Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney liked the job his former players did in Clemson’s Pro Day on Thursday, and now he is glad they can get back to being football players again.

In all, 14 former Tigers worked out in front of 100 or so NFL scouts, general managers and coaches on Thursday at the Poe Indoor Practice Facility in Clemson. Swinney said most of the stuff that comes out of pro day and at the NFL Combine is irrelevant in his mind.

“It’s kind of like the SAT and the ACT,” he said. “I have been around some people that had unbelievable ACTs and did not do well in school and some people that did terrible, that did great. But at the end of the day, it is about who you are on the inside and all of this is being evaluated on the outside.

“I’m not saying that it does not matter, but now they can get back to being players now.”

Obviously, it was a big day for guys like Deshaun Watson and Mike Williams. Scouts wanted to see Watson show more accuracy on his long passes and more velocity. As for Williams, they wanted to see if he had straight-line speed. Both of them passed.

Watson came out of Pro Day with high marks in just about every area and is considered by most draft experts as the top quarterback in the draft. No surprise, but Swinney definitely thinks his quarterback is.

“No question,” the Clemson coach said. “Absolutely, that was an easy question.

“He is the national champion. He is the back-to-back Davey O’Brien winner. He is the back-to-back Manning … back-to-back finalist for the Heisman,” Swinney continued. “He is a winner. His production speaks for itself, but it is also the things you don’t see. It is what is inside him. It’s what is in between his ears. It is the type of young man he is.

“He is the complete package. He has it all. He is chemistry Day 1. He is leadership Day 1. He is the locker room Day 1. He impacts free agency Day 1. He makes everybody better Day 1. He makes the coaches better Day 1. He is an unbelievable young man that is very gifted. I’m proud of him.”

Scouts were questioning Williams’ speed because they had not seen him run. The 6-foot-3, 216-pound wide receiver did not run at the NFL Scouting Combine earlier. Williams proved there was nothing to be concerned about.

He ran an unofficial time of 4.55 in the 40-yard dash, proving he has the straight line speed to run past defenders and the physical tools to bull over them as well.

“This is a house of a receiver on the outside,” ESPN NFL Insider Phil Savage said. “I think with Mike Williams running a 4.5, I think it answers the questions about his long range speed. The bottom line reality is, as a rookie, he is going to have to be essentially in one position and run those hitches, slants and back-shoulder fades. That is his specialty. The team that drafts him should try to put him in that position rather than trying to run a full-route tree.

“Mike Williams is a really talented player. He can catch the ball, has a huge radius and he is a player that will be the first receiver taken.”

It was also a big day for guys like center Jay Guillermo, who did not get invited to the combine. So it was the first day he got to work out in front of the scouts. He benched 225 pounds 33 times.

Former running back Wayne Gallman wanted to have a better showing in his 40-time after running a 4.6 at the combine. He recorded a 4.48 unofficially on Thursday.

“Wayne is just a grinder,” Swinney said.

Jordan Leggett, Jadar Johnson, Cordrea Tankersley, Carlos Watkins and Artavis Scott all worked out for the scouts in some form or manner as well.

“I think Artavis is an incredibly underrated football player,” Swinney said. “He is really hard to tackle, he is excellent with the ball in his hand, he is dynamic and he can do a lot of things. He is going to be a great special teams player.

“I have never seen anybody catch him. He has unbelievable football speed and he has really developed, he came here just as a football player, but he developed into a really good receiver.”

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