Paea Impresses Scouts at His Pro Day
March 31, 2011
Corvallis, Ore. – Former Oregon State defensive tackle Stephen Paea impressed representatives from 14 NFL teams on Thursday in his personal Pro Day, running extra drills for the Seattle Seahawks, Chicago Bears and St. Louis Rams.
“I feel really good right now – actually I’m feeling great,” Paea said. “I get to showcase what I have right now. If it was only three weeks later, I would have done better as far as numbers and all that. I showed them that my knee is healthy, and I’m going to work harder from now on.”
Paea, who missed the original Pro Day as he was recovering from knee surgery in January, was a consensus All-American for the 2010 season and was named the Pac-10 Conference's Pat Tillman Defensive Player of the Year. In addition, he was honored as the recipient of the league's Morris Trophy for the second straight year as the league's top defensive lineman. The native of Tonga started 37 games after arriving on campus as a sophomore. He concluded his career with 129 tackles and 14 quarterback sacks.
After bench pressing 225 pounds for an NFL Combine record of 49 reps, Paea set his sights on the running drills and standing jumps in Thursday’s evaluation. He posted a 5.15 40-yard dash, a 31-inch vertical jump and eight-foot long jump.
“I felt a lot of pressure,” Paea said. “I thought about it, which is all mental, coming into this Pro Day. All this stuff I’ve so many times in the last two weeks. I had to only do one of the drills once, and I thought they were my best numbers, too, coming into today.”
Members of Paea’s family were on hand, as well as his agent and a number of Oregon State football coaches, teammates and strength and conditioning staff. Paea has been projected as a first round draft pick.
The Beavers opened spring practice on Monday, Mar. 28 with it culminating with the annual spring game on Saturday, Apr. 30 at 12:00 p.m.
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