NFL Scouting Combine: Fairfield grad meets with Bengals

Credit: DaytonDailyNews

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Erick All arrived at the NFL Scouting Combine with good news and bad.

The Fairfield High School graduate said his surgically repaired knee feels great, but he isn’t yet ready to work out for NFL teams.

“Everything’s going great. I feel fine,” All said Thursday morning. “Anything you can think of to do on my knee right now I can do. I feel great. I’m just ready to get after it.”

Iowa’s Pro Day could be an option, but All said he was not sure if he would be ready for that or have to organize his own workout before the 2024 NFL Draft begins April 26 in Detroit.

In the meantime, he used his time in Indianapolis to meet with teams, including the hometown Cincinnati Bengals.

“It was great,” All said. “We talked about a lot of different things, just getting to know ‘em as people. It seemed great.”

After four years at Michigan and one at Iowa, All feels like he has a lot to offer NFL teams.

“I feel like I’m versatile,” he said. “One play I can be lined up as a fullback and hit the (middle linebacker), and the next I can be out in the slot catching the ball downfield and high pointing it. I just feel like I can do whatever a coach asks me to do. Fullback, slot, off the ball. Pulling. Line me up out wide and run a deep route.”

The 6-foot-4, 251-pound All was a three-year letterman at Michigan, where he signed out of high school and caught 54 passes for 565 yards and two touchdowns.

He caught 21 passes for 299 last season for Iowa despite suffering a season-ending knee injury in the seventh game of the season and ranks No. 272 on the PFF big board.

All earned All-Big Ten honorable mention in 2021 and ‘23, and he still traces his football roots back to Southwest Ohio.

He described himself as always loving the physical side of football despite being the skinniest of the tight ends as a youngster playing for coach Jason Krause at Fairfield.

“I really took pride in hitting people, and I fit right in,” All said. “As I got older and got stronger, I became more dominant in the run game, and I feel like the story starting out from Fairfield is I was just a kid who would do whatever it took to be the best he could be. Go out there and win, whatever it took. By any means, to go win.”

Credit: DaytonDailyNews

Although he had the option to return to Iowa for one more year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, All decided to go ahead and enter the NFL Draft to begin his professional career.

“The longer you are in college the more confident you are in understanding the defense and knowing where you should be, knowledge of the game,” he said.

“Honestly I just felt like it was my time. I felt like I put a lot of great things on film. I just really was ready to make the next step for me and my family to get out there and show the world what I can do.”

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