Hayden Hurst to visit with Jaguars, per report

The NFL Draft visits for the Jacksonville Jaguars are starting to pick up and another player who will be in Jacksonville on Tuesday for a visit is South Carolina and Jacksonville native, tight end Hayden Hurst.

Hurst is a bit of a unique NFL Draft prospect in that he will be a 25-year-old rookie, as his first jump into professional sports was with the Pittsburgh Pirates as a pitcher. That didn’t work out for him, so he went back and played tight end for South Carolina having back-to-back productive seasons in 2016 and 2017. Some NFL GM’s will view Hurst’s age and prior professional baseball experience as a plus, in that the rookie will know what to expect for being a professional athlete while others will use it as a knock for limited upside.

At 6’4 and 250 pounds, Hurst ran a nice 40-yard dash clocking in a 4.67 seconds. He has good movement for his size and displays the on-field speed to separate from linebackers and some defensive backs. Hurst has excellent hands and rarely seems to shy away from contact, sometimes to his detriment. He’s an adequate blocker as well, so he’s someone that can play in all base downs.