ISU Wide Receiver Tanner Conner preparing to compete in the NFL
POCATELLO, Idaho (KIFI) - Star Idaho State wide receiver Tanner Conner continues his preparation for the NFL, and with the NFL Draft two weeks from Thursday, Conner could become the first Bengal drafted to the NFL since Jared Allen in 2004.
Conner has garnered lots of attention from teams and scouts recently, thanks in part to a great showing at Washington's pro day two weeks ago.
"We were the last group to go, and I had at least ten teams come up to me and say 'man, that was really impressive, like, you look great out there,'" Conner said. "They actually added a tight end drill for me afterwards to start putting me through some tight end stuff because they wanted to see how I move throughout these drills...for me, getting special treatment like that is super new for me. And I had every single team watching me because I think we had 29 of 32 teams at that pro day, and they're all just watching just me do some tight end drills and they were all interested."
Conner's also grateful for his journey, including his time at ISU, which has helped him get to this point.
"I think the coolest thing about my story is going to be looking back at what I overcame to get to this opportunity," Conner said. "I was a kid at a high school with no scholarships. I've told this story a million times and, you know, Hillary Merkley wanted me for track and saw my passion of football and ended up giving me a football scholarship when I had no other offers or interest. And so if you have a kid who comes out of high school, he's tall, skinny and scrawny, puts on 50 pounds, and all of a sudden he's an NFL prospect, he gets potentially drafted or goes to a team and also he makes active roster, I think that does a lot for other kids who are in similar situations and also helps out smaller schools like, I don't know, say there's a lot of FCS talent out there that's never going to get looked at no matter how good they are. That's just the reality of the beast that the NFL is. So for me, I'm just super blessed to have the opportunity and just to like have so many different things happen in my life."
Regardless of whether he gets drafted or not, Conner has lots of interest from NFL teams that could sign him if he isn't picked. The NFL Draft begins Thursday, April 28th and runs through Saturday, April 30th.
