Former Merrimack High and Endicott College standout Zach Twardosky is on a mission to beat the odds and get into an NFL rookie camp this spring after this weekend's NFL Draft. (Photo courtesy of Endicott Athletics)

There he was, on the turf at Gillette Stadium, doing drills under the watchful eyes of Patriots scouts, assistant coaches.

And head coach Mike Vrabel.

“Vrabel’s a pretty intimidating guy, he’s huge,” former Merrimack High and Endicott College standout Zach Twardosky said. “He’s Gi-normous, a pretty intimidating dude.”

Welcome to Twardosky’s world the last month or so, after extensive training since January. A former Division III standout and Division3.com All-Region Second Teamer at safety who led the nationally ranked Gulls in tackles (66) and interceptions (four) his final season, he’s geared up big-time for the steep uphill climb to grab a rookie free agent contract after the NFL Draft wraps up next Saturday, or perhaps more likely, an invite to a team’s rookie minicamp, etc.

Call it a leap of faith.

“One-hundred percent,” he said. “I’ve always had the believe in myself. I have a great support system; my parents, my siblings are always very supportive. It was funny, I was talking to someone the other day … My junior-senior year of high school I was nothing. I’ve come a long way.”

Twardosky went to the Bryant University Pro Day. He wasn’t able to get into the Holy Cross Pro Day, but did qualify for the one at Merrimack College. However, that got cancelled.

“Things worked out, and my agent got in touch with the Patriots, one of the scouts there, and he got me in, and got me into the Bryant one,” Twardosky said. “And then I got invited to the Patriots local Pro Day.”

This is all a calculated process that Twardosky undertook when he was a high school senior. He ran a 4.75 40-yard dash, had no Division I offers, only Division III out of Merrimack.

“I had a dream, a belief, continued to chase it, I was told I was crazy,” he said. “Yeah, you’re in D III. Good luck.’

“Most people give up on their dreams. When they count themselves out, they find it easy to count others out too. A lot of people don’t understand that nothing’s impossible; if you really want it, you can achieve it.”

Twardosky, at 23, says he’s enjoying the process and the work he put in that took, in his words, “a lot of sleepless nights, a lot of early mornings, late nights. Trying to sharpen my skills, sharpen the iron.”

This is his time, and doesn’t want to look back and say ‘What if.’

“Since I’ve been in high school my freshman year I decided I wanted to do this,” he said. “Then as you get older, you start thinking ‘If I do this I can get better’ or ‘If I cut out this’. So for me, my entire life has been about this meaning, how can I become a better player, a better person.'”

HOW IT ALL STARTED

Twardosky had some soft tissue issues (hamstring, etc.) going into his senior year in high school. He scoured the internet and social media and found a trainer. Gary Scheffler, located in New Orleans who he called “a pioneer in the industry. He basically figured out that the human body is designed to move a certain way.”

And since he began working with him, he’s been injury free ever since.

The first time he called Scheffler, “he started picking me apart over the phone,” Twardosky said. “Telling me everything else that’s wrong with me.”

But the $500 to $1,000 it cost to train back in 2019 “was the best money I’ve ever spent,” Twardosky said. “I fly down every year, I still do his stuff; that’s what really took my training to the next level, I optimize my body and make it move more efficiently. If I didn’t do that, I don’t think I’d be where I am right now.”

It’s usually a week’s visit, but this year was much more extensive, from Jan. 1 to the middle of March as Scheffler said he also does Pro Day training. Sold, after five years of work and seeing his 40 time go from 4.75 to 4.5 seconds.

THE PRO DAY EXPERIENCE

Twardosky says the Pro Days themselves are a test of composure. Early on, he’s somewhere between nervous and “amped up” with butterflies. All the scouts and other players are around watching you perform.

“Everything’s measured, it’s business right away,” he said. “Everything’s got to be done their (a team’s) way, everything’s specific. I don’t know how other kids felt, but I had fun doing it. I (always) had fun playing the game, fun competing, just going out there, flying around.

“So it was definitely a little nerve wracking being out there. Your whole life comes down to one moment.”

Twardosky knows they call the 40 “the fastest interview of all-time”. The bench press, the number the scouts want a player to hit is 15 reps, the vertical and broad jump they want to see 10 feet (broad), 35 inches (vertical). Twardosky got 9.9 on the broad and 31-32 on the vertical at Bryant. There’s also the three cone drill, the 20 yard shuttle, etc.

He ran a 4.5 40, and that, he said, “got me into the door” for the Patriots workout. But they also, he noted, want to see lateral quickness, change of direction, and then more drills, mostly football, “just to see do you actually have technique, are you under control” as a defensive back. And you leave wondering just what kind of impression you’ve made.

“You’re left in the dark,” he said. “At least I am. I don’t know what the scouts are thinking, it’s like it’s all quiet on the western front.” There were probably 30 or just under at both pro workouts, the Patriots day a showcase of those who performed the best at New England college Pro Days at their position. Twardosy was among 10 defensive players while there were 15-20 on offense. You’re there for 45 minutes, and no interviews, although some did have a couple of conversations after.

And now Twardosky waits for his agent John Perez – who is actually the second agent he’s had after he fired the first one – to contact him with any rookie free agent chances/camp invites beginning after the Draft next Saturday night. Perez, known in circles as the ‘DIII Super Agent” was recommended to Twardosky by a former Endicott assistant; the agent has come to specialize in small college athletes trying to reach their dreams.

“The safety spot is usually a tough spot to crack, because there’s guys at all levels,” Perez said, noting that the numbers in the workouts, etc. are the key because game film for Division III players is normally discounted because of the level of competition. However, he noted, it could show production.

“The question is where does he fall?” said Perez, who had a player, offensive lineman Liam Fornadel, spend time on the Patriots practice squad last year. “I told him from Day One, if you are fortunate enough to get invited into a rookie minicamp, you’ve already succeeded beyond what the normal DIII player would have a chance for.

“I think his chances are there given his testing numbers for that rookie minicamp invite. … I keep my fingers crossed that there is an avenue there, and in the years I’ve been doing this, there’s a little bit of luck thrown in.”

Twardosky has a few things in his favor.

“Zach’s an interesting guy,” Perez, who is out of New Jersey, said. “He’s got total confidence, he’s 100 miles an hour, which is what you need. Especially coming from this level, you can’t have any doubts creep into your mind. … He wants it bad.”

Twardosky and others pro day results are in put in a database, and Perez himself will send out film, talk to teams, etc., “and hopefully we’ll have a couple of teams interested. All we need is one opportunity,” Twardosky said.

The rookie minicamp is probably his best route. “Maybe they like him, let’s say they like a player,” Perez said. “They need more information and they want to see him compete and work in an extended kind of tryout environment.

Now it’s time to rest. Because, if Twardosky is invited to a rookie camp, “I want to be able to run all day long, and out-condition everybody.”

He hyper-extended his knee at the Bryant workout, and the following week it was so swollen he could barely walk. But with help from his mom Jennifer, a former Maine field hockey player, “We did every single healing thing we could think of” including putting clay on the knee at night, etc. Whatever they did, it worked as the knee calmed down and he was at least 85 percent and able to perform at the Patriots day. Perez, sources said, spoke with Patriots VP of Pro Personnel Eliot Wolfe who told him Twardosky was the best defensive back at the workout.

“That,” Twardosky said, “was kind of crazy.”

HIS FOUNDATION

Twardosky says he’s “very fortunate” to have a foundation that’s built on “the right principles, the right morals, the right process” and credits Merrimack High coach Kip Jackson and his staff with instilling that. “If I didn’t have Merrimack High School to build that foundation of the love of the process, the love of the game, community service how you treat people, that’s one of the biggest things that Coach Jackson taught me.

“He has a quote from Jackie Robinson that he always would tell us: ‘Life is only important in the impact it has on other lives.’ I’ve always kept that one close to me.”

Mixed in with all this is the fact Twardosky is working on his Masters in business. He feels that if this football thing doesn’t work out, a higher power will dictate where he’s supposed to be.

Zach Twardosky, shown playing this past fall in his final season at Endicott College, hopes his athletic ability can land him a spot in an NFL camp this spring or summer. (Photo courtesy of Endicott Athletics)

Perez says the call could come at any time from a team. Players often, after all the activity before, during and after the draft, he said, experience the “radio silence” with no calls. He tells them to stay busy or stay ready, and get a job that allows them the flexibitliy to take off for a tryout at a moment’s notice.

He tells them, the calendar points are rookie minicamp in May, then perhaps after OTAs and mandatory minicamp teams are looking for an upgrade.

He might also look into the CFL or the UFL. “If it comes down to that, I’d still have opportunity to get paid to play football, an opportunity to keep getting better and I’d still take another shot at (the NFL). I love football, that’s what it comes down to.”

Perez has put his film out to the CFL, but nothing yet, and their camps open up in May. The UFL would be for next year.

“In the past, if you came out of the rookie minicamps on a short list, that’s the pool you’d be in if during training camp there were injuries, etc.,” Perez said. “But now what I’m finding is NFL teams will dip into the UFL pool first before they back to the rookie minicamp guys.”

But Twardosky will exhaust all possibilities, you can count on that.

“I have this disease,” he said. “I try to say that all the work I’ve put in, I should feel proud. I want it all. … I really want this. We’ll see where it goes.”

“I’m excited to see where this goes for him,” Perez said. “He’s still obviously a longshot, but I’m just hoping we can crack into one of these rookie minicamps, and from there, see what happens.

“The bottom line is you want to get on somebody’s short list. … Fingers crossed.”