GETTING ON THE BOARD

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider

FRISCO, Texas – Since the end of the college football season, few players in the country have risen up the NFL Draft boards higher and faster than Baylor linebacker Matt Jones.

"When the season ended, I was (expected to go undrafted)," said the 6-4, 246-pound Jones, a first-team All-Big 12 pick as a senior when he had 113 tackles, 9.5 stops behind the line, four sacks, five QB hurries and six pass breakups. "I feel like scouts didn't really know about me. My agents have done a really good job of exposing me and getting my name out there."

One of 13 Baylor players who participated in last week's Big 12 Pro Day at The Star, the Dallas Cowboys' training facility, Jones said his Hula Bowl performance and interviews "really shot me up, and I'm hoping (Pro Day) shot me up."

"But (I'm) definitely on the board now," said Jones, who ran a 4.69 in the 40 and the fastest time in the 3-cone drill (6.95) of the 21 linebackers at Big 12 Pro Day. "We've had a few teams reach out to agents. I was undrafted, and now they have me on the board. So, we're making progress."

Particularly among the defensive prospects, the overriding theme is the knowledge they gained under Baylor coach Dave Aranda, whether it was only one year like edge rusher Steve Linton and linebacker Rara Dillworth or five years like Jones and edge rusher Garmon Randolph.

"You can't play if you don't understand what's going on," said the 6-6, 265-pound Randolph, who had 29 tackles, 3.5 sacks and two interceptions in his sixth season at Baylor. "You might need to know what everyone around you is doing. I had to drop so much (in pass coverage), I had to know what the safety was doing, what the corner was doing, what the insider linebacker was doing. You've got to be locked-in and pay attention to all the details."

Like Jones, Randolph expects to hear his name called during the 2025 NFL Draft, which will be held April 24-26 in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

"Hopefully, I put on a good enough performance to do that," said Randolph, who ran a 4.78 time in the 40 while recording the second-best broad jump (10 feet, 2 inches) among the 41 defensive line participants. "And there's still a lot of things that can happen from now until then – all these meetings, you can do private workouts. You can do a lot of stuff from now to then."

Although he didn't ask any of the teams where they had him projected, Randolph said one of the Dallas Cowboys scouts told him, "Remember, we told you we want you first."

"I told them, 'All right, I've got you, but you better call me,''' Randolph said. "I know everything happens for a reason. And I'm not going to just sit there and make myself worry. If my name gets called, it's supposed to get called. If it doesn't, then it wasn't supposed to. But that doesn't mean you're not going to the next level."

Baylor's one NFL Combine invitee, the 6-3, 248-pound Linton had hoped to improve on his vertical jump (32 inches) and run a better 40-yard dash (4.81), but was bothered by a lingering hamstring injury and said, "it was a blessing to have this opportunity to do everything."

Linton said the Combine "was a good experience," but included a lot of waiting.

"Like the medical, that took three days itself," said Linton, who had 25 tackles, seven tackles for loss and three sacks in his one season with the Bears after transferring from Texas Tech. "But that was a blessing to be there, too, because not everybody gets that opportunity. And it was a childhood dream of mine."

Another Day 3 prospect in the NFL Draft is 5-9, 170-pound wide receiver Monaray Baldwin, who ran an eye-popping 4.32 time in the 40, the fastest among the 174 players who were clocked over the two-day process at The Star.

Baldwin had 27 catches for 478 yards (17.7-yard average) and five touchdowns last season and was joined at Pro Day on the second day by fellow receivers Hal Presley, Ketron Jackson Jr., Jamaal Bell and Isaiah Davis, defensive back Lorando "Snaxx" Johnson and tight end Gavin Yates.

Working out six days a week, twice a day, since Baylor's season ended, defensive end Treven Ma'ae came in at 6-3, 277 pounds and ranked among the best across the board among the defensive linemen. He ran a 4.77 time in the 40, had a 33-inch vertical jump, bench-pressed 225 pounds 27 times and had a 4.6 time in the shuttle.

"Proud of what I put on show today, display for the scouts," said Ma'ae, a former Oregon transfer who started all 13 games last season, totaling 42 tackles with 3.5 sacks and 6.5 stops behind the line. "I showed them I can move, showed them how strong I am, that I can move and control my body."

Rounding out Baylor's first-day prospects at Big 12 Pro Day were defensive lineman Elinus Noel III (6-3, 339) and linebacker/safety Rara Dillworth (6-1, 188).

"I say it's a dream come true," said Noel, who started the last nine games for the Bears after making previous stops at Nicholls State and Texas Southern. "Growing up as a kid, I can remember memories of me and my family watching the Combine and seeing them put their heart out there, all the hard work you put into this one event."

Like Noel, Dillworth said Pro Day "is what we've dreamed of since we were younger. This is a big opportunity to showcase my talents."

Because he spent time at North Carolina and East Carolina before transferring to Baylor last year, Dillworth said he was "a guy who had to do a little bit more. Me showcasing a lot of things today will open up a lot of eyes. So, I did talk to a lot of teams."

After Saturday's opening day of spring practice, Aranda said he wants his current players "to be in that position, or even greater, next year."

"We have guys now that are in a draft process that are working through interviews to get drafted and go to the next level," Aranda said. "And when they're going through film with an NFL scout or executive or a coach, we want them to be able to explain not only their job but what the guy next to him, what their job was.

"If they're on a board, they could put up their 11 and then the opposing 11, all 22 guys up there, and they can explain all of it and talk through the pros and cons, the strengths and weaknesses. Believe me, that whole thing is the thing. And you don't get to that unless you put 'ball' first. I look at Matt Jones as an example of that. I look at Treven as an example of that. There are various others in position to do that. I think serious people do serious stuff."

GETTING ON THE BOARD

Players Mentioned

Monaray Baldwin

Jamaal Bell

Isaiah Davis

Rara Dillworth

Ketron Jackson Jr.

Matt Jones

Steve Linton

Treven Ma'ae

Elinus Noel III

Hal Presley

Garmon Randolph

Gavin Yates

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