Former Lobo safety looks toward free agency
Henry says Jets, Broncos possible
Daniel Henry, a San Diego native, isn’t sure he can continue to root for the Chargers now that they’re leaving for Los Angeles.
He’s very sure, though, that he’d love to play for the Chargers — or any other National Football League team.
“I don’t really have a preference,” said Henry, a former University of New Mexico safety. “I just want to go somewhere where I’ve got a good shot to make the team and is the right system for me.”
Henry does not expect to be selected in the NFL Draft, which began Thursday and concludes Saturday. But there’s reason to believe he’ll be offered a free-agent contract by at least one of the NFL’s 32 teams.
“My agent’s been in contact with about five or six teams, and I’ve taken a call or two,” Henry said in a phone interview. ”It’s kind of a waiting game. My chances of getting drafted aren’t that high, numbers-wise.
“It’s kind of one of those things where once that last guy’s taken (in the draft), ‘Mr. Irrelevant’, then the phones start ringing after that. I’m really waiting on day three, so that’s kind of where I’m at right now.”
After graduation from La Jolla (Calif). Country Day School in 2012, Henry didn’t immediately become relevant at UNM. He first signed with Weber State in Ogden, Utah, and played one season there, mostly on special teams.
Believing he could play college football at a higher level than Weber State offered, Henry transferred to Iowa Western Community College, a junior-college powerhouse. He came to UNM in 2014 but redshirted that year after suffering a shoulder injury.
Lobos coach Bob Davie has said he believes the redshirt year played a crucial role in Henry’s development. In any case, he had two outstanding seasons as UNM’s starting free safety. Only linebacker Dakota Cox had more tackles than Henry’s 137 stops in 2015-16.
Henry was a team captain as a senior and was an All-Mountain West Conference honorable mention selection.
It’s likely that Henry helped himself in NFL talent evaluators’ eyes with
a strong performance at UNM’s Pro Day: a 4.53-second 40-yard dash, a 4.31-second clocking in the 20-yard shuttle, a 38-inch vertical leap (a UNM best that would have been the thirdbest at the NFL Combine), a 10-foot, 3-inch broad jump.
Henry is listed by UNM at 6-foot-1 and 195 pounds, 25 pounds more than he weighed when he arrived in 2014.
The Denver Broncos and the New York Jets, Henry said, have shown the most interest.
“They’ve been in contact with my agent and me,” he said, “just kind of giving me the rundown about how things could go, a couple of different scenarios.
“What it really comes down to is what they get in the draft or they don’t get in the draft, and then they kind of fill their needs after that.”
He has heard indirectly from the Kansas City Chiefs and the Los Angeles Rams, who have made inquiries about him to the UNM football offices and the training room.
“It’s kind of weird,” Henry said of the process. “At some point, everything you’ve done is kind of over with. You’ve played your college career and you’ve put your Pro Day numbers up.
“And the (UNM coaches) come and talk to me and tell me, yeah, this team called us and this team did. It’s like they don’t even want to talk to you anymore; they want to hear what people have to say about you.”
As a San Diego native, Henry would prefer to play for a team in a warmweather city. But, having spent a year in Ogden and another in Council Bluffs, Iowa — not to mention those late-fall, late-night games for UNM in Boise, Idaho, and Logan, Utah — he would gladly take a phone call from the Green Bay Packers.
“I always tell people,” he said, “I’d go play in Alaska (if there were an NFL team there).”