'They were surprised': Valentine Holmes impresses NFL scouts

One-by-one the NFL scouts filed out of the cavernous Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ indoor practice facility in Florida after watching Valentine Holmes show off his speed, agility and ability to catch high balls.

Most were impressed with the former NRL star’s 90-minute session.

“I think he had a really good workout,” a scout, who asked not to be identified, told AAP.

Another summed up Holmes as “a good mover, athletic and showed his versatility in running and catching the ball”.

One other scout was not so interested.

“Which one was Valentine?” the scout, pointing to Holmes and the six other international athletes selected for the NFL International Pathway Program, asked.

The most positive sign that Holmes’s decision to quit the NRL and pursue an NFL contract could pay off occurred after most scouts had left the facility.

At the far end of the air-conditioned indoor field, Holmes and a Minnesota Vikings scout were alone locked in a conversation.

They spoke for 10 or so minutes.

“It was a good workout,” was all the Minnesota scout would say on his way out to the car park.

‘They were surprised’

Holmes said the scouts he spoke to wanted to know about his American football background.

The former Cronulla Sharks’ ace has never played a game and only put on a helmet and pads to practice in January.

“They actually asked if I had played this game before and I said, ‘No, I’ve only been here (in the US) for 11 weeks’,” Holmes said.

“They were pretty surprised how quickly I had picked the game up.”

Scouts are a secretive bunch and their assessments of players confidential.

They declined to say what Holmes’s key 40-yard dash time was.

His weigh-in did confirm he has stacked on 3kg of muscle above last year’s NRL playing weight.

Holmes will soon leave Florida’s IMG Academy, where he has spent the past three months with the six other Pathway athletes in a crash-course in American football.

He will likely return to Australia and hope he gets a call from an interested NFL team.

“It is now a waiting game,” Holmes said.

NFL teams could invite him for another workout or to sign him as a free agent.

The Pathway program could also place him on an NFL team’s practice squad that would allow him to train but not play games.