By By BRIAN HAINES
Sports Writer
GREENVILLE – Stopwatches and clipboards where in abundance Thursday inside the Murphy Center and on the grassy surface of Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium as East Carolina played host to 30-plus representatives from the NFL at the Pirates’ pro day.
For East Carolina’s most NFL ready prospects, defensive end C.J. Wilson, defensive tackle Linval Joseph and punter Matt Dodge, pro day offered each a chance to improve in an area they might not have excelled at during the NFL combine in Indianapolis.
For the other 24 participants, pro day represented one more chance to wow a scout or dispel a knock on their game before selections are made on April 22.
The 6-4, 278-pound Wilson displayed his strength at the combine as he impressed scouts with his 32 bench press reps of 225 pounds, but on Thursday he was looking to prove he is equally as nimble.
“I wanted to come out here and do the L drill and the shuttle, then support my teammates,” Wilson said.
The all-conference end wrapped up his workout feeling confident with his times saying, “I think I did great and I came out here and did what I wanted to do.”
Wilson was rated the 19th best defensive end prospect by USA Today and is widely projected to go anywhere between the third round and the sixth round in the NFL draft.
Wilson said he has had conversations with several NFL teams and is scheduled to do private workouts for the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Miami Dolphins.
The 6-6, 322-pound Joseph, who is the only junior on the Pirates who declared for the draft, is the 12th rated defensive tackle according to USA Today, who also predicted he would be taken somewhere in the fourth round.
Dodge, who was named to six all-American teams after averaging 45.8 yards per punt this season, battled some strong winds to turn in what one AFC East scout called a good performance. The weather conditions are noted by scouts.
Like Wilson, Dodge has talked to several teams, but unlike his former teammate, the punter’s draft status is much harder to predict because many NFL general managers don’t like drafting punters.
“I have heard that I could go anywhere from the fifth, sixth or seventh (rounds) or as a free agent,” Dodge said. “That’s just the life of a punter.”
Out of all Dodge’s suitors Jacksonville appeared to be the most interested.
Other ECU players that have a strong chance to get drafted or sign free agent deals are DT Jay Ross, C Sean Allen, OG Doug Palmer, OT Terence Campbell, WR Jamar Bryant and S Van Eskridge.
Eskridge is a 6-0, 200-pound free safety who, because of his hard-hitting ability and average 40 times, is more suited to play strong safety in the NFL and has been projected to go as early as the fifth round in some draft publications.
The knock on the all-conference senior has been his speed. Eskridge has turned in times of 4.6 or higher in the 40 and looked better than that Thursday.
“I feel like I may have helped myself. But I feel I could have done much better, especially in the defensive backs drills where I dropped a few balls,” Eskridge said.
The players were not told of their 40 times, but Eskridge felt he put in a good performance saying, “I think I ran maybe a 4.6 or a 4.5 at the fastest.”
Some of the teams said to have interest in the safety are the Colts, Browns and Dolphins, with stronger interest coming from the Titans where former ECU star Chris Johnson is playing.
Eskridge said one of the biggest challenges of pro day is that it resembles more of a track and field workout than a football one.
“It’s different from a game because we don’t have on any pads,” Eskridge said. “A lot of the instinctive things are taken out of the picture. You just kind of come out and run through drills.”