De’Angelo’s Draft Diary (Fifth Entry): NFL Combine included fast times, long days and mediocre food

Coastal Carolina graduate and all-time rushing leader De’Angelo Henderson of Summerville is working with sports writer Alan Blondin to provide The Sun News with a diary entry fortnightly through the NFL Draft from April 27-29. He trained for three months at the Michael Johnson Performance sports complex in McKinney, Texas, participated in the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl all-star game on Jan. 21 at StubHub Center at California State University, participated in the NFL Scouting Combine from Feb. 28-March 6 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, and has CCU’s Pro Day on March 31.

March 11 Diary Entry:

I’m back in Charleston, just got back last Saturday night. This is my first time in South Carolina all year, so it’s fun to be back home and see my family and everybody. I’m spending a lot of time with them. Everybody is real excited for me right now. It’s humbling to have everybody congratulate you. It’s a good feeling and humbling at the same time, the magnitude of what you’re doing and how many people it affects. The combine ended around 3 o’clock Friday. My flight to Texas was supposed to be like 7:45 that night but it got delayed until almost midnight. I got back to Texas around 2 in the morning and my flight back to South Carolina was Saturday at 4 and I got back to Charleston around 9 at night. It was a pretty busy 24 hours after the combine, just a bunch of flying. My girlfriend picked me up at the airport and cooked me dinner, so that was awesome. She did it all. I was excited. I’ve missed home-cooked meals.

My trainers and speed guy at MJP did a wonderful job of preparing us physically and mentally for everything. We still worked out, but we worked out enough to keep our bodies fresh. I spent that last week hanging out with the guys as much as possible because we all knew we were about to go our separate ways. We went to a Topgolf place, went to the movies and had a long extended dinner. The running backs and linemen all were Day 1 guys so we left first.

Combine Day 1: My guys warned us there would be people from teams at the airport, and as soon as we got off the plane we’re walking through trying to find out where to go, and I get pulled over by the Bills and had about a 15-minute conversation with them. They asked about everything and asked about a couple guys at Coastal currently now and who would I recommend they look at. I told them a few names and they said the guys I named were already on their list. We got shuttled to the hotel, the Crown Plaza at a train station, we went through paperwork to check in and I had every bit of three minutes to myself before we left. I had to change into the combine gear they gave us and it was on and rolling from there. We went to the hospital and I was there for seven hours, running through different tests, drawing blood, x-rays, all that stuff. Seven hours. Then we had orientation and the GM for the Packers was our speaker, and meetings with position coaches at the train station. Now it’s probably 8 o’clock and I’ve been up since 5 o’clock that morning, so I’m a little tired, and there were running backs coaches from all 32 teams waiting to interview everybody. As soon as you walked in somebody grabbed you. I didn’t get done until 11:45, and I only met with about 12 teams. The questions weren’t out of the ordinary. Scouts get to know you and get background information and report back to the coaches. Now the coaches want to back it up, and want to know who you are and all about you. They had me walking through a few of my favorite plays at Coastal, really just to see if you understand football and what you’ve done at your school.

Combine Day 2: I had to get to bed because we had a drug test at 4 the next morning. I woke up around 3:21 – I like to wake up at different times – and I got down there at 3:50 and I was No. 2. I thought I was going to be No. 4 or something. We had weigh-ins that morning and you strip to your tights. They measured your hand, arm length, wing span, and after that you walk on stage and there are like 300 coaches sitting in the crowd just looking at you, looking at your build, your stature, your muscles. I don’t want to say it was uncomfortable’ it was just different. It was one of those ‘What in the world’ moments of the week. After that we went to the stadium, which was connected to the hotel through an underground tunnel, and were at the stadium all day. We got tugged on and pulled on by all 32 team doctors, asking does this hurt, does that hurt? None of them actually hurt, just all 32 doctors pulled, yanked and twisted. It got repetitive but it has to get done. It does test your patience. I had a psychological test, had dinner, then had interviews with the coaches again that night from about 7 to midnight. Day 2 questions were about football. They would give you four or five of their plays, you have to remember it and draw it up for them afterwards. They give it to you in the beginning of the conversation, we’ll talk for 20 to 30 minutes and they’d ask you to draw up the play. They wanted to test your memory and see if you could learn something on the fly. Every team didn’t do that but after it happened I was prepared for it. Deuce Staley was the one running backs coach who picked my brain a little bit, which was cool. We were talking about inside zone and made me label everything. I had some good coaches at Coastal so I knew how to do all that stuff. For the most part I believe I impressed him. I had a wonderful meeting with the Ravens, Vikings, Bears, everyone, really. I got a chance to meet with coach Doug Colman, who coached linebackers at Coastal before he got a gig with the Houston Texans. My mentor, Maurice Drayton, he was there representing the Colts and I had a chance to see him every day, which is awesome. I love that guy to death. He’s one of the main reasons I am where I am right now.

Combine Day 3: Day 3 was more chill. We had the Wonderlic Test, some profile testing and the NFLPA meeting. Later that day we had the bench press. I got 20 reps. It was decent. I think I could have done better. The coaches on the stage with us were saying, ‘Get it up, lock your arms, slow down, no bounce.’ It kind of took my focus more towards them instead of what I was supposed to be doing, which I shouldn’t have done. It went al lright. We had media interviews after that. They put you at a table unless you were one of the big guys like Leonard Fournette and Dalvin Cook, they put them on the podium. Some reporters asked me questions and talked to me for a little bit. Then we met with coaches again. Any coaches you haven’t met with yet would send you a text to set up a meeting. I had already met with just about everybody. I had a little bit of downtime. When I did have downtime, MJP, the people I trained with in Texas, had a suite at a hotel across the street and I would run over there and get some extra stretching, extra recovery and some decent food, because the food they were feeding us was all right but it wasn’t really good. It wasn’t what I was expecting and hoping it would be. If I didn’t have to eat it I wouldn’t. One of the cool things about being at the Combine was Nike, Under Armor and adidas all had suites, and they’d size you up and give you a ton of gear: shoes, cleats, gloves, tights, shirts, hats, everything. I really enjoyed that a lot. That was on top of the gear you got at the Combine. Eastbay gave you a gift card to their store as well.

Combine Day 4: Friday was The Day. I got some good rest Thursday night. We had to do pictures and still videos for about an hour. I put the headphones in, went over my routine my people gave me and it was time to rock and roll from there. By this time I’m in game mode. I’m in a whole different zone. I had some text messages, people asking me if I was upset because of my expression, but I was just in game mode. We did broad jump, vertical and then ran 40s. I got in the blocks the first time and came out a little bit early. I held it for a two-count and they told me they wanted me to hold it for a three-count. I ran my first 40 and I really felt like I went faster than they had listed, but apparently not. It was a good run, though. When I got back to where the other running backs were they said, ‘Man, I didn’t think you could run that fast.’ I expected to run in the 4.45 to 4.48, no higher. My speed guy, nutritionist and strength coach did a phenomenal job getting us ready. A lot of teams thought I was slower than what I ran. To go out and run 4.48, I’m not just a short muscular guy that doesn’t have any speed. It definitely turned some heads and opened some eyes.

I didn’t have much time to eat and my body was starting to cramp during the drills, so I told them I’ll do my three shuttles at Pro Day. I want to perform at my best. My back was tightening up and I didn’t have enough food and water in my system. That’s really all I’ll do at my pro day, and some other drills. After the Combine was over with I was walking and the Chargers running backs coach came over and we talked for about 20 to 30 minutes. They told me I had a great performance, and everybody knew who I was but now people really know who I am. It was nice to hear that from him. Since then I’ve spoken with the 49ers, Buccaneers, Ravens, Chiefs and Cardinals. They tell me they’d like to have me in their system and would like me to play there. I tell them, ‘Shoot coach, make it happen. It’s out of my hands now. I’ve done everything I could.’ I have a meeting with the Cardinals in a couple weeks. We’re just waiting on everything else to fall in place.

I’m headed back to Conway this week to get back to working out. It’s back to the grind, and I’ll see the guys on the team and try to help them as much as I can, share my experience with them and hopefully inspire them. Let them know it’s possible for anybody if they continue to do the right things and play some good football.

This story was originally published March 11, 2017 at 6:15 PM with the headline "De’Angelo’s Draft Diary (Fifth Entry): NFL Combine included fast times, long days and mediocre food."