VMAC Pre-Draft Visitor Profile: DT Tory Slater, West Georgia

West Georgia DT Tory Slater made some waves as a sleeper last month at his pro day with a 35.5" vertical jump at 6'5, 285 pounds. The small-school nose tackle/defensive lineman is the type of one-gap, penetrating type of player the Seahawks like for their nickel packages, and he could be a late-round or UDFA target.

Slater was a slow starter in college -- he left high school as a 195-pound receiver and grew into the position he plays now -- and didn't really start producing until his senior year. When new head coach Will Hall came to West Georgia and installed an attacking 4-3 defense this past season, Slater found a spot on the field in which he could use his skill-set. "He was big and physical," Hall said. "He had a really good first step off the ball. We put him at nose guard and told him to destroy the A-gap. We made it real simple for him."

He blossomed in that role, and racked up 10 sacks and 16.5 tackles for a loss to get himself onto teams' radars. He met with the Seahawks, Falcons, and Niners after his pro day, and probably a few others. One player you might compare him to is a Jason Jones (hence the photo above) or, going back further, a Jason Hatcher. There were no photos of Slater in our system.

Pre-Draft VMAC Visits that we've tracked:

DL David Irving, Iowa State
DT Kristjan Sokoli, Buffalo
DT Tory Slater, West Georgia
WR Ty Montgomery, Stanford
WR Chris Harper, California
S Demarious Randall, Arizona State
CB Tray Walker, Texas Southern
RB Mike Davis, South Carolina
WR Ed Williams, Fort Hays State
LB Reshard Cliett, U South Florida
OL Ty Sambrailo, Colorado State
OL Robert Myers, Tennessee State

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As a quick reminder, based on the observable M.O. of the Seahawks over the past four Drafts, Seattle likes to host a few early-round type players, a smattering of mid-rounder types, then a host of late-round to undrafted free agent types to the VMAC prior to the draft. Each team is allotted 30 official visits, and Seattle's goal in hosting later-round and UDFA types is to use them as a recruitment-style pitch. There's a free for all after the draft ends in getting players to come to your organization, and Seattle does its best to make themselves an exciting and attractive location for players that have the choice of where to sign (hence, their brochure last year).