De’Angelo’s draft diary: Visit to New Orleans kicks off meetings with NFL teams

Coastal Carolina graduate and all-time rushing leader De’Angelo Henderson of Summerville is working with sports writers Alan Blondin and David Wetzel 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 had CCU Pro Day on March 31.

April 11 Diary Entry:

I’m back home right now in Charleston. I’m just hanging out with the fam. Still working out a little bit, trying to make my way back up to Coastal on the weekends. Just doing the same thing really – hang out with some friends, work out, toss the ball with [Alex] Ross. Just really trying to stay in shape because everything is going to pick up pretty soon. I recently had a visit to New Orleans with the Saints. It went real well. They flew me out Thursday [and I] stayed there until Saturday. Met with everybody for the most part. I got good vibes from everybody, good words, just real positive stuff. We talked about football of course. They [also] wanted to get to know me better as a person – ust all that good stuff. I’m just waiting on some more visits to be set up right now. We’ve already been contacted by a few teams and we’re just waiting for them to call back and confirm a date. I’m just waiting for that. That’s one of the next things on the list. Other than that, I’m just enjoying the process, taking everything day by day, trying to get healthy in terms of this virus. That’s really what’s been going on since Pro Day.

At Pro Day all I really did was my shuttles and the drills, I was trying to consistent in times of running my routes and catching the ball and be consistent with that stuff. Just showing them I can do that stuff kind of put the icing on the cake with everything. In the shuttles, I just showed them I could be quick out my cuts, you know, plant and go. I really think that helped out a little bit, just to put the icing on the cake of everything. And I think they have an idea of what I can do and what I’m capable of. Like I said, I think just to put the icing on the cake of everything helped out a lot.

Definitely working with Ross is one of the more beneficial things, I guess, with this whole process and Pro Day just because we have a lot of familiarity together, we’ve got a lot of chemistry that’s still there, we played a lot of football together. So that’s who I’m comfortable with. I’m just continuing to work out with him. Of course I love doing it; that’s my guy. We’ve been friends since day one, so for us to be able to finish out this process at Coastal with him there is unbelievable and I’m thankful for it.

[We’ve been hearing] from a vast majority of [NFL teams]; I can’t give an exact number. But it’s been a good bit of teams. Everybody talks good and everybody I’ve talked to spoke good. They like me, they like the way I play, they believe in me – all that stuff.

Just take everything slow and be thankful [in this process]. I’m just so thankful to be blessed to be in the position that I’m in. I’m going to just remain humble and keep God first with everything. My main thing is I need to focus on in this entire process with draft coming up in a couple weeks. A lot of people aren’t in this position that I’m in. I’m very thankful for it.

I’m going to have a small gathering for the draft back home in Charleston with just my family and hit the ground running from there. The opportunity to play at the next level, drafted or not, it will be a dream come true. I know a lot of people who wish and pray to be in the position I’m in. If something doesn’t happen the way I want it to happen I will not be upset. I’m thankful for everything that has happened so far.

This story was originally published April 11, 2017 at 6:27 PM with the headline "De’Angelo’s draft diary: Visit to New Orleans kicks off meetings with NFL teams."