Francis Bernard, Utah Football News: Draft Scout Player News

04/20/20 - ILB Francis Bernard, rSr/2020, Utah

On March 27, Bernard and a handful of other prospects, including Utes teammate and projected second-day selection Bradlee Anae, were at All-American Park in Las Vegas to run the 40, 20-yard shuttle and the L drill. The event was timed by Zybek Timing and CEO Mike Weinstein, which is important for two reasons. One, Zybek has the clout of doing the timing for the NFL Scouting Combine. Two, Zybek does laser timing, so even without the Combine spotlight, a time produced by Zybek will be taken seriously by NFL personnel, who were not allowed to attend. Bernard made up for his 4.81 at the Combine by running 4.65 in Vegas. "I definitely feel relieved about it," Bernard said. "I wanted to reassure people I am not a 4.8 guy, and you could already see that on film."

On April 8, in a workout run by Jordan Pendleton of Lehi-based Pendleton Performance, Bernard did positional drills at Summit Academy's Bluffdale campus. Five days later, LaBoy emailed a Vimeo link with 28 videos of Bernard working out to roughly 150 NFL personnel, general managers, college scouting directors and area scouts. Things haven't been easy, but the end result appears to have been fruitful. After meeting with 17 teams at the Combine, Bernard has met with 14 via video conferencing. Most reputable projections have Bernard as a third-day selection, potentially as high as the middle of the fourth round. "I feel good about the feedback from teams and my agent, so I'm feeling pretty confident about the draft," Bernard said. "Some of the feedback has said late third round, so I'm just hoping more teams see me. The projections vary all over the place. "I left everything out there and I think I check off a lot of boxes. It's up to the teams to like me or not." - Salt Lake Tribune

rSr/2020