The puzzle that has been the NFL draft is missing just one piece for Jeff Byers.
Yes, all the games, all the workouts, all the visits, the running, jumping, the physicals, the questions, his answers, all of it are in the books. All that’s missing from the picture for the Loveland High School graduate is where he will begin his professional football career.
“It’s definitely a hurry-up-and-wait proposition,” Byers said this week. “I think 99 percent, maybe even a little more than 99 percent, of what you can do in all of this is done by the time the combine is over. Maybe you answer a question or two, talk to some teams, but your part is essentially over now until they call your name.”
Byers is one of several hopefuls with local ties who will wait until Thursday, Friday or Saturday to hear their names called during the three-day draft. Byers, who just finished his career at Southern California, Colorado State guard Shelley Smith and Oklahoma State quarterback Zac Robinson (a Chatfield High School graduate) are likely to be the first three of those locals to be drafted.
Colorado cornerback Ben Burney, former Broncos defensive line coach Jacob Burney’s son, also has risen on draft boards on the heels of his top-tier pro day performance in Boulder last month.
“There is definitely nothing like the process anywhere in the real world,” said Byers, who earned his MBA at USC. “I don’t believe you can have preferences, because it doesn’t really matter where I want to go. I have a 1-in-32 chance to go to any team. So you may have places you want to end up, but you can’t think that way, because you’re going to be disappointed at a time when you have to be ready to get to work.
“I enjoyed the visits. I saw a lot of coaches who had recruited me in high school. They would come up and say, ‘I don’t know if you remember me, but I used to coach at Michigan’ or wherever, and now they’re in the NFL. So that was great.”
Byers recently visited with the Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints. Pete Carroll, who coached Byers at USC, is now running the football operations with the Seattle Seahawks.
“Coach Carroll knows me better than anybody,” Byers said. “So there is plenty of familiarity there, but if he doesn’t pick me in the draft, he’ll still always be Coach Carroll to me, a person who had a huge impact on the player I am.”
Smith, who had one of the best workouts among the offensive linemen at the scouting combine in February, recently visited with the Patriots, and teams such as the Titans and Texans also have kept a close eye on him.
“I’ve said all along I’m excited. It’s all something I’ve been dreaming about since I was a little kid,” Smith said. “I’ve just tried to work as hard as I can so it could be a goal of mine, and now it’s right here. I’ll be happy when I know where I’m going to be.”
Robinson also has made the most of his postseason opportunities such as the Senior Bowl and the scouting combine. Like many quarterbacks in the draft, he spent his collegiate years in a spread offense working out of the shotgun. The footwork at the position in the NFL is going to be an adjustment.
Robinson has adapted quickly and has done well as far as showing his potential in a pro offense as well as showing he was recovered from a late-season shoulder sprain.
“A lot of teams have been surprised at how fluid my dropbacks were and the ability to read defenses from under center,” Robinson said. “I’ve told them that’s something I’ve always loved to do, to be under center, to play that style, but that just wasn’t us in college.”
Jeff Legwold: 303-954-2359 or jlegwold@denverpost.com
