Despite starting 56 games over five college seasons, the NFL powers that be decided Jarrick Bernard-Converse didn't have a place at the 2023 combine.
That meant he only had one guaranteed chance to strut his wares for NFL teams, and he's spent three months training for nothing but that. He made sure it counted at LSU's Pro Day this week.
“This is what I’ve been training for since January," he said after the day's workouts, "so it was very important for me to come out here and just showcase what I can do, drills and agility and stuff like that, speed. It meant a lot to me to come out here and do that.”
All he did was start the day with what was easily the top individual workout result, going up for a vertical leap that topped out the measurement tool at 42 inches. The tester was reset at a higher height, but he was unable to improve upon that number. Still, it was a result that would've tied for third among all combine participants. Only two players jumped higher, one being his former Oklahoma State teammate in Jason Taylor II.
But he wasn't done. The Shreveport native also logged a 4.40 in the 40-yard dash, a mark that would have put him at No. 8 among all defensive backs.
Suffice it to say, Bernard-Converse turned some heads. And he was relieved when it was all over, noting that he hadn't gotten much sleep the night before with anticipation dogging his mind.
"It’s been a long journey, a long training process," he said, "but it’s over now.”
Well, not completely. There's still a chance he lands in-person visits with NFL teams that want to get a better look ahead of the draft itself. Representatives from multiple teams had spoken with him throughout the process, he said, though he declined to name them.
“It’s been pretty good feedback overall," Bernard-Converse said. "They just wanted to see what I could do today and go from there.”
It was a fitting end to a 1-year campaign at LSU that included a surprise run to the SEC Championship and an upset of Alabama in the process. Bernard-Converse was a major part of that, starting nine games while logging 44 tackles (29 solo), 5 passes defensed and two interceptions, one of which came off Bryce Young in the win over the Tide. It was the exact type of story he wanted to end his college career with when he decided to join LSU and new head coach Brian Kelly after four successful seasons with Oklahoma State.
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"That’s what I wanted to come and do. I wanted to get back to Louisiana, because it was my dream growing up to come and play for LSU," he said. "Being able to do that just meant a lot to me, and having the season that I had and we had as a team just meant a lot, and to finish off today was everything.”
Next up: Dinner with the family ... then, hopefully, a successful draft party about a month from now.