A few hours after finishing a highly successful pro day at Ohio State, cornerback Gareon Conley was nowhere to be found. His agent, Adam Heller, was hoping to take his client and his family to dinner for a low-key celebration of another memorable milepost en route to the NFL Draft, but the fast-rising prospect had other ideas.
It turns out that Conley, despite spending the day performing for NFL scouts, was back at the gym. It's hardly unusual because that's often where you find him as he aspires to report to his new team in as close to playing shape as possible. But under these circumstances, the decision seemed noteworthy. Working hard, being self-motivated, remaining focused on a singular goal seems to come naturally for Conley and has helped fuel his rise to the top of some NFL draft boards as the best corner available when health or attitude concerns are dragging down some of his peers.
"I wouldn't really say I was working out," Conley said, demurring after thinking back on his pro day a few weeks back. "I just did like an arm workout."
Just an arm workout. No biggie.
If Conley isn't at the NFL-caliber gym on campus in Columbus or working on his technique on a practice field, he generally will be hanging out with family and friends or perhaps playing the video game "Call of Duty." He's avoiding distractions in this wacky and hype-filed pre-draft season and is almost about to get his life back, at least to some degree.
Conley, 22, spent Thursday driving back to campus after a visit with the Bengals. His lengthy schedule of visits and workouts will be complete after a Monday visit to the Jags before sitting down with the Jets on Tuesday. A rare two-year starter for the Buckeyes secondary, Conley possesses the combination of production, size (6-0, 195 pounds), speed and frame NFL scouts covet, with the kind of arm length that catches attention, too. It explains why teams like the Panthers, Browns, Eagles, Bengals, Lions, Titans, Saints and Jets are among those quite interested.
There was little fanfare about Conley at the start of this process. Teammate Marshon Lattimore got most of the attention. But in NFL circles the distance between those two players always seemed exaggerated by the media, and many teams have acute concerns about Lattimore's hamstrings.
"That decision [Lattimore or Conley] is a medical one," one NFL exec said. "That's coming down to your doctors. How comfortable are they with Lattimore's hamstrings? It varies by team."
Another NFL decision-maker said: "Conley has always been a first-round corner, and I understand why he is the top guy on some boards. He may not be as flashy as some of the other corners, and maybe the upside isn't quite as high, but neither is the risk. This is a clean player who started for two years and who made big plays in big games. There is a lot to like."
With Sidney Jones (Washington) injuring his Achilles and Fabian Moreau (UCLA) tearing his pec and Teez Tabor (Florida) running a slow 40 time and rubbing teams the wrong way, Conley sticks out in this deep corner draft class. That drumbeat figures to intensify with the draft less than two weeks away, but Conley isn't going to change his routine and certainly isn't getting tied up in a process that's out of his hands (Conley and Washington's Kevin King are two corners I consistently hear are in teams' top three at the position).
After watching close friend Eli Apple, another Ohio State corner, go through this process a year ago before going to the Giants at No. 10 overall, much higher than most originally predicted, Conley felt prepared for what he would face from the combine on.
"There really haven't been any surprises," he told me while driving back across Ohio to Columbus. "The past players and coaches pretty much tell us the whole process, and we've been around it so long that everything they said actually turned out to be what's going on. I kind of expected this and Eli, who is like my best friend, he told me a lot of the stuff that goes into this and it's been as I expected."
Conley, who already has graduated and earns high marks from scouts on general intelligence and football IQ, found time amid all the flights and visits last weekend to hold a charity event in his hometown of Massillon, Ohio, a football factory synonymous with this sport in the Midwest. On Saturday he signed autographs and raised money for a homeless shelter in Canton, while also launching his brand ("Conley Island").
With his classwork out of the way, Conley is intent on elevating his game ahead of the inevitable challenges that are ahead in OTAs and training camp. "I'm done with school, so now I just have to focus on the football things I need to improve to be successful in the NFL," he said. "Just cleaning up my technique with my hands and using my hands more and improving my tackling."
Conley and Lattimore have maintained a close relationship despite inevitable comparisons and prodding that comes from NFL teams. They have yet to end up in the same NFL facility on the same day -- though Conley has crossed paths with plenty of other Buckeyes during his travels -- though obviously both want to be the top corner selected.
"We don't really compare notes or anything like that," Conley said, "but I do talk to him all the time and we talk about just going through this process and enjoying it together, honestly."
Conley's draft sweetspot should really come into focus in the teens, starting with the Bengals (No. 9) through the Titans (No. 18). Four teams or more could draft corners in that range. His wait at the draft in Philadelphia won't be more than a few hours long. He's already been surrounded by and competing with future NFL defensive backs at Ohio State, thriving with quiet confidence.
Conley isn't the kind of brash corner who will rant about how good he is, but if you watch his film and ask him to assess how he stacks up, he won't back down.
"I feel like I can compete with anybody out there in the draft," Conley said, "but I kind of do my own thing, because it's all about what I need to do to make myself better to reach my goal of being the best you can be. I'm always a competitor, though, and I feel like I am as good as all of the other corners in the draft.
"At Ohio State, it prepares you a lot, and everyone has high expectations for the program and for the defense itself, and especially the cornerbacks with all the great ones that have played here over the years. So I set a high expectation for myself and I aim to be best and always strive to be the best. That's what we do."
