WR EDMOND GATES, ABILENE CHRISTIAN
JOURNAL 5 – MARCH 1, 2011
Dear Journal,
I really wasn’t able to train because of my injury so for a month I was just working on my stance and 10-yard start. I wasn’t able to move around like I wanted to as far as explosive work and all of that stuff. The only thing I was able to do was hold my stance.
As soon as you get to a hotel you go right to the medical. They check you out, do MRIs, and take blood. When I told them I had an injury to my groin I had to do three hours of MRIs and right after that you eat lunch and after that you have meetings with teams. The whole process drained me but it was good. It was like an endless interview. It was a grind mentally and physically.
The teams want you to tell about yourself and how you got to where you are now. They ask about family, criminal records, and after you tell them that they want to get into football and see how much you know. They want to see how much you remember from the season. The main thing was background and asking a lot of stuff about football. I can’t remember all the teams I met with but I met with the Jets, Lions, Rams, 49ers, Packers, Giants, Bucs, Saints, Panthers, Falcons, and Seahawks were among them.
I felt good about all the drills. I liked my vertical but I didn’t feel good about my broad jump. For some reason I could not land it so I settled on a 10’11. As far as all of the routes I felt pretty good. I didn’t run the post corner be cause I didn’t want to open up but I ran all of the other routes. The thing that stood out to me was that the coaches wanted us to compete. One player who stood out to me who I competed with was Julio Jones. It was friendly competition. The coaches want to give you a chance to catch the ball and everything. I ran a 4.37 40, my vertical was 40 inches, bench reps were 16, and I didn’t do the 3-cone, short shuttle, or long shuttle. I am going to do those last three at my pro day.
My pro day is on March 21st.
Tomorrow I am doing a show on First Take at 10:20am.
Talk to you after the pro day!
Edmond Gates
