He had 19 career catches at Lee’s Summit High. Now he’s an NFL Draft prospect in KC
A couple of weeks ago, on his way to a workout in Fort Myers, Florida, or maybe it was Kansas City, or maybe Pennsylvania — it had all started to blend together — a former Kansas City kid hopped on the phone to talk about what it’s like to prepare for the biggest moment of his life.
Mitchell Tinsley, a Lee’s Summit High School graduate, is an NFL Draft hopeful and a likely day three prospect who could hear his name called on a stage that sits in his hometown.
And deep into the conversation, he brought up the notion that this draft is more of a starting point than some sort of finish line.
OK, sure, but how will things change after hearing his name called at Union Station in downtown Kansas City this weekend? How do you turn your attention from preparing for an NFL Combine to preparing for the crash-course requirement of making an NFL roster?
“Man,” he said, “I’ve been doing that.”
He’s not referring to the past several months. Rather, the past several years.
A lifetime of tryouts.
On Saturday’s final day, as the NFL Draft spotlights Kansas City, there will be a Kansas City kid sitting at home, away from all the action, just hoping the draft spotlights him.
And maybe then he will be able to sit back and appreciate the uniqueness of it all.
Just five years ago, Tinsley was literally done with football. Quit, to focus on basketball. But one afternoon his junior year, he was dropped from the varsity to JV basketball team, and he figured he better give football another try.
Try.
That’s an intentional word choice, and it’s the reference that Tinsley made in response to the aforementioned question.
Tinsley is one of the better stories in this year’s draft class, and not just because he is one of our stories here in Kansas City. There are NFL prospects this week who, as you might suspect, tended to dominated the sport most of their lives. Tinsley is not one of those prospects.
He had played football as a kid, but gave it up, in part, because of his family’s financial circumstances, he said. By the time he returned, it had been more than four years since he played a single snap. Even when he decided to return, he joined a 7-on-7 team, the Epic 7.
Well, he had to try out first ... for the 7-on-7 team.
Then came one high school season, the only high school season of his life. He caught all of 19 passes.
Nineteen.
An NFL Draft wide receiver prospect with 19 high school receptions to his name. Lee
“I thought all I needed was one big year, and I’d be able to go Division I,” he said. “Of course, it didn’t happen that way.”
Not quite.
Lee’s Summit had been down to a second- and then third-string quarterback. It won a game in which it passed the ball twice the entire game. Tinsley’s film, needless to say, was a bit sparse.
His senior year came and went without a single Division I offer. He ended up at Hutchinson Community College.
Well, only after yet another tryout ... for a community college team.
After two years there, he was at Western Kentucky. Put up one of the best seasons in Division I there — 1,402 catches and 14 touchdowns. Averaged more than 100 yards per game.
“All of a sudden, after I entered the portal, all those dream schools I had in high school — they finally called,” Tinsley said.
He picked Penn State, and a year later, here he sits, on the verge of being drafted. All because his basketball career flamed out. Not a bad Plan B.
Some mock drafts have him going in the fifth, sixth or seventh rounds. A couple of others have him signing on as an undrafted free agent. Either way, he will be in someone’s training camp.
Or, as he’ll view it: One more tryout.