MOBILE, Ala. \u2014 Seemingly every year, at least one small-school prospect bursts onto the scene at the Senior Bowl and becomes a big part of the draft conversation. Last year, North Dakota State offensive lineman Grey Zabel helped cement himself as a first-rounder, and Northern Iowa\u2019s Trevor Penning did the same in 2022; in 2023, Sacramento State\u2019s Marte Mapu and Princeton\u2019s Andrei Iosivas climbed boards off their Senior Bowl performances.<\/p>\n
This year? Say hello to Division III John Carroll (Ohio) wide receiver Tyren Montgomery.<\/p>\n
The 5-foot-11, 193-pound pass catcher has been torching defensive backs during National team practices in Mobile, and he\u2019ll attempt to do the same to the American team\u2019s secondary during Saturday\u2019s game (2:30 p.m. ET, NFL Network). What do you need to know about the week\u2019s surprising star?<\/p>\n
Montgomery\u2019s background<\/p>\n
Montgomery did not play high school football at The Woodlands (Texas), from which he graduated in 2019. He spent one semester as a walk-on basketball player at LSU before deciding to give football a try.<\/p>\n
There were obstacles in the way of his decision. One was the COVID-19 pandemic, which limited roster sizes and walk-on opportunities. Another was more complicated: Montgomery had never played football and had nothing other than a dream to sell to college coaches.<\/p>\n
In hopes of building a highlight reel that might give him a chance to play college football, Montgomery accepted an invitation to play competitive flag football for a team based out of Florida. He showed enough speed and raw ability there to earn a chance to play FCS ball at Nicholls State, where he enrolled in 2022 and then was eligible to play football starting in 2023.<\/p>\n
After one season as a backup, he entered the transfer portal and landed at John Carroll, a traditionally strong Division III program in Ohio that\u2019s known for producing NFL coaches and executives, such as Houston Texans general manager Nick Caserio and Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels.<\/p>\n
Last fall, Montgomery had 119 catches for 1,575 yards and 17 touchdowns for the Blue Streaks, all school records. He was invited to the American Bowl, a lower-tier all-star game that debuted earlier this month at Southeastern (Fla.) University. After showing off his speed and skill during those practices, he received a coveted Senior Bowl invite. \u2014 Zac Jackson<\/p>\n
Why has Montgomery been so impressive this week?<\/p>\n
For starters, he\u2019s still running past cornerbacks. Montgomery\u2019s Senior Bowl practice highlight reel<\/a> has lit up social media, and he\u2019s competed against a group of cornerbacks from Power 4 colleges, many of whom could be drafted on the second day of the 2026 NFL Draft<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201c(The last two seasons), I saw a lot of zone coverage,\u201d Montgomery said. \u201cI got a lot of cloud coverage and never really saw much press man. So, it feels good to come out here and get pressed by the big dogs.\u201d<\/p>\n Caserio is among the general managers watching practices this week from the sideline. After Tuesday\u2019s practice, Montgomery received a hug and a quick greeting from Texans special teams coach Frank Ross, another John Carroll alum.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing the only DIII guy here, I feel like I have a lot to prove,\u201d Montgomery said. \u201cAnd just being a late bloomer in the game of football, I just wanted to show the scouts and show everybody that I belong here.<\/p>\n \u201cLot of nerves, lot of adrenaline this week \u2014 I\u2019m not gonna lie. But I feel like my football IQ has developed. I still have a lot to work on, no doubt. But I\u2019ve come a long way. I\u2019ve put on weight. I\u2019ve worked on my speed. I always thought I could do it, but now I feel like my football IQ shows it.\u201d<\/p>\n Montgomery hasn\u2019t just won a few one-on-one reps. He\u2019s shown noticeable speed and explosion with his routes in other drills, and there\u2019s certainly been little in practice that\u2019s made him look out of place alongside players with more extensive and more publicized college football resumes.<\/p>\n Has he done enough this month to turn himself from a long-shot sleeper into an NFL Draft pick?<\/p>\n \u201cI have high hopes and aspirations for it,\u201d Montgomery said. \u201cIf it works out, I feel like it\u2019s a blessing. And if I don\u2019t get drafted, that\u2019s a blessing as well. I\u2019m just going to keep working like I\u2019ve been doing.\u201d \u2014\u00a0Jackson<\/p>\n NFL Draft outlook<\/p>\n The best compliment I can give to Montgomery is that, based on his talent and his performance this week, you would have no idea he is the only non-Division I prospect at the Senior Bowl. He has done a great job with pacing and speed in his routes, and he\u2019s shown no panic at the catch point.<\/p>\n Pierre Garcon was a DIII prospect who just looked different than anyone else during the pre-draft process and wound up a sixth-round pick. Montgomery might be following a similar path. \u2014\u00a0Dane Brugler<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MOBILE, Ala. \u2014 Seemingly every year, at least one small-school prospect bursts onto the scene at the Senior…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":570169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,6,12,9],"class_list":{"0":"post-570168","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-draft","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-nba-draft","11":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115982531610128848","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}