Cowboys Ready for Oklahoma State Pro Day March 29
STILLWATER – Wednesday morning (March 29) at 9:30 there are 11 Oklahoma State football players that will line up in the weight room in the West End Zone of Boone Pickens Stadium and they will be measured; height, weight, arm, wing span, and hand. They will be tested; broad jump, vertical, and bench press reps. They will go across the strett and run the forty, do the L drill, the 5-10-5 shuttle, and any other drill the NFL scouts would like to see. They will do drills specific to their position and answer questions and for those that haven’t taken it yet, they will take the wonderlic test that the NFL uses for personal and mental examination.
Also, this could be the last Pro Day on the Stillwater campus for awhile. The Big 12 has announced a partnership with the NFL Network to have a conference wide Pro Day starting next spring at The Star in Frisco, Texas. The Star is the home of the Dallas Cowboys headquarters and practice facility. The Big 12 Pro Day would be broadcast on the NFL Network and give players in the conference more exposure.
Linebackers Brock Martin and Lamont Bishop, defensive tackles Sione Asi and Brendon Evers, defensive end Tyler Lacy, safety Jason Taylor II, wide receivers Braydon Johnson and C.J. Tate, specialists Tanner Brown, Matt Hembrough, and Tom Hutton will all go through it in varying degrees of intensity.
For example, Hutton, who is set to move back to Australia and is coming off an ACL injury may punt the ball a few times, but he there to hold for Brown and catch snaps from Hembrough.
“Rob, I don’t know about my age. I’m not sure the NFL wants a 30-year-old rookie punter,” Hutton has joked with me.
The rest will be serious.
We all know the top two NFL Draft prospects for the Cowboys are Jason Taylor II and Tyler Lacy as both were chosen to participate in Indianapolis at the NFL Combine and both did well, especially Taylor II.
“I was proud of what I did,” Taylor told me. “I’m not sure what I will do at Pro Day. I’ll wait and see what any of the NFL people want me to do.”
The NFL had brief evaluations of both of the Cowboys that participated in the combine.
On Taylor II:
Taylor offers well-defined strengths and obvious areas of concern that should allow for teams to deploy him in the best manner possible if they are honest in their assessments. He boasts an NFL frame and is a powerful tackler who can stop rushers and pass-catchers in their tracks. Though his speed and agility are below par, he’s highly instinctive and possesses the skills to make plays on the ball as a deep safety. Figuring out when to play him low and when to play him high will be the challenge for defensive coordinators, but even as a backup, he brings four-phase special teams talent to the table immediately.
On Lacy:
Lacy is usually first with his hands but needs to learn to jolt opponents and control the block more consistently with them. His block take-on can be a little bit segmented and he can be driven off his turf as a three-technique, but he has the length and athleticism to cause disruption in a one-gapping scheme. Lacy has talent as an interior rusher but might be better suited as a five-technique or 4-3 base end on early downs.
Few players have done much of the testing. Brock Martin, Braydon Johnson, and Matt Hembrough played in All-Star games as did Lacy and Taylor II in the Senior Bowl. Taylor II and Johnson were in the NFLPA Game. Martin was in the Hula Bowl. Hembrough was in the East-West Shrine Game.
Those players have prepared for it. Martin has trained in Fort Lauderdale, Fla for the past two months and has put in a lot of work in trimming his body fat and making himself better physically for the testing. He was back at the Oklahoma State spring practice on Saturday and told me he feels great and is ready to show what he’s got.
Taylor and Lacy have both been out-of-state training with Taylor II down in Florida. Hembrough and Brown have trained in Stillwater, Evers has been training somewhere, and the others we are uncertain about
Here is the roster for 2023 Oklahoma State Pro Day
| Name | Pos. | Ht. | Wt. | 40-time | Vertical | Broad Jump | Bench Rep |
| Jason Taylor II | Saf. | 6-0 | 204 | 4.49 | 43.0” | 10’9” | 14 |
| Tyler Lacy | DT/DE | 6-4 | 279 | 5.11 | 28.5” | 9’8” | 30 |
| Matt Hembrough | LS | 6-2 | 230 | 4.78 | NA | NA | NA |
| Brock Martin | OLB | 6-2 | 243 | 4.68 | NA | NA | NA |
| Braydon Johnson | WR | 6-0 | 201 | 4.38 | NA | NA | NA |
| Tanner Brown | PK | 5-11 | 167 | 4.9 | NA | NA | NA |
| Lamont Bishop | LB | 6-2 | 235 | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| Brendon Evers | DT | 6-3 | 295 | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| Sione Asi | DT | 6-1 | 310 | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| C.J. Tate | WR | 6-0 | 185 | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| Tom Hutton | P | 6-3 | 201 | NA | NA | NA | NA |
Pro Day is closed to the public but fans and player representatives are allowed to attend and stay in the viewing areas only.
“My family is not coming,” Martin said. “I will be under enough pressure. I’ll see them after I’m done.”