Syracuse Football: Jamal Custis excited scouts with his workout at NFL Combine

Former Syracuse football standout Jamal Custis had quite the day at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis. Here are the results and some more insight.

It’s been a crazy couple of months for former Syracuse football wide receiver Jamal Custis. For the first three years of his Orange career, he couldn’t contribute in the ways he knew how due to a variety of circumstances, but it all came together in his senior season:

2018: 51 receptions 906 yards and six touchdowns

It didn’t break any records on the hill, but it showed promise and intrigue for NFL scouts. So much so in fact that Custis was invited to the East-West Shrine Game.

As we saw a few years back with Jadeveon Clowney, sometimes all it takes is one play to jump start your NFL Draft stock, that play happened at the Shrine Game for Custis:

From scouts that I talked to that play really put Jamal on a lot of their radars and forced talent evaluators to go back to the tape. Something else that put Custis on their resumes? His 2019 NFL Combine performance:

• Jamal Custis tested in three of the seven events at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis.
  • Those three events were the 40-yard dash (4.50), vertical jump (34.5), and broad jump (10′ 4”).
    • His 40-yard dash was 19th among wide receivers. Although 11th fastest if going off the hand-timed 40-time clocked by several scouts in attendance (4.45).
    • Vertical jump was 30th among wide receivers.
    • Broad jump was 12th best among the wide receiver group.
  • Custis did not participate in the bench press, three-cone drill, 20-yard shuttle, or 60-yard shuttle.
    • Speaking with Jamal Custis’ representation on the phone last night: “We wanted to give scouts an appetizer at the Combine. If they want the rest of the meal we’ll see you at the Syracuse Pro Day on March 18th.”

I won’t lie, the biggest event for Jamal was the 40-yard dash according to several scouts I spoke with. Jamal didn’t disappoint, per Syracuse Athletics, Custis ran the second fastest 40-yard dash time ever by a Syracuse wide receiver at the NFL Combine with a 4.5.

For those curious, the fastest time ever was Amba Etta-Tawo with a 4.49. But it’s worth noting that the laser at the NFL Combine had some technical difficulties a few times in Indianapolis. While at the Syracuse Pro Day Etta-Tawo was hand-timed with a 4.35, improving his time by over a tenth of a second.

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That same opportunity will be possible for Custis on the Syracuse Pro Day Monday, March 18th. Although according to Custis’ representation, a few scouts had Jamal hand-timed at the NFL Combine with a 4.45 (which would’ve been the fastest time ever for a Syracuse wideout at the Combine).

One scout told me ahead of the Combine that the target time was 4.55 or better in the 40, Custis beat that time. Jamal is on pace to become the highest drafted player since Jay Bromley back in 2014 (74th overall pick, third rounder).

Speaking with Emory Hunt, Owner of Football Gameplan, after the NFL Combine he had this to say about Jamal:

"“A very impressive young man who is confident in his skills and has a super high football IQ.”"

Although there’s still a long way to go before the 2019 NFL Draft in late April. The next event for Jamal is the Syracuse Pro Day on March 18th then an endless amount of NFL individual workouts leading up to the draft.