Cheesehead
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- Mar 19, 2019
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Trautman cemented his status as a draft prospect during the week of the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala., last month, going up against Power 5 conference competition for the first time.
During practices all week, he more than held his own against players from schools that wouldn't even return an email. He noticed the guys he was blocking or running routes against weren't quite the same as he was used to, but to him it was more of an adjustment to make than a gap to close.
"The Senior Bowl was huge for me," he said. "I've always wanted an opportunity to go against kids with the Alabama stickers on their helmet, Ohio State, Michigan.
"I didn't think the transition was very rough. After the first few reps, I was like, 'All right, this isn't really any different.' Sure, the kids close a little faster in the pass game and they're bigger and a little more stout in the run game, but I trust in my technique and how hard I worked, and I didn't really have a problem with it."
He got up to speed just as quickly at the tight end position itself. Originally a 220-pound freshman quarterback, Trautman walked up to the offensive coaches a week into camp wearing his red QB jersey and asked about switching to tight end, even though he'd never played there.
"They were like, 'Let's see what you've got,'" Trautman recalled. "I ran an over route, dove and caught it, and they were like, 'Go get a white jersey.' And that was that."
Trautman credits his offensive coordinator and line coach, Austin King, with helping develop his game at a new position over the last few years. Coincidentally, Gruden just hired the former Dayton coach as an offensive assistant with the Las Vegas Raiders, 17 years after Gruden as head coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers drafted King as an offensive lineman out of Northwestern.
That's another example of how small a world the NFL can be, and the league is full of small-school players who have made their mark, like Trautman hopes to.
In his case, he'd just be making some history along the way, potentially ending a drought of four-plus decades for Dayton.
"It would mean the world to me," Trautman said if he does indeed become the first Flyer drafted since '77. "Just the amount of time and blood, sweat and tears I put into that program and the amount of love I have for that program, I wouldn't change a thing about where I went to school. It would mean the absolute world to me."