(FOX 17) — Former NorthPointe Christian and Michigan State football standout Kenny Willekes went to the NFL combine in February hoping to shake the label of not being athletic.
"I felt like I did well," Willekes said. "I felt like I helped myself. Not every time you preform is going to be perfect we would have liked to run a little faster but overall I think I helped myself, I think I performed well. I had great conversations with a lot of teams and we felt good coming out of the combine, we wanted a chance to run a couple more at pro day."
Kenny had the second most bench press reps of all defensive ends at the combine, but his 40-yard dash time was 15th at the position.
Without the chance to host a pro day due to COVID-19, Kenny and his team at Power Strength Training Systems in Grand Rapids made an internet video.
"There is still some underlying things from teams that maybe I am not athletic enough," Willekes said. "I can't do this, can't bend, can't do that and we just figured these are things I can all do and have always been able to do growing up with seven siblings and we were bouncing flipping off walls growing up my whole life so I figured might as well just film it this time and show some teams what I got."
The video has been viewed more than 730,000 times on Kenny's twitter account, he hopes that NFL teams have taken note.
"That is stuff you don't do on a football field," Willekes said. "That wasn't the point of the video it was just to show some athleticism that I have. I think the production speaks for itself. I got a 35 on the Wonderlic, I think my IQ is there, the effort and toughness are there so I think this was the last missing component to my game that was a question to some teams so I think when teams see this now they'll see me as a complete football player and I think I am the most complete defensive end in this draft and I hope I was able to show that throughout the draft process."
Kenny has already gone from walk-on to two-time All-American at Michigan State, getting drafted would add another chapter to an already great story.
