John Walters

Jordy Nelson may be the only prospect in this weekend's NFL draft who was raised working on much larger fields than the 120x53-yarder the league uses as its stage. Nelson, a wide receiver out of Kansas State, was raised on a farm outside of Leonardville, Kan., that encompasses some 3,000 acres.

"We grow wheat, corn, alfalfa, beans and some other crops," Nelson says. "And we also have about 300 head of cattle."

If Nelson is not the first farmhand chosen in the draft, then certainly he should be the first former walk-on. Nelson, who has terrific size (6-feet-3, 217 pounds) and decent speed (4.51 in the 40) for an NFL wideout, was not offered a Division I scholarship coming out of Riley County High School (graduating class of 67 students).

Kansas State, just 25 miles to the southwest of the family farm, was the only D-I school that even bothered to recruit him. Division II schools Emporia and Washburn extended scholarship offers. Nelson politely declined them.

"I went for it all," says Nelson, who chose to pay for college and enrolled at Kansas State. "I didn't want to have any regrets."

With all the millions (tens of millions?) of dollars D-I football programs spend on recruiting each year, it is, in hindsight, incredible that Nelson was so overlooked. Certainly, he had good size. Speed? He had won an AAU age-group national championship in the 400 meters during elementary school. At the 2003 state track meet, Nelson won the 100-, 200- and 400-meter sprints at the Class 3A level as well as the long jump.

INTERACTIVE NFL Draft Droppers John Walters on stars with dropping stock.

He was first-team All-State in basketball, where he established school records for assists, steals and blocks, and second-team All-State in football, where as a quarterback he rushed for 1,572 yards and scored 25 touchdowns as a senior. Then again, as recruiters will tell you, scouring hayseed high schools the likes of Riley County in search of D-I talent is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

College recruiters have the luxury of saying, "We didn't know about Jordy Nelson." NFL general managers do not. And yet Nelson, who started out as a walk-on safety at Kansas State but finished as a first-team All-American wide receiver last season, is not expected to be taken in the first round. His name may not be called at all on Saturday when the first two rounds of the NFL draft are held.

That is, simply put, stupefying. Before you read another word, watch this quick video clip.

That is Nelson, running a "go" route, against Kansas All-American cornerback Aqib Talib, who made the mistake of lining up against him in bump-and-run coverage. The play went for 68 yards and a touchdown. Talib, by the way, is expected to be selected between the 10th and 21st pick on Saturday.

One play does not a first-round selection make, though. In 2007 Nelson, a fan favorite in Manhattan, made dozens of them. Take a peek at this video entitled "Draft Jordy Nelson!"

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