carry-on duffel. He doesn’t plan to dress up
much for these visits, preferring not to overthink his outfit. “I know if I am
in a suit all day, I am not going to be comfortable,” he says. “I am gonna get
grumpy and I am going to keep being in my little mood.”

X isn’t stressed by the idea of back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back job
interviews. Maybe part of the reason for this is that he hates using calendars.
Instead, he screenshots emails showing his flight info and outlining his visit
schedules and uses those photos to remember when and where he’s supposed to be. 

After the Midwest, he’ll head to a team in the Southwest, then a team in the
Southeast, then back to the Midwest, one day off at home, then back to the
Midwest again, and finally, a team in the Northeast. He’s so busy that one AFC
North team couldn’t find a window to squeeze into his schedule before the April
20 deadline for teams to complete their allotted 30-visits. (Each NFL team is
allowed to bring 30 prospects to their facility to do medical testing and
interviews in the lead-up to the draft.)

This amount of attention is very new for X. He wasn’t on the radar as a
legitimate NFL prospect until this past season, his sixth year in college, and
his first as a starting linebacker. 

When scouts visited his school last year, one of his college coaches said they’d
first ask about another linebacker who was already a starter, but then they’d
ask about X, because he had the Bobby Wagner–type speed and athleticism that NFL
teams are searching for at inside linebacker. “They would always be like, what’s
up with him?” the coach says. “And I would always say, ‘He’s a pro. I’m telling
you, he’s a pro,’ but there was never enough film at backer before this year for
them to really grasp it.”

Injury prevented him from breaking into the starting lineup sooner, and even
after an impressive special-teams career and a full season standing out on one
of the best defenses in Power-Five college football, he still didn’t get invited
to the combine, or a top-tier all-star game. It wasn’t until his pro day workout
that NFL teams really started taking him seriously. “It’s like a sigh of
relief,” he says. 

X says that when he talks to NFL coaches, they’ll ask him why he didn’t play in
any all-star games. “I wasn’t invited,” he tells them. “They are all surprised
by that.” 

And why weren’t you at the combine? 

“I wish I could tell you.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Every March, after the combine and during the heat of pro day season, I
crowdsource NFL scouts to find Prospect X, the most overlooked player in the
draft. I ask around to get a preliminary list of prospects that fit my criteria:
No combine invite, no top-three all-star game invite, small-school product, and
a legitimate shot to get drafted. This year, the Prospect X series has a new
home at Defector (huge shout out to Sports Illustrated editor Gary Gramling for
dreaming up the concept for this series and giving me his blessing to continue
it here) and for the first time, I’ve picked a Power Five player.

Each of the last three years, I’ve gone for a true underdog: an FCS player or a
D-II player. (Last year’s pick, Christian Elliss, played a spring FCS football
season while going through the draft process. Elliss signed with the Vikings
after the draft, and spent the majority of the season on the Eagles’ practice
squad. He got into one NFL game, Philadelphia’s Week 17 loss to Dallas, and made
two tackles.) But this year, the story of a big-program prospect hiding in plain
sight caught my attention. How did this guy who should be so visible slip
through the cracks? I’ll reveal his name in a follow-up article after draft
weekend, but for now—to allow him to be honest about the predraft process—we
will protect his identity as best we can. For now, he is simply Prospect X.

Last year’s Prospect X, Christian Elliss, went undrafted, and played in one game
for the Eagles. Photo credit: Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images

In the middle of my hunt for the most overlooked player, one NFC personnel
executive texted me X’s name: “Should have been in the combine and [he had] no
all-star games. Really like this kid and his pro day was impressive. My top
[overlooked] guy.”

“I think he could end up being a starting Will [weak-side] LB in a relatively
short amount of time,” another NFC personnel executive texted. “Special teams
should be automatic. Be shocked if he makes it to the sixth or seventh round.”

But X is not listed in seven-round mock drafts or 262-player rankings by Sports
Illustrated, The Athletic, The Sporting News, or ESPN. He’s not listed among the
200 prospects in PFF’s NFL draft guide or the top 300 prospects in The
Athletic’s rankings. Inside the League tracks over 1,200 prospects ahead of the
NFL draft, and he’s not one of them.

“He had never started before this year, and he’d been there five years, so you
might turn a blind eye to him,” a college scouting director told me about X. “He
was in a blindspot.” 

Like a lot of his peers in this draft class, X is old. He’s turning 24, because
he took advantage of the extra year of eligibility for players who played in the
pandemic-wracked 2020 season. At 23 years old, he put his first full season as a
starter on tape. He’d always stood out on special teams, but in 2021 he finally
got the full workload at inside linebacker too. He earned an honorable mention
for all-conference, but it still wasn’t enough to get on the radar of the top
all-star games. Half the scouts I asked about him hadn’t heard of him at all,
and the other half were sure he’s getting drafted. 

“Major snub,” said one, who admitted he hadn’t recommended X to the Senior Bowl
staff because his team wanted to keep him under the radar for as long as
possible. “Shocked he didn’t get Shrine,” he added referring to the East-West
Shrine Bowl, the second-best all-star game. 

X thinks part of the reason he’s been snubbed is because his school isn’t
afforded much respect from scouts or voters, especially compared to its larger,
more historically decorated rivals. “We always have not as many people go to
combine, and not as many people go to the all-star games and get national
recognition, just because of the logo we have, because we’re [School X] and not
[in-state rival] or [neighboring state powerhouse],” he says. 

X was invited to one lower-tier all-star game, but he didn’t go because it was
scheduled just a week after his bowl game and he needed more time to recover
from his season. X’s mom is trying her best to stop googling prospect rankings
because she doesn’t like what she finds in the big boards and mock drafts.

“I used to go online all the time and it’s not good,” she says. “I need to stop
looking at that. None of that is good, it shows him as an undrafted free
agent.” 

X was training at a private facility when he found out he wasn’t invited to the
combine. Many of the players he trained alongside were in the first wave of
invites, and he was sure he’d get invited too. The linebacker he played next to
at his school was invited. His team had a good season, and he felt like he’d
finally got the exposure he’d been waiting for. When he called his mom to break
the news that he’d been left off the list of 324 players, his voice cracked. 

“You know when you could tell when someone was about to cry? That sound,” his
mother says. “He just knew without a shadow of a doubt that he was going to get
picked to go to the combine. ‘Gotta get to the combine and prove myself, show
them what I can do,’ that’s all he talked about and then he didn’t get invited.
Yeah, that was very hurtful.” 

Teams vote for the players they want to see at the combine, and the number of
votes needed to score an invite varies by year and by position, but X’s agent
says X was right on the bubble. He got 18 votes, one vote short of the threshold
for linebackers. 

“I’m trying to figure out, why didn’t I get in?” X says. “What was the
difference between me and the X other number of people that got an invite? In my
eyes, I know they’re not better than me! Seeing 300 people went, I was like,
damn, I can’t be one of the top 300 people?”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There’s one play from last season that X is always asked about. It’s the play
that has come to define what he has to offer as an NFL prospect. Let’s set the
scene: Rivalry game, his team holds a narrow lead very late. It’s fourth-and-10,
and his opponents are just outside of field goal range. The rival quarterback
takes the shotgun snap and drops back, looking for his options downfield. X’s
defense only rushes three, and he stays put on the left side of the defense,
about six yards from the line of scrimmage, watching to see where the
quarterback will go. The quarterback sees nothing open and before he’s even
turned his body to scramble to his left, X is already on the move, anticipating
exactly where he will run. X cuts across the field to meet the quarterback about
10 yards behind the line of scrimmage, but the quarterback spins out of his
grasp just when he goes in for the sack. X slides off the quarterback’s back
leg, and lands on the field as the quarterback keeps running forward, now with a
clear path to the first-down marker. Just when you think it’s over, X springs
off the ground, like a bullet from a pistol, and runs down the quarterback from
behind, five yards short of the first down. When watching the film the next day,
his coach said, “It was a defining moment of winning the game. It was like, wow,
only he could make that play.” 

That’s where X thrives: the spy on the defense, with the smarts to read the
unfolding play, the speed to take off and pounce, and the tenacity to play until
the whistle.

After the game, X brought his 2-year-old son up to the podium with him. He
smiled as he took questions from reporters. “He didn’t give up,” his mom says,
remembering the play that had her jumping up and down in the stands. “And that’s
[X].”

X’s postgame smiles this past season were a huge change from just two years
earlier, when he’d meet his family after games in silence, and then stay up past
midnight having serious heart-to-hearts about his football future with his mom,
a teammate he was very close to, and his coach. 

In 2019, X had offseason surgery for a foot injury and missed the first four
games. By the time he was ready to come back, the coaches had solidified a
defensive lineup that was working well, and he wasn’t yet back to full strength.
“I thought I was going to get more reps than what I was getting,” X says. “That
year was the lowest point because I knew I was good enough to play. I won the
job the year before and I wasn’t playing. It felt like I was a waste of talent
not being utilized by the team.”

His close teammate remembers X venting as they walked back to the car after
games. “He just wanted it so bad, and he felt like he was doing everything in
his power to do it.”

“He would call or say, ‘I want to talk,’ and I could tell in his voice and the
look in his eyes if I needed to get there,” his coach says. His coach did his
best to talk him out of transferring to a smaller program. Most times, he’d
drive over to X’s dorm right away—it was easier to open up there than at a team
facility—and listen as X got emotional about how badly he wanted to play. 

“In that setting he could act like he was at home, because he was,” his coach
says. “It was just an inner drive in him, he knew what he could do … It wasn’t
anger, it was never anger. He just knew he was gonna go somewhere to chase his
dream. ‘I am gonna play, coach. I am not going to waste time. I am going to play
so I need to leave.’”

X’s mom didn’t want him to transfer. “As a mom, I know he’s good, so I’m like,
they have to play him,” she says. “Thank God they did. Thank God they did. It
was a little late, but it worked out.”

X doesn’t love to talk about himself, and he downplays the frustration and deep
disappointment his mom and coach saw from him those nights. “I was just mad,” he
says.

He decided not to transfer. “I am not a person to back out of [anything],” he
says. “So I wanted to really just do it to prove other people wrong. And prove
to them that I should have been starting from the jump and not waiting on the
backburner.”

That December, a teammate who is now in the NFL tweeted out what everyone inside
the building already knew about X: Wait until you see the best athlete on the
team. It’s gonna get scary. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

X’s godbrother remembers him dunking in eighth grade. His mom says X and his
younger brother were constantly playing outside when they were young: flipping,
tumbling, throwing, running, catching. When they’d get in trouble, she says,
“their punishment used to be they couldn’t go outside.”

X was always big, and towered over the other kids his age. “He wasn’t muscular
or defined, but he was solid,” his mom says. “He was chubby,” says his
godbrother. 

But it was the 2020 pandemic season that taught X how to be a pro, because
in-person classes and the rest of the college experience were mostly put on
hold. He learned to eat right, to work out more efficiently, to immerse himself
in the playbook and tape, and he transformed into his peak athletic form. Now
he’s finally got a six-pack. “[That year] slowed it down for him,” his coach
says. “It gave [X] a feel for what it was like to be a pro. It was all football
all day … and a guy like him, he can become a machine.”

The other stuff had always been there. When scouts ask his coach about X’s
character, the coach tells them about a walkthrough practice a couple years ago.
One of the team’s video employees had a seizure while up in the tower, a two- or
three- story-high walkway in the practice facility where the cameras are set up
to film practice. The players on the field heard a loud noise as the video
employee fell on the walkway. X was the first person to run up the stairs to
make sure he was OK until the trainers could reach him. 

At my request, one scout checked his team’s notes on X’s character: “Quiet,
mature, dependable, not a loner, business-like demeanor, communicates well,
raised by two supportive parents, good middle-class upbringing.”

“He is overprotective of who he loves,” his godbrother says. “He puts everybody,
a whole family above himself, if we are OK, he’s OK.”

When his mom found out X wasn’t on the combine list, she texted his agent,
asking him what it meant. Without the combine, what was the next step? Could her
son still get drafted? X’s agent told her that his pro day would be his one shot
to show NFL evaluators what he could do. Like any competitor, X used his combine
heartbreak to fuel his training.

When his pro day finally arrived, X did exactly what he needed to do to force
the NFL to take him seriously. He ran the 40 so fast that he would have been
fourth-best for linebackers at the combine, and his vertical jump would have
been second-best. His short shuttle and three-cone drill would have been the top
time, and his bench was in the top five. 

“His pro day forced the scouts to watch his tape, and see, oh, OK, that’s where
that 4.4 speed is,” his agent says. “If he ran a 4.6 40, it wouldn’t have forced
them to go back and really analyze the film as much as they had to.”

Before his pro day, X had three 30-visits scheduled. After his pro day, he added
four more. 

“When they see my numbers and see me move, and see me do my drills, I had a lot
more interest after that for sure,” X says. 

His agent, based off the number of 30-visits and the 15–18 Zoom calls he’s had
with teams, expects X will be drafted somewhere between the fourth and sixth
rounds. 

One scout told me his team has him in the sixth round, and another team employee
says X has had “a nice little climb” onto his team’s draft board since the
season ended. 

The scout whose team has him graded in the sixth round said that going into the
‘21 season, his team had X as a priority free agent. He said that BLESTO and
NFS, two scouting services that NFL teams pay for, had X graded as an undrafted
free agent, but before his pro day numbers posted, both services had upgraded
him to the seventh round. 

X is one of many players in this draft who used the extra pandemic year to turn
themselves from undrafted free agents into draft picks. “I know I deserve to be
a draft pick,” he says. “I know I can be better and do better and I know I can
go higher. That was the benefit of it, that was probably the best thing that
happened to me since I’ve been here.”

“Thank god for the COVID year,” his mom says. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

X is exhausted. He’s finally done with his NFL tour, and he’s trying to get back
into his routine, working out, eating healthy. He’s frying up mushrooms while
talking to me on the phone, updating me on the details. The days were long and
tiring but he thinks he did well. When he visited an NFC North team, his flight
landed just before 10 p.m., and he had to report to the team facility at 5:45
a.m. to see the team doctor. “I barely slept,” he says. 

The first team he visited before his multi-day journey was an NFC East team with
premier facilities, and the only one he could fly to direct. In total, he took
14 flights and only missed one of them, a connection back home after his first
flight was delayed. “I’m so tired of airports,” he says. 

Each team gives the prospects several pieces of gear to take home with them,
hats, shirts, sweatshirts. He only had his duffel bag, so he had to use one of
the bags he got from a team to carry all the new clothes home. 

X says he’s not nervous right now, “just more anxious to see where I go.” 

His mom isn’t as calm. “Football is his passion, his love, his everything,” she
says. “Today he has so much more faith than I do as a mom. ‘What is your back-up
plan?’ That’s me. But he doesn’t know, he has one path. He sees one path, and as
a parent, that’s kind of scary because if it doesn’t happen, he is going to be
more devastated.”

X won’t admit to a favorite team or predict where he thinks he might end up.
“They all have good vibes,” he says, so his only wish for the draft is that he
ends up somewhere near his hometown, where his son lives. They Facetime at least
twice a day. “He’s all over the place, all over the place, literally,” X says. 

He didn’t visit the NFL team in his home state, but at least one team he visited
is within driving distance. He has two more Zoom calls scheduled for this week
and then there’s nothing more he can do. “You gotta wait for somebody to get
you.” 

And X can’t wait to get out of his college town. He’s “fed up,” as he puts it,
with the limited dining options, mostly fast-food joints. He loves seafood and
the seafood selection here is nonexistent. He loves to go duck hunting, and at
least the hunting is good in this rural area. Other than that, “there’s nothing
here,” he says. “Just the same old, same old.” 

“It’s just a small town,” he shrugs. “[This state] is just not for me at all.
I’m not a big fan. It has no scenery.” 

Prospect X’s scenery is about to change very soon. 


 * Share on twitter
 * Share on reddit
 * Share on facebook
 * 191Comments

Kalyn Kahler

Staff writer.


READ MORE:

 * 2022 nfl draft
 * NFL Draft
 * Prospect X
 * scouting




KEEP UP WITH OUR BLOGS.

Email AddressSubmit

Something you think we should know? Send a story tip to tips@defector.com


THE LATEST


IT’S A GREAT BRAWL WHEN STUBBY CLAPP TACKLES “A BIG STRONG GUY”

MLB
32Comments
Laura Wagner



JOSE ALVARADO IS A DELIGHTFUL PEST

NBA
47Comments
Patrick Redford



THERE'S STILL TIME TO ACQUIRE THE DEFECTOR CREWNECK

Don't be a fool! Get one of these while supplies last. You'll love it so much
that you might wear it throughout the summer.
Shop Now


I’M SO GLAD THE GRIZZLIES AND WOLVES FOUND EACH OTHER

NBA
56Comments
Albert Burneko



TRAE YOUNG AND THE HAWKS WENT DOWN EASY

NBA
81Comments
Chris Thompson



SEE MORE STORIES

 * Send Us A Tip
 * Support and General Questions
 * Press Inquiries
 * Advertise With Us
 * Hall of Fame
 * Masthead

 * Privacy Notice
 * Terms of Use


DEFECTOR

This is Defector, a new sports blog and media company. We made this place
together, we own it together, we run it together. Without access, without favor,
without discretion, and without interference.
 * twitter
 * twitch

© Copyright 2022
Made in partnership with Lede