{"id":952390,"date":"2026-07-22T12:03:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T12:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/952390\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T12:03:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T12:03:20","slug":"stopped-me-from-getting-drafted-higher-bud-dupree-reveals-how-mike-tomlin-influenced-pre-draft-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/952390\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Stopped Me From Getting Drafted Higher:&#8217; Bud Dupree Reveals How Mike Tomlin Influenced Pre-Draft Process"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s no secret that former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin was a big fan of the draft process. A mainstay at Pro Days and the Senior Bowl, Tomlin spent time at Kentucky ahead of the 2015 NFL Draft to watch projected first-round pick Bud Dupree. The Steelers later drafted Dupree with the 22nd overall pick, but that may not have happened had Tomlin not influenced Dupree at his Pro Day.<\/p>\n<p>On <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=hvydSO39R5c\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cam Heyward\u2019s Not Just Football podcast<\/a>, Dupree told the story of how Tomlin orchestrated his fall to the Steelers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was about to get ready to run my 40 [yard dash], so I warmed up, and Coach Tomlin was like, \u2018Why\u2019d you run a 40 again?\u2019 I\u2019m like, why wouldn\u2019t I run a 40? Let\u2019s try to run a 4.3. And he like \u2018nah, don\u2019t run a 40, you already ran, you ran fast already.\u2019 And looking back on it man, Coach Tomlin stopped me from getting drafted higher so I could go to the Steelers,\u201d Dupree said. \u201cI definitely would\u2019ve ran faster than I ran at the Combine and I would\u2019ve been a higher pick.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Whether or not his decision not to run the 40 truly impacted his draft stock that much, he doesn\u2019t seem to have any regrets about it. Dupree ran a 4.56 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine, and this 2015 article from NFL Network wrote that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/news\/thursday-s-pro-day-recap-bud-dupree-jake-fisher-boost-stock-0ap3000000478708\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dupree\u2019s Pro Day showing helped raise<\/a> his stock. There\u2019s certainly the possibility that a faster 40 could\u2019ve led to him being drafted higher than he was.<\/p>\n<p>The Steelers had clear interest in Dupree coming in, sending then-outside linebackers coach Joey Porter along with Tomlin. Kentucky\u2019s other draft prospect that year was EDGE Za\u2019Darius Smith, who recently retired after a successful 10-year career, so having Porter accompany Tomlin made a lot of sense regardless.<\/p>\n<p>Dupree was the third EDGE off the board in 2015 after Dante Fowler went No. 3 and Vic Beasley went No. 8. It\u2019s unlikely a strong 40 would\u2019ve raised his draft stock into the top-10, but maybe it would\u2019ve caught the eye of a team a little bit ahead of Pittsburgh, leading to them to make a different selection. It leads to an interesting \u201cwhat-if,\u201d but ultimately things worked out for the best for both Dupree and the Steelers.<\/p>\n<p>In six seasons with Pittsburgh, Dupree registered 39.5 sacks before cashing in on a big contract with the Tennessee Titans. He had a solid 10-year career, and it\u2019s one that could\u2019ve started off very differently if Mike Tomlin wasn\u2019t at his Pro Day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s no secret that former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin was a big fan of the draft&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":952391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[7860,4034,7,1255,6,33852,520,57,2360,426,691],"class_list":["post-952390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-bud-dupree","tag-cameron-heyward","tag-football","tag-mike-tomlin","tag-nfl","tag-not-just-football","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-pittsburghsteelers","tag-steelers","tag-trending"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116963534616843155","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=952390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/952391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=952390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=952390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=952390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}