From Greeley to Mobile, Alex Wesley has a chance to be the best small-school receiver in the draft

MOBILE, Ala. — Betting on yourself is never easy, but when you win, the feeling is that much sweeter. University of Northern Colorado receiver and NFL draft hopeful, Alex Wesley, hasn’t “won” just yet, but he’s well on his way.

Actually, Wesley, whose schedule has been non-stop busy for the past several months—more like the past several years, as he balanced track & field, football, and school—is on his way to Mobile, Alabama for the NFL’s annual Senior Bowl this week to showcase his talents against some of the nation’s best players.

His journey from Murphy, Texas to becoming a serious NFL prospect has had its ups and downs, but as he prepares for the next step in his soon to be career, Wesley sounds anything but down.

As a high schooler, Wesley was receiving more attention for his track & field skills than football, getting looks from Big-12 schools while the football offers were mostly limited to D-II schools. So he bet on himself and went up to Greeley, where he could compete at the FCS level in football and DI in track, going to the only school that would allow him to run track and play football, and that bet has paid off in a big way.

“My senior year was my best year—which I think is pretty normal—I don’t know, maybe being in Texas where there are lots of recruits,” Wesley told BSN Denver, struggling for answers as to why he was under-recruited. “There may be a number of things. I was a little undersized coming out of high school, and lucky Northern Colorado gave me a chance.”

His path to stardom in Greely was a slow burn as he racked up just 44 receptions for 656 yards and seven touchdowns over his first two seasons, not the type of figures that’ll get you looks from the NFL.

What broke the door open for Wesley was his game against a future-second-round cornerback, Isaiah Oliver and Colorado’s secondary in 2017, to start his junior season. That day, he caught five passes for 102 yards and two touchdowns, with Oliver, who possesses legitimate track speed himself, in coverage on him on both TDs.

“Going into that game, obviously I feel like I can play with guys from bigger schools, that doesn’t really scare me… But I felt ready for it and ready to show that just because I went to Northern Colorado—which is considered a smaller school—that I can still play at any school, it just so happened to be at Northern Colorado.

“After the first touchdown, those nerves kind of went away, you know this was the biggest game that we played in. So those kinds of thoughts after we went up 7-0, it was kind of like we felt like ‘we belong here.’ Obviously, I always thought that I belong there, but I guess that just proved my point.”

With a boost of confidence and a whole lot more NFL eyes on him, Wesley had his best season in 2017 with 1,010 yards on 55 grabs and to go along with six touchdowns. He replicated that in 2018 with 1,050 yards and four scores despite receiving extra attention from opposing defenses who regularly tried to double and triple team him.

“It was always something that I aspired to, but I guess towards my junior year after the CU game, more scouts started to come out, then my senior year [scouts] were there pretty much every day, so I guess that’s when I started to realize and started to get calls from agents over the summer, and things like that. So I guess right before my last season is when it was like, ‘Alright, this could be something that happens for me’. But, like I said, it was one of those things where I gotta stay focused on still having a good season.”

With NFL scouts paying attention all along, Wesley became only the second player in school history—after Vincent Jackson—to have two 1,000 yard receiving seasons with the Bears.

“It was huge for me. When you’re in the same category as Vincent Jackson, who obviously had a great NFL career and a great college career, when you’re in the same category as him, I think you’re doing something good. It meant a lot to me. I’ve known a couple guys who’ve been through who I thought were great receivers and they didn’t do it. The fact that I was able to accomplish that was huge for me.”

Now, as he prepares for the draft and yet another big test in Mobile, Wesley’s ready to prove himself again.

“It was big. From what I was hearing it was kind of up in the air whether I’d get an invite or not, I think I got my invite pretty early considering when I got it. I didn’t expect to get it but when I did it was pretty cool. So now I get a chance to go out again and prove again that I belong on the big stage.”

What Wesley needs to show is that track speed. Speed that has allowed him to average over 18 yards per reception and two Big Sky Conference 400-meter titles, not to mention an All-American selection in track.

If that track speed is real, the kid just has to go out and show it off, and it’s not just his speed that’s impressive, it’s his stamina to run a discipline like the 400 meters that in up-tempo attack could make him truly lethal—when pressed on what his 40 time would be, he admitted he’d be happy with that anything in the 4.3s.

At 6-foot and 185 pounds, Wesley isn’t the biggest, but he’s made a reputation for dominating contested-catch situations. His tape shows consistent adjustments mid-air to make wild grabs.

At that size, it’s legitimate to wonder if he’ll still be able to win on contested grabs, but Wesley doesn’t seem too concerned by the significant jump in competition.

“I think in the NFL a lot more of the balls are contested, it’s tighter coverage and you have to go up and get it. I feel like I’m not the biggest guy, but I’m also not the smallest guy. I still have that ability to go up and compete for the ball and the majority of the time I think I can come down with it.”

Despite being able to make plays like the one below after the catch, Wesley did point out that he felt like he could improve in creating yards after the catch, turning short throws into big gains more consistently. A scary proposition for opposing DBs.

With the extra attention dedicated to him, Wesley played more in the slot, too, a skill that should really help him as he’s already running a complete route tree.

In the last two years, the Senior Bowl has seen three non-Division-I receivers come to Mobile and get selected in the draft with Pennsylvania’s Justin Watson in the fifth round to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after his 2018 showing being the most recent. Cooper Kupp parlayed his Senior Bowl performance in 2017 to go from Eastern Washington to the early third round. Chad Williams from Grambling State did the same thing in 2017 going 98th overall.

Wesley, who told BSN he was not concerned about where he’d get drafted this early, should fall anywhere between the third and fifth, with his performance this week deciding a big part of where he’ll fall in that wide range.

For everyone’s draft stock, the Senior Bowl is big, for small-school guys it’s everything. If you show out in Mobile, all the questions about the competition level you’ve faced are eased, and given how Wesley’s already performed against the best corners he’s faced, there’s no reason to think he’ll slow down anytime soon.

In Greeley and NFL circles, Wesley’s already becoming a household name. The common NFL fan will soon get to hear about his prowess.

Just don’t tell Alex, he’s got a bet he’s well on his way to winning.