Texas A&M Football: The NFL totally whiffed on Jalen Wydermyer

Former Texas A&M football TE Jalen Wydermyer’s draft stock had the worst plummet of any player in the country

How does a productive college football tight end go from a first-round projected pick to an undrafted free agent in under a year? It’s the question that all Texas A&M football fans have been wondering about for the past week.

Generally speaking, you can point to injuries or off-field issues for a drop like this. But after a productive 2021 season without any of those variables, Jalen Wydermyer still managed to see his draft stock plummet. Heck, having gone undrafted in the 2022 NFL Draft, the argument could be made that his draft stock completely disappeared.

Wydermyer would eventually be picked up by the Buffalo Bills as an undrafted free agent but the question still looms — why did this happen?

Poor testing

The simple answer here is simply in regards to Jalen Wydermyer’s poor offseason. The Aggie tight end didn’t just test poorly — he had arguably the worst testing numbers of virtually any player in the country.

There were already whispers that Wydermyer’s athleticism could hold him back at the next level and his Texas A&M Pro Day did him no favors.

Now… before I get too far into this, I’d like it known that Pro Day numbers are notoriously unreliable. Plenty of players put up unrealistically impressive numbers that are likely inflated by their respective coaching staffs on a yearly basis. This obviously wasn’t the case with Texas A&M, as virtually every player who tested had a rough day. Take a look at these 40-yard dash times.

If you’re an NFL GM, there are two conclusions you can draw here. The first, and likely most common, is that the Texas A&M football team is full of extremely slow players. The second and, in my opinion, the stronger possibility here is that Texas A&M is one of few schools that didn’t fudge the numbers. Still, these numbers compared poorly to the NFL combine, which is the most important area to test.

Wydermyer’s 5.03 40-yard dash time was accompanied by a 9-foot-1 broad jump and 25.5-inch vertical. These are all very bad numbers, regardless of the circumstances.

Apparently, it was enough to erase three consecutive seasons of productivity in the SEC, the best conference in the country. To an extent, it makes sense to see him drop in the draft. But to slip entirely out of the NFL Draft?

It’s hard to say that Wydermyer will become an NFL star but he was productive at a high level — I can almost guarantee you that he makes an impact at the next level.