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First appeared on April 25, 2002
University of Maine football head coach Jack Cosgrove expected senior Chad Hayes to end up in the National Football League. But Cosgrove did not expect senior Lennard Byrd, a return specialist, to attract too much attention.
Hayes signed a two-year contract with the Kansas City Chiefs and Byrd will travel to New York Thursday to attend the New York Giants camp.
“Lennard’s more of a surprise because there wasn’t as much interest in him,” Cosgrove said Wednesday. “But the Giants saw something they liked – he caught their eye.”
Byrd, who is 5 feet 7 inches tall, was considered to be too small by some teams. With the current trend in the NFL being tall wide receivers, Byrd’s height may have turned off teams that were looking for a defensive back/kick returner, Cogrove said.
“Some said when we were recruiting Lennard that he was too small,” Cosgrove said. “But he turned into an All-American.
“His height is their concern, but physically he’s a great athlete,” Cosgrove said. “He’s the strongest athlete on this campus pound-for-pound in any sport.”
Byrd ranked sixth and 31st in the nation in kickoff return and punt return average. He earned All-Atlantic 10 and All-ECAC return specialist honors. Byrd is also the only UMaine player to return both a punt and a kickoff for a touchdown in the same season and only the second to do it in a career.
Where Byrd may be considered by many to be too small to play in the NFL, coaches rave about Hayes’s physical attributes.
“He has rare size and physical make-up,” said Ted Rowen, the Chiefs tight end coach.
“As far as I look at it, Hayes has as a good a chance as any to make it [professionally], considering his abilities to run, catch and block,” Cosgrove said. “The pros are starving for guys who can run and catch.”
Rowen said Wednesday that Hayes should see plenty of repetitions for the Chiefs in the off-season behind Tony Gonzalez, who is generally considered to be the best tight end in the game. Hayes will compete with Jason Dunn, who is second on the depth chart, Billy Baber and fellow rookie free agent Dwayne Blakley, from Missouri, for playing time.
“We had three tight ends on the active roster at the beginning of last year and we finished with four when Baber came up.
“I feel good about Chad’s ability to be a pass-catching tight end. He’s got the frame, the speed and the hands to do so,” Rowen said.
Rowen said the Chiefs have been interested in Hayes for some time, especially after his MVP performance at the Gridiron Classic in January. But Rowen acknowledges that some things prevented the team from selecting him.
“We saw him as a draftable player, but we traded two picks and we had to fill some other holes.”
