If you didn’t know the name of Quinn Meinerz entering Senior Bowl week, you’re more than forgiven. So far, the word is far out of one of the most surprising artists at the most important NFL pre-draft event.
One reason you may not have heard of Meinerz is that he played college football in Wisconsin-Whitewater. Another is that he didn’t play last season.
With the cancellation of FCS football in 2020, UWW striker D-III All-American and his team’s MVP in 2019 were deprived of a senior season. He was forced to do everything he could without a season to gain attention and improve as an NFL candidate – while socially distancing himself, of course, and, at least for a while, he did it without a gym.
This is a man who is used to going to the extreme, spending most of the last few summers working alone in a remote part of Canada. It was there that the 1.80 m tall, 320-pound Meinerz underwent its annual “Rocky IV” farm regime, 400-pound fuel tanks and felled trees.
After that eight-hour daily routine, helping his uncle to manage a famous fly fishing spot up there, it was only then that Meinerz started football training. There were no weights. Then he improvised, pushing giant stones. And some of those trees? If they were small enough, he would do it with his bare hands.
“Hitting wood was not the most fun thing I had to do there, but it was what I did,” he told the NFL Network on Thursday.
This summer, Meinerz was focused on adding versatility to his game. Given the circumstances, however, how? He taught himself to play in the center.
Meinerz started throwing trash cans. He set up a GoPro in the backyard of the house where he stayed and analyzed his technique – despite having only an hour a day of internet access. When it is a pandemic, you adapt to the environment.
All of his years of Spartan training helped prepare Meinerz for this week, his biggest opportunity yet. When Alabama pivot Landon Dickerson suffered an ACL break at the Sugar Bowl, he opened a vacancy in the Senior Bowl squad.
Shortly thereafter, Meinerz received a call from the Bowl’s senior director, Jim Nagy, asking if he would like to participate in the first pre-project evaluation event. Scouts had not seen Meinerz play since the D-III title game on December 20, 2019. And with the NFL scout combination canceled, along with most other pre-draft all-star events, it was a no-brainer.
“I have been working very hard to do what I do,” he said. “It was really exciting to get that call from Jim Nagy, saying, ‘Hey, do you want to put on the Warhawks helmet again?”
Presenting a show in practice
Meinerz may have arrived in Mobile, Alabama, a relative unknown to many, but he is on his way to leaving Senior Bowl week as a popular hero.
As attackers of the offensive line of previous small schools, such as the 2015 Ali Shift second round of Hobart (New York), the Alabama State’s first 2019 shift Tytus Howard and the 2020 Ben Bartch second of St. John’s (Minnesota) Meinerz is making a big name for himself in just a few days of practice.
Much of this comes from his performance during the training of the National Team, trained by the Miami Dolphins. Meinerz was singled out as one of the big winners in Wednesday’s session, beating rush pacers from Pac-12, Big Ten and Big East, sometimes with ease, despite having been more than a year since his last true live action.
Meinerz dropped some of them like those Ontario birches.
“I struggled to be able to be so dominant,” said Meinerz. “It’s been fun.”
And look at this: Meinerz broke his hand in the first crack of Thursday’s session – and continued practicing for almost two hours.
Your reaction to the injury? “How did that happen? I drank whole milk my whole life!”
Unfortunately, Meinerz plans to take a swipe at the hand and play in Saturday’s Senior Bowl game. Meanwhile, one of the other players who missed Thursday’s training session, Washington’s defensive defender Levi Onwuzurike, was injured on Wednesday when Meinerz dominated the possible choice in the top 50 in a one-on-one.
Meinerz is not yet at that level of appreciation among scouts. So he will keep trying to play despite the injury.
“It’s 100 percent cliché,” said Meinerz’s agent, Ron Slavin, “but it’s totally true: he all about soccer. He’s training and practicing for this moment, and he’s absolutely making the most of it. He’s not leaving [the broken hand] slow you down at all. “
The gut in all its glory
Part of Meinerz’s sudden appearance was due to his look on the pitch. With his Senior Bowl shirt tucked under his shoulder, exposing his glorious gut, Meinerz has conquered social media in recent days.
It’s one thing when DK Metcalf – with his body like Adonis – undressed in a pre-draft meeting with Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll (who also took off his shirt) during a viral moment a few years ago. It is quite another when a 320-pound striker takes a skin-to-win approach.
“I’m working on it,” he joked. “I don’t have an abdomen. Now, I have the barrel. “
The look is not new for this week. Former UWW teammate Nate Trewyn said Meinerz took the belly-up approach a few years ago in training, keeping him exposed even when the Wisconsin winter showed its ugly face.
“He always liked to … let his belly breathe,” said Trewyn.
Why Quinn Meinerz can jump from the D-III to the NFL
Trewyn can certainly appreciate Meinerz’s rise from level D-III to the NFL, having spent time in recent years in the lineups of the Los Angeles Rams and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and having paid close attention – to Meinerz’s belly and his performance – that week.
When they played together with the Warhawks, Trewyn was the center and Meinerz was the left guard. The Warhawks averaged nearly 6 run yards per attempt, accumulated almost 42 points per game and finished 13-1, losing only in the national title game to Mary Hardin-Baylor (Texas).
Trewyn is not surprised by Meinerz’s rise since then. Meinerz emerged as an NFL prospect during his junior season in 2019, after which scouts mainly gave him grades on subsequent recruitment. Now, after a strong start in the Senior Bowl, Meinerz is one of the best stories in the game this year.
“Everyone who knows him knows about his work ethic and, having worked alongside him, I can say that it is real,” said Trewyn. “But what is impressive to me is how well he is doing in the center. It is difficult to go from guard to never play in the center and make your first central representatives in the Senior Bowl, facing the best in their class.
“I can’t tell you how difficult it is for most people to make that adjustment. He’s been phenomenal so far. But, again, knowing him, I’m not surprised either. “
This week on Mobile, he made representatives in the center and on guard, and that versatility was worth it.
“The centers try to help bring everyone together, being on the same page with all five [offensive linemen]”Said Meinerz. “It’s a lot of new things, and very quickly I had to learn. I put the time I had to [prepare for the Senior Bowl], and I wanted to show [the Dolphins’ coaching staff] I could learn things quickly. “
With the combination canceled and many schools preventing outside athletes from working on their professional days because of COVID-related precautions, Meinerz may not receive the same pro-day internship that other 2021 draft candidates will be counting on. It is possible that he will return to the EXOS training center in Dallas, where he is preparing for the Senior Bowl, to be tested for combined training. And although he does not make predictions in his test numbers, Meinerz must post times that are better than those of Marpet, who worked his way to be the 61st choice in the draft – the highest draft choice in the history of the D-III.
Can Meinerz win this? That would be difficult, considering he didn’t play last season. But, given the work Meinerz did, this cannot be ruled out.
It was some crazy months for the 22-year-old, who left the Whitewater program in October, spending a few months training at the Watt brothers’ facilities (JJTJ and Derek) in Milwaukee, working with OL guru Duke Manyweather in Texas in December, before to land at the Senior Bowl, which was his unofficial debutante party this month.
“I’m just playing football again, doing what I do,” he said.
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Originally published