Written by Emily Kaplan at MMQB
The car broke down on a highway just outside of Kansas City. Calvin Willis, who spent his life working in body shops, mostly as a detailer, pulled over to give the man a jump.
A few months later, Willis stopped by the local middle school to enroll his children. The man with the car trouble was in the hallway filling up water jugs; he was the school’s football coach and recognized Willis as the good Samaritan. They began talking and soon, Willis had signed up one of his sons, 11-year-old Jordan, to play football.
A decade later, Jordan Willis isn’t the fastest riser in the 2017 draft class, but he’s perhaps the steadiest riser. He is in Tampa meeting with the Buccaneers today, one of his 15 private workouts or team visits, and it seems feasible he could sneak into the first round. A 6′ 4″, 255-pound pass rusher from Kansas State—a defensive end who could transition to a 3-4 outside linebacker—Willis made a statement at the combine with a 4.53 40 time (best of all defensive linemen) and 39-inch vertical leap (second to Myles Garrett). At his pro day, he moved seamlessly between linebacker and defensive line drills, quashing concerns he appeared stiff on film. Scouts routinely compliment Willis on his hand work, a byproduct of working with Hall of Fame offensive lineman Will Shields, one of his mentors. Willis is a darling of Pro Football Focus, which ranked his 80 total quarterback pressures in 2016 as second most in the country. A three-year starter, Willis graduated third in Kansas State history with 26 career sacks.
“I literally don’t think I can identify when he made the biggest jump,” says Mark Simoneau, the former Kansas State and NFL linebacker who now owns a private gym, and has trained Willis since high school. “He’s consistently improved every single year.” Texted one area scout who has studied Willis: “He’s mature. Good work ethic. Shouldn’t have many problems adapting to next level.” And while the story of how Willis discovered football is a sweet anecdote, it’s also a peek into the upbringing that helped him get here.
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