*Jensen Shines in Playoffs, Talks Draft

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Ready to be graded, 1017 words. DOUBLE MEDIA!

To say that Chase Jensen, the highly touted tight end out of Stanford, has an underwhelming prospect tournament would be an understatement. After posting nearly 90 yards of receiving after the first 2 games of the tournament, the beast from California went quiet and when we say quiet, we mean really quiet. Over the next 3 games of the tournament, Jensen would post 9 receptions for a disappointing 40 total yards.

“Yeah I don’t really know what to tell you about that stretch of games. I think it was a combination of a lot of things going wrong not only for myself, but for the team as a whole. I was definitely struggling to get open, but I don’t think I was necessarily getting the ball when I was open too. I don’t know, I wish it was something that the coaches would have looked at as the tournament progressed. That being said, what’s in the past is in the past and there’s nothing that we can do about it now. I just want to focus on making myself better for the draft and my career as a professional football player.”

Something must have gotten into Jensen after that interview though because in the playoffs against the eventual champion Pacific Owls Jensen went off like he hadn’t in the tournament so far. Jensen managed to haul in 5 passes for 62 yards and a touchdown which brought the Wolfpack within striking distance of the Owls with just over a minute left to play in the game. As previously mentioned though, the Wolfpack would end up falling to the Owls who would go on the beat the Grizzlies in the championship round.

“I’m really happy with how I played tonight. I was getting open, I was getting my opportunities to shine for sure. It’s always disappointing to lose. No one likes losing so I wouldn’t necessarily say that I am proud of that, but on a personal level I think I more accurately displayed my abilities to the GMs and coaches of not only the DSFL, but the NSFL as well. Ultimately, I wish we could have been a little bit tighter on special team. That kickoff return for a touchdown really came back to bite us on the ass, but sometimes that’s how things go. We’re not going to be perfect every single play, sometimes we’re going to be outright bad, but that’s how it is.”

We were also able to ask Jensen if he thought his performance in the prospect tournament and playoffs will have an effect on his draft stock. It’s not too often that we really get to do deep dives with prospects so we figured that we would pick his brain for information while we had him.

“No, I don’t really think performances in this tournament effects draft stock at all. Of course GMs and coaches love to see certain players ball out, especially those that they are considering drafting, but at the end of the day they see who is putting in the time and effort into making themselves a superstar. They know who has been hitting the training room, they know who has been making regular appearances with the media. They are smart guys and they are going to make the decisions that are best for their own teams.”

Additionally, we asked Jensen if he had heard anything through the grapevine on where or when he was going to be drafted. The star tight end was slotted as an early round pick on our draft board, but we wanted to hear straight from his mouth if he had heard anything about it.

“I try not to pay too much attention to what the talking heads are saying about the draft. I’m just trying to focus on myself. That being said, it’s hard to not hear things. I have guys telling me that I’m going to be an early round pick, I have guys telling me that GMs are going to be sleeping on tight ends this season. It seems like a real crap shoot out there. All I can really say is that draft position doesn’t really matter to me all that much because I’m going to ball out no matter where I’m drafted and that there are a lot of super talented tight ends in this draft. I mean, you guys watched the tournament. Some of the tight ends had super solid tournaments and I’m sure that they caught the eyes of some of the GMs. Anyway, have I heard anything about where I’m going to be drafted? I mean, I haven’t heard anything set in stone, but I have been talking a lot with the GMs and scouts for the Solar Bears. I think that they present a really interesting opportunity under new leadership. I know that I would be able to walk in there day 1 and be their guy at tight end. I mean, I don’t mind lining up as a blocker, receiver… heck, you could even line me up at fullback and I wouldn’t mind. My goal is to be an impact player anyway that I can and I really believe that I could be an impact player in that environment.”

Alright, you heard it here first folks. Jensen seems to believe that he could be landing in Palm Beach. It’s always a good time talking to Jensen in these interviews. He really understands the game and how he fits into it. A lot of prospects these days just want to be stats monsters and to win awards… to get the glory essentially. You can really tell that that stuff doesn’t really matter to Jensen. What matters to him is putting in the work to be successful and being the best player possible for his team even if that means not racking up a ton of receiving yards or touchdowns. All of these things seem like traits that could be really ideal for GMs and coaches around the league. I would look at Jensen as a potential early round pick in the NSFL draft as well.