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James Washington Letting the Numbers Speak for Themselves, Selling ‘Hard Work’ to NFL Teams

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6 years ago

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Oklahoma State’s all-time leading receiver and the reigning top wideout in college football is in Mobile, Alabama for all of the Reese’s Senior Bowl festivities. The game which is played on Saturday is almost an afterthought to practices and weigh-ins that began on Tuesday, and that serve as a mini pre-combine for a number of NFL prospects.

Washington, along with Mason Rudolph and Marcell Ateman were in Alabama’s port town for the event. Rudolph, still rehabbing a sprained foot he suffered stepping into 351 yards and two TDs against Virginia Tech in the Camping World Bowl, did not take part in any drills or practice. But Washington and Ateman are a full go and are looking good so far. Check out Adam Lunt’s breakdown from Thursday.

With events like this come plenty of cameras and plenty of microphones in addition to meetings with interested NFL teams. The NFL Network’s Alex Flanagan caught up with Washington on Day 1 to pick his brain about what he can bring to an NFL franchise, his strengths and what he needs to show scouts ahead of the NFL Draft.

Here’s a couple snippets of what he had to say.

On what he’s selling to NFL teams, Washington skipped the numbers, the records and the highlights.

“Character for one,” said Washington. “And that I’m a guy that’s going to work hard every single day. Every time I touch the field, I’m going to give it my all and I’m going to be accountable and loyal to the team.”

Being one in a line of elite Oklahoma State receivers, the Dez and Blackmon comparisons were going to come up. He gave a little background on how he models himself after Dez Bryant.

“Well, I grew up watching the Dallas Cowboys a lot and he played at Oklahoma State so I watched lots of college film on Dez Bryant, Justin Blackmon, those guys…”

Does it make anyone else feel old that James Washington was 13 years old when Dez was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys???

On what he has in common with those Cowboy greats, Washington says it’s “…the aggressive ability of catching the ball of the air, strong hands and just being physical with DBs…”

Don’t forget about those wheels, El Presidente.

Washington was able to show off those strong hands, like he said.

And here he is bullying the poor DB tasked with lining up opposite the current Biletnikoff winner.

Washington was asked what he needed to prove to NFL scouts that he could improve on before punching that Sunday ticket.

“Expanding my route tree,” said Washington. “I’ve heard that from a number of guys that I need to expand my route tree and be able to run more routes since we didn’t really run much at Oklahoma State and that’s definitely one thing that I want to prove this week.”

Overall, Washington has done nothing but boost his draft stock during this week’s Senior Bowl practices and drills.

While Washington seems to be making a name for himself in Mobile, his former head coach can’t quite grasp how this could come as a surprise to national media and scouts. He’s got a point.

The Senior Bowl will be televised on the NFL Network on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. Central time.

Check out the full interview.

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