Ex-Flyer Easterling clings to dream of playing pro football
Fairborn graduate waits by the phone after look from Giants.
Brandon Easterling kept his phone close all week after participating in a rookie minicamp with the New York Giants last weekend. The Giants put him on a shortlist for the OTA (offseason team activity) that followed. That meant he could get a call at any minute if a player who did receive an invitation got injured.
“Your ringer stays on all the time,” his agents, Drew Rigsbee and Joe Vacarro, of First Round Management, told him, “because if you get a call and you miss it, that could be it right there.”
Easterling, a 2017 Fairborn High School graduate who played safety the last four seasons with the Dayton Flyers, hoped to get drafted after a strong performance at the University of Toledo’s pro day in March. He ran a 4.54 40-yard dash, posted a vertical
jump of 37½ inches and a broad jump of 10 feet, 5 inches. He performed in front of scouts from 28 of the 32 NFL teams.
“There were a total of about 40 of us,” Easterling said, “and I was probably top five and maybe even better than that — top four, top three — in the testing and the numbers that I put up. I think that’s what kept me in the loop.”
Easterling prepared for his pro
day by spending 10 weeks with trainer Kevin Dunn at the Test Football Academy in Martinsville, New Jersey, throughout January and February.
“Their specialty is to get you ready for your pro day or the combine,” he said, “so they definitely did me some good.”
Twelve or 13 teams reached out to Easterling or to Dayton defensive coordinator Tee Overman after the pro day to get more information about Easterling. That’s why he had hopes of getting drafted or at least signing as an undrafted free agent and joining a team’s 90-man roster. The rookie minicamp invitation was the next-best option after neither of those opportunities materialized.
Easterling said only three players from the Pioneer Football league got NFL opportunities this spring. Morehead State wide receiver BJ Byrd received a training camp invitation from the Washington Commanders. Valparaiso running back Robert Washington was invited to rookie minicamp with the Philadelphia Eagles.
There was another former PFL player who got a chance this spring: offensive lineman Michael Niese, who signed as a free agent with the Denver Broncos. Niese played the last two seasons at Temple after starting for three seasons at Dayton and graduating from UD. He contacted Dayton coach Rick Chamberlin after signing with the Broncos to thank
him and tell him, “I’ll always be a Flyer.”
Easterling knows reaching the NFL, as his former teammate Adam Trautman did, is a long shot for a PFL player but thought more players should have gotten a chance.
“I think the pro day is really what keeps us alive and gives us that extra hope,” he said. “Me having a good pro day, teams started to call like crazy.”
As for his experience with the Giants over a three-day period (May 12-14), Easterling was both thankful for
the opportunity and disappointed not to get an invitation to OTAs. He faced an uphill climb with 54 players competing for two spots.
“It kind of just goes to show how hard it really is to get in if you’re not a drafted guy,” Easterling said. “Especially
being from a small school, that adds to the difficulty. I guess it is what it is. I laid it all out there.”
There were few opportunities to show his skills at the rookie minicamp. Easterling shared repetitions with a safety drafted
by the Giants, fourth-round pick Dane Belton, as well as two other rookie safeties signed to the 90-man roster and four other safeties who received tryout invitations like Easterling.
“Going through the three days, we only had a total of two practices,” Easterling said. “Each practice was an hour and 15 minutes long. During that practice, we had one competitive session that was 15 minutes long, and it was a 7-on-7. Each safety, even the drafted kid, only got three snaps, three plays, because of how short the practice was. So after two days of practicing, I got a total of six snaps. It wasn’t like they were only giving me six snaps and everybody else is getting a lot of snaps. It was like that for everybody. Everybody only got six snaps. That’s tough, especially as a DB if the ball doesn’t come your way, which happened to me all six plays. You really don’t even have an opportunity to make a play. You just have to be perfect in your coverage and perfect in what you can be perfect in.”
The Giants put Easterling on a shortlist for OTAs, as did the Washington Commanders. As he continues to hope for another NFL shot, he’s also thinking about playing in the Canadian Football League.
“It’s kind of the next best thing,” Easterling said. “I’ve gotten interest from some teams. The big thing is that when you sign your contract to go to the CFL, it holds you out from the NFL all the way through Thanksgiving. So you have to figure out if it’s realistic that a team is going to call you. The Canadian Football League is a great league, and you can make a lot of money doing it. It’s very competitive. But the NFL is the best of the best.”
Easterling is preparing for his next step back home in Fairborn. He works out at the high school as well as at UD. He also works with a defensive backs coach in Huber Heights, Tyree Kinnell, the former Michigan safety and Wayne graduate.
“I’m kind of just bouncing around everywhere, just depending on what the workout needs to be,” he said.
‘It kind of just goes to show how hard it really is to get in if you’re not a drafted guy. Especially being from a small school.’’ Brandon Easterling Former UD Flyer