By Chad Husted
Assistant Sports Editor
Coming off a season in which he was voted the team's most valuable player by his teammates, former Purdue tight end Dustin Keller is looking to show NFL scouts that he is one of the best tight ends in this year's draft.
He just doesn't think playing in the Senior Bowl is the way to do it.
"After speaking (to NFL executives), they said they have seen enough of me playing on film," said Keller, who caught 68 balls last season. "If I went to the Senior Bowl, it would give me a chance to talk to representatives, but it wasn't completely necessary for me to be there."
Keller's older brother, Drew, who has been heavily involved with Dustin's preparation for the NFL, added that the Senior Bowl would feature Dustin in a traditional tight end role, including working as a blocker, not as a receiver.
"He's more of a receiving tight end, and so I don't think the game would have helped him," Drew said. "He wouldn't have been able to show his true skills, which are receiving and being more a part of the offense."
Since the end of the season, Dustin, who also declined an invite to the East-West Shrine game, has been working out in Tampa, Fla., on a program designed to get him in peak shape for the NFL Combine in February. He works out daily with his own personal trainer, who uses exercises specifically designed to make Keller as fast and strong as possible.
"It's everything: speed, explosiveness and working on position-specific stuff as well," Keller said of the program.
Both Keller brothers have expectations that the program will leave Dustin in the best shape of his life.
"They don't let him eat any of the foods he likes," Drew said. "Before, he didn't have much body fat, and now he's just completely ripped."
ESPN.com has Dustin rated as a quality backup and an adequate starter at the next level, but even as hard as Dustin is working to improve his draft status, he has no idea where he is being projected to be drafted at.
Instead, he says, wherever it is, he'll prove it wrong.
"I told (my agent) I didn't want any type of projection, I didn't want them to tell me anything before the combine because I truly believe that after the combine, my stock is going to rise a lot," Keller said.
Before he began his training, Keller spent the week following Purdue's win in the Motor City Bowl away from football to relax with his family and refresh his body in Lafayette.
"You have a 13-game season, including the bowl game, with no time off, no bye weeks or anything like that," he said. "So your body is going to have a lot of bumps and bruises. I just needed the week to regenerate ... and at the same time it was really good to spend time with my family."
The NFL Combine will be held from Feb. 20 to 26 in Indianapolis.
Published in the Purdue Exponent on January 24, 2008
No comments:
Post a Comment