Titans Fourth-Round Steal: Elic Ayomanor’s Story

Titans Fourth-Round Steal: Elic Ayomanor’s Story

How did Titans rookie Ella Manor defy all the odds after being born in Medicine Hat Canada, only playing nine high school football games, get a D1 scholarship, and then drafted in the NFL? Well, our Justin Melo talked to Alec Ayam Manor. And to the Canadian scout who found him and put him on the map, Justin Dylan, we’re going to break down Alec Aamanner’s journey from unknown medicine hat Canada native to NFL draft pick. This is the Music City Audible. What’s up everyone? Justin Graver and Justin Melo here for another Music City Audible min episode looking at EL Manor’s journey. Justin, you did some great journalistic work here, reporting, digging, whatever you want to call it. talking to Elle Manor and talking to the scout who found him, Justin Dylan, to understand how a guy who was born in a city that before Manor had only produced one NFL player in a history of its existence, who only played nine high school football games, got a D1 offer, and then was drafted in the NFL. What What’s the story here? This is a crazy against all odds type of story here for Titans rookie Elkaya Manor who by the way has been tearing it up in two days of training camp for the Titans. That’s the reason we decided to make this episode, right? Because Elio Maners looked really good at training camp so far. You and I have both projected him into a potential role like a legitimate role this coming season. If you haven’t read the story, it’s live on titansize.com right now. It’s headlines, Titans rookie made it to the NFL the hard way and then in brackets and he’s just getting warmed up. As you all know, I’m a Canadian native. So, I took some interest in this story with Alec I Manor from Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada. I’ll be honest with you though, that’s not what drew me to this at all. If I Manor was from the American version of Medicine Hat, like some sort of small town, and made it to the NFL, it would have been just as interesting to me. And I mean that. And I would have had just as amount of interest in telling this story. Like I’m from Toronto, okay? Medicine hat to me. Like I don’t I don’t even know where it is. Like it’s got like I’m so I’m being honest with you. Like it might as well be like what’s that fictional town in Fargo? Or is it not fictional at all? Like Seo Falls, North Dakota. Like that’s the Canadian version of Medicine Hat. Like it’s absolute middle of nowhere. I can’t I got to fly like five hours to get there. Put it that way. Like or close to it. So but he became the second Medicine Hat native to make it to the NFL. Well, how did he do it? Well, it started back when he was like a pre-teen. I tracked down I saw his name mentioned in an ESPN story like four months ago, and that’s where this idea came to me. Justin Dylan, who is based here with me in Toronto, runs a Canadian-based scouting service where he relies, he’s not a scout, though, okay? He relies on spotters in what he does is get talent to US programs through his relationships. He’s not a scout at all, but what he relies on is what he called them spotters in every major Canadian province to contact him, essential scouts to be like, “Hey, there’s this kid here who looks legit and is really good.” That’s when he comes on board. He watches the tape and says, “Okay, this kid is good enough to work with me. I’m going to try to get him in front of American programs.” He noticed some traits, right? you talked about in your article that he mentioned specific traits that he knows that American football programs are looking for because obviously there’s you know rule changes in high school in medicine hat they play CFL rules which is a very different game than NFL so he’s looking for what speed hands natural hands catching ability and I manner displayed these traits size is another one obviously you know manner is a big guy he was already a big kid at that age the the speed was incredibly evident on tape so Justin Dylan comes on board and you I first of all like I talked to Alec I maner about this and he had to remind me he’s like I was really young like this wasn’t really a decision for me to make like when he told me he can get me in front of D1 coaches I was like sounds good I’m 12 13 right like that conversation happened between Justin Dylan and I maner’s mom like that’s who was making the decisions of course at that point right so he comes on board he gets it you know he gets Alec Ioman’s mom on board starts sending out the tape working the relationships cuz I’ll tell you if you’re not you’re of course you’re not familiar if you’re not you’re not familiar with Justin Dylan like his resume for doing this the Brown twins Chase Brown and Sydney Brown who are playing highle ball right now Nathan Shepard who’s been in the league for quite a while at DTackle Josh Palmer probably the biggest success story that he has you know Palmer just signed a lucrative deal with the Buffalo Bills in free agency he has like 2500 career receiving yards four years with the Chargers and Justin Dylan called him the best Canadian player I’ve seen the best one I’ve scouted so Chad Alec Kio mana reminded him a little bit of him. So when he comes on board u he gets him to the petty high school in Jersey which is a well-known prep school to get these guys ready for college ball. And you know it’s funny when I talked to I manor about that specifically. I asked him about the hard work and the sacrifice. And I thought his response was so good and refreshing you know because you tend to focus on the sacrifice. And he said to me well I didn’t feel like I was sacrificing anything. I thought I was incredibly lucky and fortunate to have an opportunity to move from Medicine Hat, Alberta to a legitimately good prep school in the US. So, he said to me, I was the worst player there. You know, I was like, I got there and I’m like, oh, this is bad. And Dylan said, you’re going to have to exert more patience with him than you normally would because, yeah, he’s really raw. He’s not going to be as good as the guys you got from all over the country, like, but the size, the speed, trust me, work with him, be patient with him. We saw how it pays off. And I want to talk about why he ended up only playing nine high school games cuz that’s a massive story in itself. But also the fact that this guy is like eighth or nth what ninth grade moving to a new country going to like a boarding school with without his family just going to take a chance on pursuing a dream. That says a lot about his motivation and his character and his determination and ability to actually thrive in an environment like that so far from home. but also preparing him for college and for life in the NFL when he is going to have to be self-disciplined if he wants to find success. So, I think that’s a really interesting aspect to the story. But talk to me, Justin. He only played nine games. What happened? So, despite the challenges, he got off to a decent start sophomore, then he breaks his collar bone, right? So, now he’s fresh off an injury while the coach who decided to bring him to Petty leaves the program, right? So now he decides to reopen his recruitment and he ends up going to this the program that was the number one contender when it lost out to Petty. It’s called Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts. There was a great relationship there between Justin Dylan and the coach at the time, Brian Barbado. He gets there, more challenges arise, right? COVID happens and then he hurts his knee. He has like a bad knee injury. That’s how he ends up only playing nine games. It’s his collar bone. It’s COVID and then it’s a knee injury. So really was a big deal. So nine games, uh, his career is over. His high school career is over. What do they do? Coach Barbado, Justin Dylan, I matter, they put together like this video, like almost like a huddle style video of him running routes. Some of it was him running routes against air. Some of it was against one of the DBs that was at Deerfield at the time that had a bunch of D1 offers himself. So that video goes out. Justin Dylan is sending it out. Coach Barbado is sending it out. Alec Iman joked with me. I think my mom sent it to every D1 coach in the country. Like they just kind of teamed up and got this video viral and then the offers start rolling in. Notre Dame, Tennessee, Penn State, Duke, I think Kentucky was listed there. But what happens I mean Justin Dylan takes me all the way back. He goes, “When I first met with his mom, they expressed a lot of interest in Stanford due to the academics. You know, they still realize, hey, he’s up against it here. He’s a Canadian kid coming from medicine hat. There’s only been one of us ever before. He’s got to get a a good education, you know, in case this doesn’t work out. So, luckily for Justin Dylan, luckily for Alec, luckily for uh the mom who’s involved in this, Stanford is among the offers. And for EL’s mother, for him himself, he knew that marrying athletics with academics was very important. He goes there, he puts together two really strong seasons at Stanford. And he enters the draft after that, you know, back-to-back borderline thousandy receiving seasons. Titans end up taking him in the fourth round this year and he’s off to a great start at training camp thus far. And I think that speaks to his development too. A guy who showed up at high school as such a raw route runner. Took was what was essentially sort of a red shirt first year at Stanford. I think that was probably where a lot of that development occurred and then just comes out and explodes the next two seasons there and works himself up to being a fourth round pick. And now he’s going to try to defy even more odds. Right, Justin? Because how many receivers have been drafted on day three of the draft in the last 5 years that have actually had more than 500 receiving yards as a rookie? I think there’s been what 79 receivers drafted from rounds four to seven since 2020 and only six of them have put out 500 yards in their first season. So, Elkaya Manor, I think, has a chance to defy these odds as well because, as you mentioned at the top, there’s a role for him to go grab. If he has a great training camp and a great preseason, he could establish himself as one of the starting receivers in this group as the X or at the very least one of the top rotational pieces that’s playing a lot of snaps in this offense. and you know, he could have a chance to be one of Cam Ward’s top targets behind Calvin Ridley and go out and have a 500 plus yard rookie season and become the seventh guy uh in that group. So, a great story there again from about ELMer from our own Justin Melo. It is live on titansize.com if you missed it. Thanks for tuning in to this special mini episode of the Music City Audible talking about Elliot Maner’s journey. We’ll be back on Friday to recap Thursday’s training camp practice. Make sure you’re subscribed to the channel, like it, drop a comment below, and we’ll be back then. Until then, y’all stay safe out there and tighten up. A Broadway Sports Media production.

Justin Melo and Justin Graver are back for a quick minisode to tell the unbeliebable underdog story of Tennessee Titans fourth-round rookie receiver Elic Ayomanor and his journey from Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada, to the NFL.

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