Yancey, Purdue's best hope to keep NFL streak alive, eager for weekend
DeAngelo Yancey might spend hours this weekend wandering around a grocery store, anything to keep his mind — and eyes — away from the NFL Draft.
The wide receiver, who might be Purdue’s best chance to extend its NFL selection streak to 20 consecutive years, is with family in his hometown of Atlanta now. They'll be a good distraction, he thinks, because he doesn’t want to be too preoccupied with the three-day draft, which starts at 8 p.m. Thursday and continues Friday and Saturday.
“I’m definitely not going to be staring at the TV,” Yancey said Thursday morning. “I don’t know exactly what I’m going to be doing, but I’m going to be out doing something.”
Yancey’s future, at least in regards to the draft, is out of his hands at this point. But he’s done about all he can do to put himself in the best possible position for this weekend.
The 6-foot-2, 220-pound receiver was a third-team All-Big Ten selection as a senior, when he had 49 catches for 951 yards and 10 touchdowns for Purdue. Yet, questions persisted. Yancey answered the speed one at his Purdue pro day March 7, when he ran a 4.46 in the 40-yard dash in front of about 30 NFL scouts. It followed up a good showing previously in January’s Shrine Game.
Two teams — the Titans and the Patriots — wanted to see more and came back to work Yancey out at Purdue. And Yancey said he took visits to eight other teams.
But the workouts for Tennessee and New England, who sent positional coaches, went well, he said.
“They want to see how you move, how well you get in and out of cuts,” Yancey said. “Being a bigger receiver, they want to see whether I can move like a smaller receiver. They want to see your condition, see where that’s at, and it usually only lasts about 30 minutes.”
Now, Yancey waits. Purdue has had at least one player drafted in each of the last 19 years, with Anthony Brown going to the Cowboys last spring. At No. 189, Brown was the lowest first Boilermaker selected since Joe Odom was at 191 in 2003.
But Brown, the only former Purdue player picked in ’16, kept the string going. In 2017, it might be Yancey, or perhaps offensive linemen Jordan Roos or Jason King. Only one former Boilermaker has been picked in five of the last seven years, but three times — Mike Neal in 2010, Ryan Kerrigan in 2011 and Kawann Short in 2013 — those players have come in one of the first two rounds.
“It’d be nice (to get picked), but at the same time I’m not stressing about it, ‘Well, I have to get drafted,’” Yancey said. “A lot of guys go undrafted and make the team; a lot of guys get drafted and don’t make the team.”
Many, including his draft profile at NFL.com, have Yancey projected as a seventh-round selection or “priority” free agent. He says he’s seen other projections on Twitter or elsewhere, but isn’t getting too wrapped up in them.
“I try not to think about it,” he said. “I feel like I have confidence in myself. If I get my foot in the door in any type of way, I feel like I’m going to stay there.”
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