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Brandon Marshall, House of Athlete to Host Combine for 2021 NFL Draft Prospects
March 4, 2021
Former NFL wide receiver Brandon Marshall is set to host a workout showcase for the 2021 NFL draft prospects who trained at his House of Athlete facility in Florida.
Mike Jones of USA Today reported that the event, which will air on FoxSports.com at 10 a.m. ET on Friday, was created by Marshall to help prospects replace the lost exposure when the NFL Scouting Combine was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
"It was an interesting process; it was a hard process—a lot of tension and stress because this is the thing you dreamed about since you were six or seven years old," Marshall said. "I wanted those guys to be able to experience this...to show the scouts and the NFL what they have. This is the biggest stage, and if you take that away, what opportunity do they have?"
The six-time Pro Bowl selection explained to Jones he's doing everything in his power to make sure the showcase carries the same weight as the combine. That includes hiring Zybek, which handles combine timing in a normal year, to do the same at the House of Athlete event. Marshall said:
"We're going through third parties, making sure everyone understands these numbers aren't cooked.
"It makes no sense for us to go through this whole live stream and big production to help these guys get to the next level, and then for the scouts and general managers and owners be like, 'What the hell? This is not what you sold us.'
"We're trying to continue this thing for years to come, and we went over it and want to make sure that when the scouts and general managers tune in, they're getting the real, real."
Marshall is also putting the prospects through the full process, including measurements, athletic testing and on-field positional drills, which will be led by a group of former NFL players that includes Ryan Clark, Channing Crowder, Chad Johnson and Fred Taylor.
Mo Wells, House of Athlete's director of pro performance, will coordinate the process, which will be filmed and distributed to NFL teams.
"We're not running an iPhone camera, digital recorder," Wells told Jones. "We're running a full-scale event that even the NFL Network would be proud of."
Among the 20-plus prospects expected to take part are Texas A&M quarterback Kellen Mond, Clemson running back Travis Etienne and Georgia cornerback Eric Stokes Jr.
Marshall, who retired from the NFL after the 2018 season, founded House of Athlete in 2019 to "bridge the gap between mental fitness and physical fitness" for modern-day athletes.