Jarryd Hayne’s former NFL team, the San Francisco 49ers, are among at least 16 clubs sending scouts to watch NRL stars Jason Taumalolo and Valentine Holmes work out in Los Angeles on the weekend.
The New York Jets, Carolina Panthers, Philadelphia Eagles, Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals have also indicated they will attend Saturday’s closed door session near the University of Southern California campus.
“At this point I’ve heard from more than half the league,” Jeff Foster, president of National Football Scouting that is organising the workout, told AAP on Wednesday.
Hayne’s hot and cold season with the 49ers last year obviously did not dampen the team’s interest in physically elite, but NFL raw rugby league players.
The workout has been scheduled to allow NFL scouts to watch Taumalolo and Holmes and then travel to the nearby LA Coliseum, site of the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympics, to watch one of US college football’s biggest games of the weekend, USC against Notre Dame.
Foster said Taumalolo, 23, and Holmes, 21, will undergo NFL Combine style tests.
“We’ll weigh and measure them and put them through a series of timed events like the 40 yard dash, three cone drill, the shuttles, we’ll broad jump and vertical jump,” Foster said.
“From there we’ll run them through some simple position specific drills.
“They are ball handlers first so we’ll determine what positions in rugby translate to what positions in the NFL.”
Taumalolo is a 191cm tall, 113kg lock/second-row with the North Queensland Cowboys and Holmes is a 185cm, 87kg fullback/winger with the Cronulla Sharks.
Foster said they will do some “basic workouts” at the wide receiver, running back and tight end offensive positions.
“Then from there we will also look at some really basic defensive positions,” he said.
“Just based off size and the physical nature of them, we will likely look at safety and outside linebacker positions.”
The pair flew from London to LA immediately after playing against each other in the Australia-New Zealand Four Nations final.
Taumalolo and Holmes are contracted to their NRL clubs until the end of the 2017 season so interested NFL teams may have to wait a year before they move to the US.
