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FAYETTEVILLE — Treylon Burks isn’t nearly as concerned with his 40-yard dash time as most NFL Draft experts seem to be.
Despite being clocked at what some considered a disappointing 4.55 seconds at the combine last week in Indianapolis, the standout wide receiver opted not to run at Arkansas’ Pro Day on Wednesday.
“I feel like I did a terrific job,” Burks said. You know me, I don’t care what anybody thinks. All I can say is go watch film and see if I’ve been caught with that 40 time.”
Burks has a point. He put up incredible numbers — 1,104 yards and 11 touchdowns on 66 receptions — in the toughest conference in college football this season, plus had highlights that showcased his speed.
Against Alabama, he ran away from the entire secondary on a 66-yard touchdown. Earlier in the year, he was clocked at 22.6 mph while taking a screen pass 91 yards for a score against Georgia Southern. No player in the NFL was recorded as running that fast in a game last season.
Of course, there’s more to the pre-draft process than just the 40-yard dash, even though it’s the event that draws the most focus from fans.
At Pro Day, which was attended by representatives from 30 of 32 NFL teams, Burks did 12 reps on the bench press, improved his vertical jump by 2.5 inches to 35.5, ran an unofficial 4.23-second short shuttle and did positional drills — running routes and catching passes from former Arkansas quarterback Jack Lindsey.
“Felt great about everything I did,” Burks said. “I went into it confident and was just playing football.”
Those marks were in addition to what he did at the NFL combine, where he notched a 10-foot-2 broad jump and ran the aforementioned 4.55-second 40.
Since opting out of the Outback Bowl and foregoing his senior year by declaring for the NFL Draft, Burks has trained at Exos, a popular pre-combine training facility in Frisco, Texas. That is important for all potential draft picks, especially highly regarded ones, but particularly so when you consider Burks didn’t hit up the camp circuit during his recruitment coming out of Warren.
Arguably just as important as those drills, though, were the interviews Burks got to do with multiple teams during the combine. That was also a new experience for him, but one he was thankful to have.
“At first it was just going into a room with GMs, head coaches, everybody for a team in that one little room and getting put on the spot and having to talk,” Burks said. “It was nerve-wracking at first. Once you just calm down and just be yourself, everything will just start flowing.”
Here are a few other tidbits from Arkansas’ annual Pro Day and interviews with a few players afterward…
Morgan’s Chip Grows
After a standout career that saw him go from walk-on to second-team All-American, Grant Morgan was extremely thankful for a chance to work out in front of NFL scouts Wednesday.
