Local product Geathers expecting to hear name called during NFL Draft

The NFL scouts and decision makers have evaluated former Carvers Bay High School football standout Clayton Geathers thoroughly over the last several months.

They’ve had four seasons worth of highlights to watch from Geathers’ productive collegiate career at Central Florida. They’ve been to his pro day there, observed him at the Senior Bowl and at the NFL Scouting Combine. About a half dozen teams put him through additional individual workouts, his agent said.

And for all of that, the only way to know for sure how the scouts and organizations value the 6-foot-2, 218-pound strong safety is to watch the NFL Draft unfold this week.

The event – and that’s really the best way to describe it these days with its annually mounting popularity and extensive build-up – starts Thursday night with the first-round picks being announced live on ESPN and NFL Network while Rounds 2 and 3 come Friday night and Rounds 4-7 follow on Saturday.

Geathers is hoping to hear his name called somewhere in the middle of the draft, his agent Joe Flanagan said, but Flanagan added he’s been in the business long enough to know it’s not worth trying to predict such things.

“I really hate to speculate because I’ve been doing this for 18 years and the one thing I know about the draft is you never know how it’s going to go,” Flanagan said Wednesday. “I would think [Geathers will be selected] sometime in early day three, I would hope. Late day two, early day three, somewhere in the middle of the draft, but you just never know …

“I think he’s probably a fourth through seventh-round [pick]. Could he be a third? Sure. Could he be undrafted? Sure. It’s a broad range when it comes to the safety position especially. It’s a position that sometimes doesn’t carry as much value in the draft in teams’ eyes, like corner. So what will affect Clayton and the other safeties is when do they start coming off [the draft board] and when does the run on the market begin.”

Geathers, who could not be reached for comment, is planning to watch the draft back home with family, Flanagan said, as he waits to see what the next chapter of his football career holds for him.

After starring for Carvers Bay, where he received all-state honors on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball, Geathers went on to start 52 games at Central Florida while finishing third in program history with 383 total tackles. He ranked second on the team in tackles all four of his seasons there while totaling at least 97 each of the last three years and also finished his collegiate career with 19 tackles for loss, five forced fumbles, three interceptions and 30 pass break-ups.

He posted a 4.55-second 40-yard dash time at the combine, showed plus strength with 22 repetitions on the bench press (225 pounds) and recorded a 37-inch vertical jump.

And of course he comes with something of a pedigree.

His uncle Robert Geathers was drafted by the Buffalo Bills in 1981 and was followed into the NFL by three sons – Robert Jr. played for the Cincinnati Bengals from 2004-14, Clifton was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in 2010 before bouncing around to seven other teams while totaling 24 games played so far, and Kwame was drafted by the San Diego Chargers in 2013 and played seven games for them. Then there is Jumpy Geathers, another uncle, who played 13 seasons in the NFL from 1984-96 for four teams while totaling 62 career sacks. And a cousin, Jeremy Geathers, who plays in the Arena Football League.

Flanagan said all of that, along with a clean injury history and the impression Geathers has made in conversations with talent evaluators all works in his favor.

“Clayton is a really well-liked guy and very well-studied guy,” Flanagan said. “He played a lot of games at UCF, comes from a family pedigree that precedes itself, played in a major conference, went to the Senior Bowl, went to the combine. Teams really have a good feel for Clayton. He’s a really high-character, high-intelligence guy.”

He acknowledged that some of those traits aren’t always prioritized in the draft, but that’s what he believes will make Geathers a successful pro – wherever that may be. That part of it they’ll find out sometime this week.

Because, again, for all the interviews and conversations with teams, the feedback he’s received and anything else that is out there leading up to the draft, Flanagan knows the next few days are nonetheless unpredictable.

“It is really a lot of talk and not necessarily indicative of anything,” he reiterated. “It’s just part of the 24-hour news cycle.”

This story was originally published April 29, 2015 at 8:04 PM with the headline "Local product Geathers expecting to hear name called during NFL Draft."