Draft prospect David Njoku uses meditation to help him improve as a TE

The first time David Njoku took a seat in Todd Hartley’s room, it didn’t go well.

Hartley had just been hired as the special teams coordinator and tight ends coach of the Miami Hurricanes. It was the spring of 2016. Njoku, a promising tight end, was one of the handful of Hurricanes watching film. The others pulled out notepads and jotted down Hartley’s pointers. Hartley noticed that Njoku, keeping his eyes attached to the projector, didn’t. Hartley continued, anyway.

Several minutes passed. Hartley’s eyes kept returning to Njoku. He felt himself distracted at the sight of Njoku, no pen or paper. He couldn’t help it.

“Dude, I’m getting pissed,” Hartley said. “You should be taking notes.”

Njoku, after all, had only played tight end one season of his entire career.

“What he was doing was he was watching, he was listening,” Hartley told USA TODAY Sports in a phone call. “He is an unbelievable learner at seeing something. He’s so visual that he didn’t have to take notes. He saw it and went out to the field and applied it and did it.”

Njoku may be the most intriguing prospect in the draft, and now, he’s using another visual tool to help his transition to the NFL: meditation.

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For the better part of this past year, Njoku watched and scrutinized film of the great Miami tight ends of the past: Jeremy Shockey, Greg Olsen, Jimmy Graham, Kellen Winslow, Clive Walford. Then he cued up tape from his own one-on-one battles in practice, put the clips in slow mo, and analyzed every aspect of his hand placement, route running, catching, footwork.

“Then, I go home, meditate a little bit, visualize myself doing those extra things,” Njoku told USA TODAY Sports in a phone call recently.

“Whether it was a certain route, running it a certain way, or after the catch, trying to find a way to break tackles with a juke, a stiff arm, a hurdle, or a spin move or whatever it was – I sit down, play some nice music, and meditate and focus on more of my instincts and reactions, imagining defenders when I have the ball in my hands. I think that really helped me.”

Njoku’s schedule is a little tighter now, well into the pre-draft process, but he does this “every day to every other day.” If he’s running late, he’ll unplug for just five minutes. With more time, he stretches it to about 20. He’ll do it in bed before he goes to sleep, or in the middle of the day.

It has all paid off.

Njoku caught 43 passes for 698 yards (16.2 yards per reception average) in 2016. He hauled in eight touchdowns – or one on 18.6 % of his receptions.

This past season he caught passes and ran for huge chunks of yards that you’d normally see from a deep threat: 76, 54, 48, 46, 33, and 30.

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Njoku’s athletic traits shine. He’s 6-foot-4, 246-pounds with a track background that boasts a high school national championship in high jump. His 4.64-second 40-yard dash, 37.5-inch vertical leap and 133-inch broad jump at the NFL scouting combine all reinforce what’s available on film.

But he’s raw. Njoku started playing football in seventh grade. Miami recruited him as a receiver, but his Freshman 15 turned into a Freshman 30. Coaches tried him at linebacker for one week, something Njoku said “humbled” him. Eventually they settled on tight end.

He has played the position for only two seasons. At Miami, he appeared in just 26 games and only started nine times. He won’t turn 21 until July, and is one of the youngest players eligible for this year’s NFL draft.

“I can do it all,” Njoku said. “I can line up on the line of scrimmage attached, or go outside and make it happen at receiver. It hasn’t really stopped me or made me think twice of making this step and coming out. I’ve only played tight end for about two years. I’m new to the position, but I think I’m improving very fast. I think I can only get better from here on out.”

Said Hartley: “You can tell he has immense talent, but he just hasn’t had enough reps to perfect his craft. His ceiling is so high.”

So now, Njoku is trying to become the first tight end selected in the first round of the draft since 2014, when the Detroit Lions chose Eric Ebron with the No. 10 pick. He’ll compete for that distinction with Alabama’s O.J. Howard.

“I’m very relaxed,” Njoku said. “I feel like I put in all the work that I was supposed to put in. I showed everybody what I could do. Honestly, I feel like I could do even more than what I showed. But whatever team drafts me will see that. I’m calm, you know? I probably won’t be on draft day, but right now, I’m relaxed.”

Follow Lorenzo Reyes on Twitter @LorenzoGReyes