Several years, schools and positions later, Paul Magloire Jr. is back in Florida. He has come full circle, you might say.
“If you want to call it a circle,” the former Arizona Wildcats linebacker said. “I did some kind of shape. I finally found my way back.”
Magloire’s journey to the East-West Shrine Game in St. Petersburg — which takes place Saturday and also features UA receiver Trey Griffey — began about 250 miles away in Fort Lauderdale, Magloire’s hometown. It featured stops in Long Island, New York; New Berlin, New York; Boone, North Carolina; Yuma; and finally, Tucson.
It took Magloire from quarterback to running back to safety to linebacker. The latter just might be home.
After leading the Wildcats in tackles last season, Magloire has had an impressive week at the Shrine game, one of the top showcases for would-be NFL draft picks.
“I leave Shrine practices getting a lot more from Magloire than I ever expected,” wrote Tony Pauline, a longtime NFL draft analyst now running the DraftAnalyst.com website. “He displayed himself as a complete, three-down defender who did well defending the run and was exceptional in pass defense.
“Size and growth limitations are an issue, as Magloire won’t be a linebacker for everyone. That being the case, I very much see him as a nickel ’backer/special-teams player for the next level.”
Performing well at the Shrine game doesn’t guarantee Magloire will get drafted; current projections at NFLDraftScout.com have him — and every other UA prospect — as an undrafted free agent. But it’s a start, and a lot can change over the next few months.
For Magloire, the main task might be proving to NFL scouts that he’s a hybrid (the in-vogue cross between a linebacker and safety) and not a tweener (neither stout enough for linebacker nor speedy enough for safety).
Magloire shifted from seldom-used safety to starting linebacker about halfway through the 2015 season, when injury-riddled Arizona literally ran out of healthy linebackers.
Magloire took to the move well, becoming one of the Wildcats’ leading tacklers. He finished the 2016 season with 81 stops, including 5.5 for losses, and one pass breakup.
After training under Tom Shaw and Pete Jenkins in Orlando, the 6-foot, 225-pound Magloire spent much of this week working with Larry Foote, who coaches inside linebackers for the Arizona Cardinals.
“He’s showing us things we might not get taught in college,” Magloire said. “The NFL runs a certain type of defense. We’ve learned a lot of stuff this week.”
Magloire said he has taken the time to watch extra film with Foote, understanding that “at this level you need to become smarter.” Magloire knows that will only help him in the long run.
Magloire grew up as a Miami Dolphins fan and has dreamed of playing in the NFL since he was a kid. It’s an aspiration he now shares with son Brayden, 7 months, and girlfriend Aubrey.
“At the end of the day,” Magloire said, “this dream is for me and my family.”
Family has been the topic du jour for local media when it comes to Griffey, who always will be known as Ken Griffey Jr.’s son. Although Trey, who’s also from Florida, chose a different athletic path, his family ties should boost his draft stock.
“DNA doesn’t lie,” NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock said, via FanRag Sports. “I’ve heard that from a lot of different scouts and coaches over the years. When they hear about a kid like (Griffey) they think, ‘The kid must have something.’
“Just the fact that you’re the son or the grandson of a great athlete, and in this case a Hall of Fame athlete, that’s evidence that athletic ability runs in your family and reinforces things for you.”
Trey didn’t land a spot in the East-West Shrine Game because of his gaudy statistics. As a senior last year, he had only 23 receptions, a product of the least-productive passing attack of Rich Rodriguez’s tenure.
But Griffey has many desirable traits, including the aforementioned genes, a knack for making big plays (career average per catch: 15.7 yards) and excellent size (6-2, 208). Like Magloire, Griffey stood out during Shrine practices.
“Griffey improved each day … and overall was one of the most impressive receivers on hand,” Pauline wrote. “He may be more than a traditional possession receiver as he sneaks it downfield on occasion. That being the case, much of his final draft grade is dependent on how fast he runs before April.”
After the Shrine game, Griffey and Magloire will resume training for Arizona’s pro day and whatever other opportunities arise before the April 27-29 draft in Philadelphia. As Arizona’s Scooby Wright learned last year, when he went from college All-American to late seventh-round pick, one never knows how the draft will play out.
Magloire believes his experiences have prepared him for the rigors and stresses of the pre-draft run-up. It took him four schools and as many position changes to get here. He aims to make the most of it.
“That was God’s plan for me all along,” Magloire said. “I didn’t see it coming. Some guys went down, I started playing linebacker, and now it’s really benefited me.
“Everything kind of panned out the right way. God don’t put you through a sequence of events like I went through to end up bad. Usually the ending is pretty good. I feel pretty confident about that.”
