Nau Qb Has Attention Of The Nfl
The book on Jeff Lewis is good. The question is whether enough NFL scouts have bothered to read it.
The Cliff’s Notes are impressive enough. Vertical leap is 28 inches. Squats 510 pounds. Benches 315. Cleans 275. Jerks 290. Clocked at 4.69 in the 40. 7,229 yards. 45 touchdowns.
It’s easy to see why Lewis, a three-year starter at quarterback for Northern Arizona, is already being tabbed as one of the prime cuts in a thin crop of senior signal-callers available for the 1996 NFL draft.
Not that he’s resting on his laurels.
These days, the 6-foot-3, 210-pound Valley native has been working out in Phoenix, with more than a few overtures of pro potential from scouts and draft-watchers.
“He’s a definite prospect,” said NFL draft guru Joel Buchsbaum. “He’s got impressive tools. He’s in a good pro-style system and he’s improved every year.”
While his physique has raised eyebrows, his arm - and the numbers he’s put up with it - have been turning heads. Lewis threw for 3,335 yards and 26 touchdowns and posted a 60.4 completion percentage for the Division I-AA Lumberjacks in 1994. He has thrown for 7,229 yards and 45 touchdowns with 21 interceptions the past three seasons.
National recognition has come slowly. Lewis was named second-team All-Big Sky last season and was honorable mention All-America in two national publications.
Last week he was asked to play in next January’s Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala. - the only I-AA player and lone quarterback to receive an early invite, and the first Lumberjack to get one since wide receiver Shawn Collins in 1988.
“If he can step up in a game like that, it helps immeasurably,” Buchsbaum said. “If ever a game meant a lot to a young man, that game could mean a lot to Jeff Lewis.”
The NFL’s interest is definitely genuine. Jerry Frei, director of college scouting with the Denver Broncos, said Lewis is “a guy who’s on our list of guys we want to seriously scout in the fall.”
Lewis has shed the best-quarterback-nobody-has-ever-heard-of label. And he knows it.
“This year (NFL talk) has become more aware to me,” Lewis said. “I enjoy it for a couple of seconds, then I’m ready to go to work again.”
And, sure enough, work has been the buzzword for Lewis. He has been under the daily auspices of trainer Tim Tyree at Warriors Gym for a second straight summer.
“He called me up about six to eight months ago,” said Tyree, whose clientele has included several college and prep athletes in the Valley and baseball stars Mark McGwire and Tony Phillips. “He said, ‘I want to spend my full time to lifting, running and plyometrics, because this is my big year coming up and I know you’ve done a job for me.”’
The job this summer has centered on a twice-a-day, six-days-a-week regimen that’s not for the faint.
But Lewis doesn’t mind pushing the fine line between dedication and obsession.