Maryland football WR Tai Felton on being the underdog," his NFL chase and playing for Mike Locksley
"Going to Maryland, man, and having to work my way up from the bottom at the depth start, man, I enjoyed that stuff, man. Going through the grind, catching those extra jugs, extra tennis balls, watching the extra film and stuff like that. Because I like being an underdog, man..."
Former Maryland star wide receiver Tai Felton is coming off a strong NFL Combine performance, and it's just a matter of when, not if, he will be drafted in next month's NFL Draft.
Felton joined "The Sports Junkies" on 106.7 The Fan on Friday morning to discuss his combine showing.
"Yeah, for sure, man, I'm juiced up about it, 100%, man," Felton said. "I was definitely juiced up about it. Some of the scouts, they kind of had my 40 and stuff kind of underrated, so I was excited to go out there and kind of show them I got some speed to me, I got some vert to me as well."
Felton ran a 4.37-second 40-yard dash. He had a 39.5" vertical jump and a 10'10" broad jump. Felton was asked if he could dunk from the free-throw line.
"Oh, no, man, I can't do all that," he joked. "But I'm pretty close, I would say. I got some windmill to me, some 360 to me…"
But he did have some experience playing basketball at Eppley Recreation Center on campus.
"I had my time, my four years at Maryland, man," Felton said. "So we had some good other guys too, we were throwing alley-oops to each other and stuff of that nature, man…"
Felton spoke about his draft preparation, "being the underdog," interviews with NFL teams, playing for Mike Locksley, his teammate Kaden Prather and much more.
ON IF HE PLAYED INTRAMURAL BASKETBALL IN THE OFFSEASON
"Nah, we didn't play any intramurals. Usually, like, after spring practice or after one of the spring workouts, winter workouts, we'd get about 10, 15 guys to go over to Eppley man, and we're running five-on-five with the other guys at Eppley, the other students and stuff like that. And we were getting to it, man, we were definitely getting after it. We definitely had a hell of a time."ON WHERE HE WAS PREPPING FOR THE COMBINE
"Yeah. So I was actually down at XPE in Fort Lauderdale, so Matt Gates and those guys. I was with Jayden Higgins from Iowa State, a lot of Colorado guys – Jimmy Horn, LaJohntay Webster, Devin Neal from Kansas. I was with a lot of guys, the top guys in the Big 12, and some other SEC guys – Jamon Dumas-Johnson, Greg Penn, Zy Alexander. So yeah, there was a lot of guys out there from around the country that's been showing out in college football down there. So it was a good time, for sure."ON IF HE PUT UP BETTER NUMBERS WHEN HE WAS WORKING OUT OR IF HE PEAKED AT THE RIGHT TIME
"Yeah, for the vert, I want 40 man. I know I'm a 40-inch guy when it comes to the vert man, so I had a personal goal of hitting that. I think I was hitting, like, around the same thing at XPE. But the broad jump, that's something that kind of exceeded. I was hitting like 10-1, 10-2, stuff of that nature. So I was able to get a little bit of adrenaline going at the combine, got up to 10-10 on that one … The 40, we already kind of had me running like around that 4.36, 4.37, range. So I was hitting like, 4.40 laser, 4.39 laser, at XPE. So we knew at the combine we'd all be a little juiced up, man, so the numbers would drop or go up a little bit. So that was exciting to actually get that done."ON IF HE’S WORRIED ABOUT PULLING HIS HAMSTRING WITH THE DRILLS
"Yeah it's definitely – the two months I was down there, man, we were strengthening our hamstring, strengthening our quads, squatting and stuff like that. So, like, we're still on a lift regimen, and 40s and stuff like that. So we're doing everything, all the above, just to make sure our body's intact. Because we know we're going to be blazing, running two times as fast as possible, so we know that our body was going to have to be intact so we wouldn't pull anything or anything like that. So those guys at XPE, they definitely got us right. We had good treatment, massages, stretch … They were down there, they stretched out and stuff like that. They definitely had the whole thing going on to make sure nobody would be getting injured or anything like that."ON HOW MANY TEAMS HE HAD INTERVIEWS WITH, IF THE COMMANDERS WERE ONE OF THEM
"Yeah, 100%. I probably met with around 20 to 25 teams. I met with a lot of teams at the combine, and I actually met with the Commanders – I didn't meet with them at the combine, but I met with them at Senior Bowl, so we talked for like, 10, 15 minutes. I'm a very local guy, so they already know a lot about me, so there's only so much we can meet about stuff of that nature. I know they're looking at me 100%, but I met with a lot of teams at the combine and at the Senior Bowl, for sure."ON HAVING THE FILM TO BACK UP THE NUMBERS
"Yeah, man, 100%. Especially, my biggest thing, man, was showing improvement every year, man. From my freshman to my sophomore year, and then sophomore to junior and so on, man. So I improved. I tried to double my numbers every year. Kind of look back on at the end of the season what I needed to work on, what I need to improve on, what's already up there, what can I kind of fix up a little bit, man. So my biggest thing was just showing improvement every year. And I was blessed to be around Maryland, those guys at Maryland and my teammates to kind of push me in the offseason, to make me a better player on and off the field, man, so I was able to improve every year."On the Michigan State game: "Yeah, man, I was juiced up, man. I had to start the season off fast, man. That was my biggest thing from my junior coming to my sophomore year, I mean, my senior year, so."
