On March 20th, 31 of the 32 NFL teams had scouts in Syracuse, New York for Syracuse University’s annual pro day. 9 Syracuse Orange players took part in the pro day; Matthew Bergeron, Aaron Bolinsky, Chris Elmore, C.J Hayes, Mikel Jones, Andre Szmyt, Sean Tucker, Garrett Williams and Devaughn Cooper. Of the players a part of this draft class from Syracuse, it’s names like Matthew Bergeron, Garrett Williams and Sean Tucker that stick out the most. Bergeron has high draft grades not only because of a great regular season with Syracuse, but also a successful Senior Bowl week and combine performance. It seemed as if the day was built around the Montreal, Quebec native, and he took full advantage of the opportunity in front of him on the 20th, but so did his teammates.
Devaughn Cooper’s performance at the pro day was a perfect way to close out a long college football career, and looked to have opened doors for his next chapters of life on and off of the football field.
Cooper, from South Central Los Angeles, California, finished his seventh college football season in 2022 with the Syracuse Orange. He completed his collegiate career with 1,367 receiving yards and four touchdowns on 98 catches with the University of Arizona, the University of Texas El Paso and Syracuse University. On the field, a little undersized at right around 5-foot-10, he always played with great speed and agility, running smooth and crisp routes while having the ability to run with the ball after the catch, all things he put on display at the pro day last Monday.
He finished the pro day with a 40 yard dash time of 4.53, 3 cone of 6.96, shuttle of 4.25, vertical jump of 31 inches, broad jump of 9.5 feet and benched 10 reps of 225 pounds.
With 31 of 32 NFL teams in attendance, Cooper was extremely happy with his performance at the pro day, and is excited for the next steps of not only his football career but his life outside of football. As for football, the NFL Draft will take place at the end of April, deciding whether or not he will spend time in the NFL in 2023, but outside of football, the next steps have already begun for Devaughn Cooper. He launched his very own clothing brand a few years ago called The Ganders, and is very focused on making it a world renown brand. “It started when me and my friends were young. We came up with the word Ganders in the slang way meaning hustle, and I transformed that into a clothing brand to inspire people to work hard and be proud of their work, no matter what they are working towards.
JZ MEDIA 