One side effect of moving back the 2014 NFL Draft on the calendar is that there's more time for just about everything related to it. More time for evaluations, more time for visits and, of course, more time for pro days.
The result is that the annual pro day circuit is being pushed halfway into April. Last year, between the NFL Scouting Combine and the draft, there was only a single workout that took place in April (Azuza Pacific, no less). This year? Georgia will conclude things on April 16th as the 19th school pro day of the month.
The good news is that means things are not as compact in other years. The spread out schedule has allowed some NFL team personnel to get out and see more players than ever in the lead up to the draft. NFL Media senior analyst Gil Brandt tweeted Wednesday that he couldn't remember a head coach attending more pro days than the Eagles' Chip Kelly.
He might be right. We went back through the archives and found that Kelly went to at least 12 pro days and traveled over 11,000 miles. Give or take a visit, here's the lengthy itinerary:
» March 3: Pittsburgh
» March 7: Ohio State
» March 11: Temple
» March 12: Alabama
» March 17: Louisville
» March 18: Florida State
» March 19: Virginia Tech
» March 20: Missouri
» March 21: Vanderbilt
» March 27: Johnny Manziel/Mike Evans
» April 8 - Penn State
» April 9: LSU
(Map via gcmap.com/)
From Manziel to Kelvin Benjamin to Ryan Shazier to Kony Ealy, that's a lot players the Eagles' head coach was able to see in person.
The good news for Kelly is he likely had use of Jeffrey Lurie's private jet to help facilitate things. Sure he lost out on the frequent flier miles but at least he could avoid the long security lines he would have had flying commercial.
Follow Bryan Fischer on Twitter @BryanDFischer.
