Michael Heldman headlines Central Michigan’s Pro Day workouts
Heldman is the top draft prospect among the cadre for the Chippewas, as 14 former CMU players took the field on Wednesday.
Mt. Pleasant — Michael Heldman walked away from his Central Michigan Pro Day workout on Wednesday feeling good about his efforts.
Heldman, one of 14 Chippewas working out for scouting personnel from around 20 NFL and CFL teams, is the best draft prospect of the group. He’s projected to be a Day 3 pick or post draft signing, but is hopeful that what he put down in front of scouts in the CMU Turf Bay on Wednesday could change his outlooks. That hope is shared by his fellow CMU draft prospects, as the likes of linebacker Jordan Kwiatkowski, linebacker Dakota Cochran Jr., safety Caleb Spann and quarterback Joe Labas walked away feeling good about their respective showings.
“I would love to get drafted, but, you know what? Regardless, whatever team wants me, they're getting a dog,” Heldman said. “And they're getting a man who can help change many things, but not forcefully, 'cause I'm more of an open doors type guy.”
The day began in the weight room for the prospects, hitting the bench press and getting their measurements taken before they moved on to vertical and broad jumps. That all led into the 40-yard dash, followed by the short shuttle and three-cone drills. Once the athletic testing concluded, the prospects moved on to their respective position drills, save for kicker Cade Graham, who worked out with a series of kicks while other athletic testing went on.
Scouts for the Cleveland Browns, Las Vegas Raiders, New England Patriots, Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Commanders, Denver Broncos and Detroit Lions were in attendance, among other NFL franchises.
Heldman jumped 40 inches and benched 225 pounds for 29 reps, he said. He came away content with those figures, he said, especially the jump.
Heldman didn’t know the precise times that teams had for him in the 40s, but heard from a few people that he ran in the 4.6-second range, cracking the 4.7 threshold Heldman hoped to run under.
“I felt like I had some of the best testing numbers out of all the edges in this draft class,” Heldman said.
His time will get padded a smidge, as scouts adjust for human error, but he’s pleased with the way he ran in the 40 and on the change of direction drills.
Heldman also went through positional drills as a defensive end, his natural position at CMU, and some of the linebacker coverage drills. Teams wanted to see him drop from a 3-4 outside linebacker alignment, he said, something he had prepared for entering Wednesday.
He and his trainer worked a fair bit on catching the football, something Heldman hadn’t done much. On Wednesday, he looked smooth moving through space and comfortable catching the ball.
“We worked on it, so I felt natural, and they know I can drive,” Heldman said of teams seeing him drive on footballs thrown to his coverage area.
Kwiatkowski came away similarly pleased with his workout, both the athletic testing and linebacker drills.
Read more from Mitten Football
Andrew Graham
Andrew Graham
He jumped 36.5 inches, a number he was particularly pleased with, going about three inches above what he’d managed in training, and benched 18 reps. Kwiatkowski also ran somewhere in the ballpark of a low 4.7 second 40-yard dash, he said.
The positional workout is where Kwiatkowski could really shine, looking comfortable dropping, navigating bags with his feet and moving through space.
“The last 10 weeks of my life, I've just been giving anything and everything I got towards this process,” Kwiatkowski said. “Towards training, basically. Doing the same exact things every day, working on the same exact drill, same exact technique. So, finally, get into the day to be able to go do it and showcase it, and, you know, trust the training you've been receiving the whole time and really just going out there and doing it one last time at a high level, it felt great.”
He’s aware his draft stock isn’t terribly high, and he’s not an imposing physical prospect at linebacker, but Kwiatkowski also knows he was a productive player across multiple years of college football for a reason. And he’s happy to make any impact he can for a team at the next level.
“It helps that I played a lot of ball,” Kwiatkowski said. “I played a lot of special teams. I've learned a lot of the technique. So I'm familiar with it, and you know, I'm not gonna be a guy that they had to babysit, or they have to worry about too much.”
Labas, like the bulk of the Chippewas’ draft prospects, is not projected to be selected. His injury history, among a number of factors, are working against him.
But Labas is also playing a coveted position in a weak quarterback draft. That alone is probably enough to get him picked on draft weekend, but an invite to a rookie minicamp could be in the cards.
Either way, Labas tested generally well, he said. He went 32.5 inches in the vertical and didn’t bench, and though he didn’t know his 40 time he felt it was fast enough. And cutting it loose and getting lost in the throwing session is something he enjoyed after the weeks-long build up to what amounts to a public job interview.
“Yeah, that's more second nature to me, the throwing portion, of course,” Labas said. “Definitely was more exciting to get to that.”
While a Pro Day workout is a small piece of the draft puzzle, it’s an important one — and one the Chippewas working out on Wednesday felt largely good about.
“If they pick me up in any round or — I'd love to be mid, early days — you're not going to waste any money,” Heldman said. “That's for sure.”
