NFL pro day results: Blake Bortles works out for scouts

The headliner on Wednesday was quarterback Blake Bortles, who took the stage at UCF.

Mar 19, 2014, 7:22 PM UTC

Rob Leifheit-US PRESSWIRE

On Wednesday, seven schools put their best players on the field for NFL scouts across the country, hoping to see some draft stocks rise.

For some, it was simply making a name for themselves in the hopes of becoming a seventh-round pick or one of the top undrafted free agents. For players like Blake Bortles of the University of Central Florida, the idea was not to screw up what should be one of the highest stocks of anybody in the country.

This is how it all played out:

Baylor

Thirty-six scouts from 30 teams showed up in Waco to watch the Baylor prospects work out.

Offensive lineman Cyril Richardson had 27 official bench reps, an improvement on his 25 reps at the Combine. He ran a 5.16 40, also an improvement on his 5.36 Combine time. Richardson is trying to resurrect his draft stock after struggling in the Senior Bowl and putting up middling measurements in Indianapolis.

Running back Lache Seastrunk ran a 4.46, slightly better than his 4.51 time at the Combine.

Central Florida

Blake Bortles was the star attraction in Orlando, and all of the usual suspects -- teams with a need at quarterback -- were there to watch him.

Head coaches for four of top eight teams in NFL draft here at UCF for Bortles: Bill O'Brien, Gus Bradley, Lovie Smith, Mike Zimmer ...
— Greg Auman (@gregauman) March 19, 2014

Bortles worked from a specific script that UCF was nice enough to release to the public.

Nice of @UCF_Football to tweet out script for Blake Bortles pro day: pic.twitter.com/8hsw1DlABO
— Will Brinson (@WillBrinson) March 19, 2014

Bortles started out mostly accurate, particularly on the run (shown in the below GIF). However, he threw behind his receivers on a few routes.

Later in the workout he started overthrowing passes and leaving receivers hanging out to dry over the middle.

Bortles did show off some good touch early on (shown below), but toward the end he was visibly exhausted and failed to connect on many of his deep passes. Overall, this performance shouldn't do much to affect his draft stock -- he's still expected to go somewhere in the top five.

Bortles completes 38-of-47 with four of those incompletions drops. Missed a few deep balls where looks like WR cut routes too short.
— Paul Tenorio (@osknights) March 19, 2014

Bortles pro day is over. Solid performance early. He got gassed late. It's hot in here. Missed some deep balls at the end. Overall, decent.
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) March 19, 2014

Running back Storm Johnson suffered a hamstring injury and did not run his second 40.

Lindenwood

Cornerback Pierre Desir is the most notable prospect from the Division II school. Despite Lindenwood’s low profile, plenty of NFL teams had staff members in attendance to watch Desir.