Courtesy photo Nashua's Kole Ayi used a UMass Hall of Fame career to get into the NFL 20 years ago, but it may have been harder without today's technology back then had a pandemic limited exposure.

NASHUA – It’s all about exposure.

Kole Ayi was wondering the other day just how difficult it would have been for him some 19 years ago when he was preparing for the NFL Draft if he had to face the COVID-19 limitations draft hopefuls do now.

“That’s a great question,” said Ayi, the former Nashua High School standout and UMass Hall of Famer and former New England Patriot. “I don’t know how these guys now are getting their film and their measurables out there. If there was a guy who wasn’t invited to the combine, and maybe his pro day got cancelled, I’m sure he’s sweating it out to make sure these teams really did get a chance to see him.

“Exposure is what you’re trying to really get at this point. Without exposure, you’re going to be pigeon-holed to where you are.”

Ayi, who has a Super Bowl ring from being with the 2001 Patriots, never did get selected during what was then a two-day NFL draft. But, he did get signed right after as a rookie free agent by the St. Louis Rams. Yet he knows that a lot of today’s players looking at the later rounds may be robbed of being seen with the NFL Draft coming up this Thursday, Friday and Saturday in a never-seen-before virtual format. Pro day workouts, usually in March, were cancelled right and left as have been team visits due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

For example, the University of New Hampshire Pro Day was slated for the Seacoast United Sports Complex in Epping last month, but was cancelled.

“It definitely has been super tough because kids from smaller schools like myself, look forward to and put so much into the pro day because that’s our only chance to get in front of NFL coaches all at one time,” UNH defensive back Prince Smith, Jr. said. “Kids from the big schools, they’re playing on TV every Saturday. Kids like us, we don’t get that chance. … That slowed down my process. I’d been in contact with a lot of teams.”

But Smith still has had a lot of interest, as NFL coaches have been calling him or his agent often. He’s likely a late round, third-day pick, or a rookie free agent signing waiting to happen at the very least.

But oh, that exposure. He knows how tough a time this would have been had he played during Ayi’s era.

“If this had been 20, 30 years ago, you wouldn’t be able to get your performance, or drills, or times in front of coaches at all,” he said. “With so many cell phones, computers, and technology up to date, you can easily get in front of a coach with one call.”

“The more opportunities you get to show what you can do, the better,” Ayi said. “If you weren’t invited to the Combine, I don’t know how these pro days are being done.

“But it does make it a little easier in these days where you have technology, you can share video of somebody running their three cone drill, and have all that timed up. That’s probably a little simpler.

“It’s very easy to show somebody doing their bench presses and visual workouts. That’s the benefit of modern technology.”

No one discovered that more than another UNH defensive back, Isiah Perkins, who could be a seventh round pick but has a better shot to be signed right after the draft next Saturday night as a rookie free agent.

With the UNH Pro Day cancelled, Perkins then tried to get looks by the Jets and Eagles, but those workouts got cancelled. After that happened, and with no team visits scheduled prior to the NFL shutdown, Perkins got creative.

He created his own pro day last weekend with a couple of UNH teammates shooting the video at Wildcat Stadium. He opted to remain on campus in Durham during the shutdown.

“I ran really good times, and I put the times on twitter, and honestly the video just blew up,” he said. “I got 10,000 views that day and my process now has changed.”

In other words, he now has more interest from NFL teams than he had before,never thinking much of his times because he had run them before. In fact, he got national exposure.

This is exactly what Ayi is talking about.

“With modern technology, and the ability to share this stuff, guys that weren’t invited to the combine, if there’s a scout out there or a team that’s interested in a certain player, they can still see them even if their pro days or these guys weren’t available to show up to their pro day, they can still have something to see.”

How did Perkins get the idea?

“I saw a lot of people were doing virtual pro days,” he said. “I tried to get one set up with an ex-NFL scout – a lot of people were using ex-scouts – but I wasn’t able to do that.”

So what Perkins did instead was to make sure that the timer was seen in the video, to make sure “it’s legit.” He ran the 40 (4.47), the shuttle (pro agility, 4.09 and L-drills (6.75). He feels his L-drill time was the tipping point.

Perkins was certainly worried, and “I had to do the video as soon as possible. I had to get that video out. … I didn’t have anything plan, so I had to try to figure it out. I had to try to do what everybody else was doing, try to get a little exposure here and there to try to help me out…. I put the video out there for desperation.”

In fact, Perkins had a couple of All-Star game invites, but passed because he was still banged up from the regular season and was going to put all his eggs in his pro day basket. Oops.

Smith did get to play in an All-Star game in Florida and says that knowing NFL teams are calling his phone “is an eye-opening experience.”

But before the shutdown, he had three visits set up – the Giants, Eagles and Patriots – but all were cancelled.

He was nervous.

“I’m like, ‘Oh, man, I don’t know what to expect next,’ ” he said. “Everything was getting shut down, every NFL facility. I didn’t even know if the draft was going to happen.”

But, since then, he says he’s had five Face Time calls with teams while he’s been in Philadelphia. Smith said his agent, Joe Linta, told him teams said he didn’t need a virtual workout.

Still, exposure is critical for third-day draftees and those waiting in those hours after the draft to be signed as a rookie free agent, like Ayi. And the pandemic made that even tougher.

“It all depends on the guy,” Ayi said. “Some of these other guys, who might be lower, I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing. The game film, that’s just you performing. That’s simple. The numbers are the numbers.

“You see it time and time again in the combine when some guys are great in spandex running down the track, but then you get to the game, and it’s different.”

Ayi noticed something else can happen to late round players – or maybe all draftees.

“You’d be surprised,” he said. “I feel this time of year everybody is trying to devalue you, so they can get you at a lower pick,” Ayi said. “That was kind of the feeling that I got going through that process. If they devalue you, they can get you later.”

Ayi said when he was going through the process he saw clear examples of that in the post-workout interviews.

“They’d ask you, it was mostly about what you didn’t do, I get it,” he said. “They probably want to see how you’d respond to criticism. And you also don’t hear executives say anything a whole lot positive about these guys anytime going into the draft.”

So the best thing is sometimes to let the numbers do the talking.

“This is the guys’ opportunity and their chance to show their value,” Ayi said. ” If they have some off the chart measurables, that can definitely give you a little leg up.”

Ayi had ankle surgery after his senior season in 2000 and wasn’t able to make it to the combine, and didn’t go on any visits, but UMass had a pro day with six or seven teams in attendance. It wasn’t too rigorous. “You weren’t gassed, it wasn’t a conditioning drill, or like a full contact practice,” he said. “But that was 20 years ago. The way these guys train now, it’s not going to be strenuous for them now. … Everyone’s bigger, faster, stronger. The game has kind of changed where they want speed and length. Everyone seems a lot taller, a lot longer, and a lot faster.”

Ayi thinks eventually the game may get back to the big thumpers in the middle on defense, “because nobody wants the Tennessee Titans to run for 250 yards on them anymore. It always comes down to

physics.”

It also comes down now to technology. Perkins was just hoping to get picked up after the draft by a team, but now his hopes have been raised to possibly get a call in the later rounds. All because of a video.

“Some people have me potentially to go seventh round, which I think is crazy to me,” he said. “I wasn’t really on a lot of people’s boards, because of these times. But I’m still thinking free agency in my opinion.”

But, one thing is for sure. Come the third day of the draft, those who have triumphed over the exposure issue will be eyeing that screen.

“I tell you what, this will be their opportunity to get some recognition,” Ayi said. “Without any sports, people will know what the sixth round pick looks like. Everybody is going to be glued to their TV.”

“I guess,” Perkins said, “you really never know. We’ll see. Just to think I could be picked up by an NFL team, that’s the exciting part.”

Something Ayi certainly remembers well. Different eras, same hopes.