Earning Their Place

A little over one year ago, Courtney Greene made a decision that changed his future in the National Football League.

Greene was projected as a mid-round pick in last year’s safety-thin NFL Draft had he chosen to come out after his junior year, but Greene opted to come back to the Rutgers football team for one more year citing “unfinished business.”

Now preparing for the jump that will earn him a selection in May’s draft, Greene is not worried about where he will be selected, the same relaxed attitude exhibited throughout his senior season as a team captain.

“On draft day somebody is going to like me and somebody is going to pick me,” he said. 

Backtracking a year, Greene was coming off a junior campaign where he led the Scarlet Knights with 101 tackles. Many questioned his decision to come back to RU, but Greene was not one of them.

“I felt it was my duty to Rutgers University to come back,” Greene said last spring. “I think it’s just things that we need to get accomplished and that’s something that I want to be a part of.”

In the grand scheme of things, Greene’s decision ultimately affected his draft stock. For better or worse, he is projected on most boards between the seventh and tenth-best safety prospect around in a weak positional class, a number that is likely to get him chosen in the middle of the second day of the draft.

Greene said he is not paying attention to his draft stock, concentrating instead on his personal workouts and training for the next level.

One of three former Knights invited to the NFL Combine last month, Greene worked out again at the Rutgers Pro Day trying to better his times in select drills, and he did just that with a mark of 9’10” in the broad jump.

“I came out here and did the broad jump, the three cone drill over and got better than what I did at the Combine, helped out some of those numbers that I felt I didn’t do my best in,” he said.

Greene did a select number of position drills as well for the 41 scouts in attendance. 

“I just came out here and tried to look fresh in the drills, showed that I can move, high point the ball, and just show them what I can do,” he said.

The next step for Greene is going to personal workouts for teams in what is his best chance to show potential suitors his abilities. 

Having already attended two such events and with more on the slate, Greene and his agent have busy times ahead in the short time before the NFL Draft. He has yet to hear feedback from those he worked out for, but Greene said he does not want to know anything until draft day.

“I’ve had a couple of workouts, but I don’t know if they want me to know,” he said. “I’m keeping that to myself right now.”

Regardless of the results, Greene’s future at the professional level is all but certain. A hard-hitting safety who brings a physical presence to the secondary is exactly what teams in need are looking for in the later rounds of the draft, and he knows that.

“I can come in physical, ready to come downhill and hit somebody and make a big play with an interception,” he said. 

And as for where he wants to play on the next level?

“Whoever wants me, wants me,” Greene said. “I’m just living a dream right now.”