Ex-Cougar Francisco proves NFL scouts can miss mark

During the next few weeks, professional scouts and coaches will poke, prod, time and measure prospective football players for employment in the National Football League. Draft picks worth millions of dollars will be decided by stopwatches and measuring tapes and tests.

There's just one problem with all of this: Aaron Francisco .

A safety at BYU, he was invited to the NFL combine a couple of years ago following his senior season to show what he could do. He ran the 40-yard dash in 4.75.

Men in suits cover a crosswalk in 4.75 during their lunch break.

"It was horrible," says Francisco.

Just like that, Francisco was doomed. The odds were stacked against him because of a stopwatch. The fact that he was a two-time all-conference safety and defensive MVP for the Cougars with a knack for making big plays didn't seem to matter anymore. Coaches love numbers, but numbers don't measure fearlessness, instinct, the ability to hit and tackle or even what they call game speed.

Day 1 of the NFL draft came and went without Francisco getting a call.

So did Day 2.

"They look too much at the numbers," says Francisco. "When I didn't get drafted, I was angry. I wanted to prove what kind of player I was. The numbers really don't show what I can do."

Francisco signed as a free agent with the Arizona Cardinals in 2005 but was cut during the preseason. A couple of weeks later he was signed to the practice squad. Eventually, he was promoted to the active roster and during the last 11 games of the season he made a name for himself as a fearless, kamikaze-like special-teams player and reserve safety.

Coaches noticed him. "I'm a real physical player who runs around a lot," he says. "I'm not afraid to hit. That's the best part of my game. That's what gave me an opportunity. I had a lot of hard hits, especially on kickoffs. I was the guy they were watching. I would fly into the wedge and just didn't care about my body."

He was cut again before the start of the 2006 season but was told by the Cardinals to stay in close because they might sign him to their practice squad. Francisco took that literally. He worked out alone on an empty field next to the Cardinals' practice field while the team practiced, with only a chain link fence separating them.

But after a few anxious days and several phone calls to check his status with the Cardinals, Francisco signed with the New York Jets and saw immediate action at safety and on special teams.