Jared Mayden could be spending this time wallowing in the adversity stacked upon him since concluding his senior season at Alabama. Few would blame him.

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Despite leading the Crimson Tide with four interceptions, Mayden didn’t receive an invite to this year’s NFL Scouting Combine in February. That disappointment was followed by the cancellation of Alabama’s pro day due to the COVID-19 outbreak, denying the defensive back the chance to show off his speed in front of scouts.

Mayden admits those were two missed opportunities. However, he’s determined not to add to that list.

“This is where you find out what kind of person you are,” Mayden said. “If everything goes set in stone, then you never really grow. There are people out there right now who are probably in the same position I am who were waiting on a pro day. They probably won’t make pro-day videos, or they’ll just sit around and wait. This is an easy way to see who really wants it.

“You don’t wait to take chances. You got to put things into your own hands and show people that this really means something to you more than somebody else.”

The past few weeks, Mayden has had to learn to make do without Alabama’s full-scale facility as he looks to stay in shape. Strength building has shifted from weights to high-intensity exercises such as resistance-band work, box drills and medicine balls — all activities that can be done outside or in open space as a precaution from the spread of coronavirus. On days when he is restricted to his house, stretching, sit-ups and pushups and dips will suffice.

While Mayden’s pro day was canceled, the crafty defensive back is currently working with longtime trainer Clay Mack to put together a package of drills to showcase to NFL teams via video. Mayden provided a sample of such drills over social media Saturday, posting a 45-second clip of him backtracking, changing direction and going through ball-tracking drills. He’s created a dropbox of the clips and has sent them out to all 32 NFL teams, receiving positive feedback from several league evaluators.

“What we are trying to showcase in the videos is how well this guy transitions himself, how well he moves, how he can adapt to coverages,” Mack said. “For me, I train through coverages, so a lot of my movement drills are simulating moves you’d do through coverages. That way, scouts can get an idea of what this guy would look like in different coverages and how he can move in different situations.”

In reality, things could be much worse for Mayden. He took part in the Senior Bowl in January where he was able to meet with nearly every NFL team and work with Cincinnati Bengals coaches on the South team. He’s also held several conversations with NFL coaches via FaceTime and Zoom over the past few weeks.

Mayden said those talks generally center around his knowledge of the game. Jaguars safeties coach Matt Kitchens broke down film from Alabama’s Citrus Bowl matchup against Michigan, quizzing Mayden over what his responsibilities were in certain packages and the different variations that stem from them. New England Patriots secondary coach Stephen Belichick broke down a few of his team’s formations on white paper before having Mayden recite them back to him later in the conversation.

“That stuff is easy to me,” Mayden said. “I felt comfortable with all of it. Especially being under Coach Saban for so long, you get to process information in so many different ways that for me it’s not really hard to recite it back.”

While Alabama wasn’t able to help Mayden out through a pro day, he said Crimson Tide coaches have been in his corner throughout the whole process. Safeties coach Charles Kelly has had conversations with several NFL teams, raving over Mayden’s knowledge and character on and off the field. The defensive back has even received a bit of help from former Crimson Tide strength and conditioning coach Scott Cochran, who left to coach special teams at Georgia last month.

“Even after he changed jobs to Georgia, he still reached out to me,” Mayden said. “He was actually the one who suggested I put the pro-day videos on social media. I was going to send them to coaches, but he was one of the first people to tell me it would be a good idea to post to social media to get as many people to see them. He’s a really big mentor. Ever since I first stepped onto campus, anytime I was upset, he was always somebody I could go talk to.”

Despite not getting to run in front of NFL teams this year, Mayden was able to clock a 40-time in the 4.4 range during Alabama’s junior pro day last year. That along with his 6-foot, 200-pound frame and a season’s worth of tape as an SEC starter makes him an interesting prospect to several teams.

Mayden’s agent Kevin Conner pointed out that his client isn’t the only player who finds himself in a unique situation due to the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, with Mayden coming out of an Alabama system that has seen 18 defensive backs drafted under head coach Nick Saban, he might receive the benefit of the doubt over other players in like circumstances.

“I’m hearing from GMs that some of the bigger-school kids are going to be pushed up in the draft, even with the incomplete evaluation model now because they didn’t have pro day and so forth,” Conner said. “Some of the kids who are mid-major, maybe small-school kids, who could have been ranked right with an Alabama or Florida or Georgia kid, some scouts are going to lean to the bigger schools and give that kid from a bigger school the edge.”

Conner said he has talked to more than 20 teams about Mayden, including several in Indianapolis during the combine who were anxious to see the defensive back work out at Alabama’s pro day.

“We’ve been selling Jared as a complete defensive back,” Conner said. “It’s a pass-oriented league, so the more you can do, the more valuable you are. I think what’s an added plus is Jared has the length. He’s a rangy, long athlete, so he’s going to measure out well. Teams have been really open with us saying, ‘This kid can play it all.’

“If you get a Jared Mayden, you can put him on the corner — that’s what he did in high school. You can put him inside because he has experience playing the slot. At the same time, he played safety at Alabama. And the physicality he brings with his game he’s able to play at the line of scrimmage but also has the range to play on the backend.”

According to Pro Football Focus, Mayden spent 273 snaps at slot corner, 261 snaps at box safety and 241 snaps at free safety last season. While he’s confident at any spot on the field, the versatile defensive back said he actually prefers to play wide cornerback, the position he played in high school when he was rated as the No. 120 player overall in the 2016 class.

“I think the whole flexibility side of it is his biggest strength,” Mack said. “Jared can really run. I don’t know if people are underestimating that with him, but the one thing Jared can do is run. I think that’s where the corner aspect comes in and even the nickel comes in. Now you can have a guy who has a corner skill set who can bump inside to the nickel but also has shown he has the physicality to bump back on the backend and as a two-high or one-high safety. I think that’s really what makes him valuable.”

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