Tank Carder 2012 NFL Draft Diary

Tank Carder 2012 NFL Draft Diary: Pro Day Workout

By Tank Carder, as told to Charlie Campbell - @draftcampbell

WalterFootball.com is proud to introduce our 2012 NFL Draft Diary with TCU linebacker Tank Carder. Throughout the draft process, Tank will be sharing his experience with the readers of WalterFootball.com. Tank will hit on the East-West Shrine Game experience, team interviews, the NFL Scouting Combine, his pro day, pre-draft visits, and of course, his draft day experience.

Carder was the Mountain West Conference Defensive Player of they Year the past two seasons. He also was the Rose Bowl Defensive MVP in TCU's win over Wisconsin at the end of the 2010 season.

Carder totaled 228 tackles with 25 tackles for a loss, 5.5 sacks, 19 passes broken up and four interceptions with three returned for touchdowns in his collegiate career. Carder is a hard-nosed football player who should have an interesting draft experience in 2012. WalterFootball.com would like to thank Tank Carder for his participation. We would also like to thank Tank's agent, Kelli Masters of KMM Sports, for helping to facilitate Tank's draft diary. Carder and Masters are readers of this Web site, so it was a natural fit to approach them about having Tank's draft diary here. We are thrilled to have Tank share his journey with all of you. Now, let's let Tank take over.

There wasn't much of a break between the NFL Scouting Combine and my Pro Day, but fortunately the Combine went well so I didn't have to worry about retesting a lot. The only Combine test that I did at my Pro Day was a vertical jump. At the Combine I had a 34.5 and at my Pro Day it was 36 inches. I did the field drills. I started out a little slow and sketchy, but I warmed up and finished strong.

All around, I think it went well. In the field drills, I did work at middle and outside linebacker. For middle linebacker we did things like taking on and shedding blocks. At outside linebacker we did dropping into the flat, coming back over the top, coming back inside, looking for the ball and things like that. There were only three of us and we all worked together and it was fun.

After the workout I spoke with the scout from the Buffalo Bills for a while. There were a couple other scouts that I spoke with, but we did a lot of meetings at the East-West and the Combine so they have a lot of information on me at this point. There isn't much more that they can get. I've told them everything I possibly could at this point. I've had nothing to hide or explain, so I've been straightforward with the teams. Right now it is more fun for me to get to know them. I enjoy hearing about their schemes and meeting the coaches. It is a lot of fun to build those relationships. With the Combine and Pro Day done, I'm working out to stay in shape and get ready for next season. I have some visits coming up in April, and I'm just staying in tip-top shape. My trainer Todd Durkin says never to be more than two weeks out of peak shape. At the same time, I've been training and moderating to make sure I don't kill it too much. We have mini-camps and offseason workouts after the draft, so I'm preparing for those. I want to be sure that I'm ready to help the team that drafts me from day one. I can't wait for that.

Tank Carder - listed in Round 3 of our 2012 NFL Mock Draft.

Off the field, I'm just spending time with my family. I put all my time into football and family. It is definitely a different lifestyle not managing school in there, and I'm loving the focus being on football.

The journey to the draft is nearing an end, and I can't wait to land with a team and get to work for them.