Former Tennessee wide receiver Dont’e Thornton Jr. just showcased his skills during the NFL Scouting Combine, running a 4.3-second 40-yard dash.
Thornton hopes his work in Indianapolis impressed NFL evaluators.
“It’s crazy. My whole time training, I hadn’t run a 4.3. I was just running 4.4s and stuff,” Thornton said on Glenn Clark Radio March 3. “My goal was to at least run a 4.4, but anything under that I’m OK with, too. Every time it got closer to the day I was supposed to run, I kept changing what I wanted to run. Once the day of the 40 came up, in my mind I wanted to run something over 4.3, something crazy like that, but I was using that to trick my mind so I could run a 4.3. I wasn’t expecting to run exactly what I ran. I shocked myself.”
Thornton completed a childhood dream by taking part in the NFL Combine.
“It was a dream come true for me because as a little kid growing up playing football, that’s all you thought about was going to the NFL Combine. Actually being able to go there and compete and everything like that, it was crazy to me,” Thornton said.
A native of Baltimore, Thornton attended Mount Saint Joseph. The 6-foot-5, 205-pound receiver played at Oregon from 2021-2022 before transferring to Tennessee for his final two seasons. Thornton posted 885 yards and scored seven touchdowns during his time in Knoxville.
Thornton believes he is not being given the respect he deserves due to various injuries suffered during his time at Tennessee.
“I definitely say that,” Thornton said when asked if he feels disrespected. “I definitely use that as a chip on my shoulder because that tells me there’s always something I can get better at. … I feel like I put in a lot of work to be where I’m at with the ability that I have. At some point in time, people are going to really realize it.”
With the Combine having come and gone, Thornton is preparing for the NFL Draft by focusing on showing NFL teams why he’ll be a difference-maker for them.
“I’d say the biggest thing would be me being very versatile as a receiver and just knowing my story and the adversity that I went through and being able to get through that type of adversity and still be successful,” Thornton said. “[I’m] a player that’s really invested in the team and going to do whatever it takes for the team to be successful.”
One NFL team that Thornton is interested in playing for is the Ravens since Baltimore is his hometown.
“I think about it a lot,” Thornton said when being asked about the possibility of the Ravens calling his name during the draft. “As it got closer to the Combine, I’ve been thinking about it more. It would be crazy.”
While playing for the Ravens would be cool, Thornton also knows he could be drafted anywhere.
“I definitely would say that … but I definitely think about it a lot,” Thornton said when asked if he has to stop himself from thinking about playing for the Ravens too much. “It would be crazy if I came back home.”
For more from Thornton, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Dont’e Thornton Jr.