Tyler Wilson didn't have a perfect Pro Day at Arkansas today, but he came close as he threw 62 passes for all the NFL teams in attendance.
Tyler Wilson has thrown in the Senior Bowl and NFL Combine, but was a standout at the UA Pro Day.
Wilson completed 57 of his passes with four drops and one pass that was thrown behind the receiver. Wilson, 6-2 ¾, 215, talked about his day at the completion of his passing drills.
“I think, for one, it's a completion of the survey of events that was done in the past three months,” Wilson said. “It's kind of a breath of fresh air. We're done, we put the work in and I thought it was a pretty good day.
“I would like to go 62-of-62, but 58 or 57 of whatever it was was a pretty good day. I'll take that and I'll move forward.”
Wilson varied his passes with routes such as the hitch, slant, comeback, seam, go, “Peel” flat, snake, post, glance post, drive, wheel comeback, deep post and various red zone throws. How did Wilson come to the decision to throw 62 passes?
“We put together a script a few month's ago,” Wilson said. “That's kind of where it ended up. I put in all the throws potentially you simulate in game situations. You could see 62 is what we came to and we got close to it today.”
Wilson said he will now move to the next phase of waiting for the NFL Draft.
“I have individual meetings with teams now,” Wilson said. “Those will start and there will be a number of teams come to Arkansas and then there will be some in which I will go to their place to do interviews and that kind of stuff. Then right around the corner is the draft the last week of April.”
Wilson said the script for the day was drawn up in part by him and in part by his coach in Florida.
“It was a combination of me and Terry Shea,” Wilson said. “Terry has been my coach down in Bradenton (Fla.) with Chris Weinke. Terry and I sit down and analyzed the routes certain guys would want to run and I thought it was really good. I thought he did a great job in involving all the guys.”
Since Arkansas' season ended, Wilson has competed in the Senior Bowl, the NFL Combine and then today's Pro Day. He feels he has built some momentum during that time.
“The Senior Bowl obviously you get some credit there,” Wilson said. “You have a pretty good showing though the game didn't turn out as positive as we would have liked. I had a really good week.
“Then, the combine, you run and it's not as much of a workout as it is a bunch of meetings. I thought the combine went good and then you come out today and have a good day today. You have to finalize the product in the meeting room.”
Wilson was asked if he felt Friday's workout in front of all the NFL teams was a job interview of sorts.
“That's pretty cool,” Wilson said of performing for the scouts. “I put a lot on my shoulders as far as I want to do well and I want to be selected high.
“I have always said that, but you've just got to be you at the end of the day and go to work and whatever happens happens. I'm in a lucky situation in that you just go to work and you have a chance to play in the NFL and that's a tremendous opportunity.”
Wilson said at the NFL Combine he only threw 12-to-15 balls compared to the 62 he threw today.
“I threw the ball pretty well there,” Wilson said. “There was a few balls rotation wise that could have been better, but this is a more accurate picture of what you can do. These are the throws we threw in college. You're familiar with the receivers, you're familiar with the setting and this is who you are. I think what they saw today is a more accurate picture of who you are as a quarterback.”
In addition to the NFL scouts, many members of the media was present in addition to some current players. Wilson said all the eyes on him and others didn't make him nervous or anything.
“There was a number of people here today,” Wilson said. “That's obviously a great thing. You can make impressions on people. Hopefully we did a pretty good job, completed some passes and hopefully showed the velocity they were looking for.”
While Wilson was almost injury free at Arkansas, he did suffer some concussions. This past season, Wilson missed the second half of the Louisiana-Monroe game and the entire Alabama contest the following week. He said the concussions have come up in some of his discussions with NFL teams.
“It was really the only medical concern,” Wilson said. “I know a number of people have a compilation of X-ray sheets and that kind of stuff. Luckily I didn't have any of that. I have obviously had a little bit of discussion about the concussions this past year but other than that my injury history was relatively clean.”
Wilson said April is going to be busy seeing various teams. He will do the Jon Gruden Show next week in Tampa, Fla. Wilson also said he has heard various things about where he might be drafted, but nothing is concrete until really the night of the draft due to trades and free agency.
“You hear speculation,” Wilson said. “I think I'm in a pretty good position. I'm happy that I'm in the spot that I'm in. Any chance you get to play at the next level is a tremendous opportunity. Hopefully, you're picked early, but we'll see.”
