15 Former Montana Grizzlies to Showcase Skills at 2026 Pro Day

The most consequential number of Michael Wortham's football career isn't found in his receiving splits. It will be measured in seconds at the finish line of a 40-yard dash.

Montana's annual Pro Day brought together 15 former Grizzlies on March 31 for the battery of tests — 40-yard dash, vertical jump, broad jump, shuttle, bench press and position drills — that NFL and CFL scouts use to confirm or complicate what they saw on tape. The total field expanded to 18 when three in-state athletes from other programs joined, spanning the 2024 and 2025 graduating classes, three weeks before the April 23-25 NFL Draft.

Wortham was the unambiguous headliner. The consensus All-American and Walter Payton Award finalist caught 85 passes for 1,224 yards in 2025, two receptions short of Samori Toure's single-season Montana record, and produced 782 kickoff return yards, third-most in a single season in program history. He suited up at the East-West Shrine Bowl last winter, one of the primary pre-draft all-star showcases on the scout calendar. On paper, it's one of the better FCS resumes a prospect has walked into a Pro Day carrying.

The obligation now was converting that resume into a stopwatch. For a gadget receiver who projects as a spread or West Coast option at the next level, a sub-4.45 40 carries enormous weight. Pair that with a vertical above 37 inches and crisp route-running in position drills, and Wortham shifts from a late-round flier to a priority undrafted free-agent target the moment the seventh round ends. His versatility, capable of lining up at wide receiver or out of the backfield, is exactly the profile modern offenses value, provided the measurables back up the film.

Montana's recent track record explains why pro personnel directors pencil in Missoula. Junior Bergen was selected by the San Francisco 49ers in the seventh round of the 2025 NFL Draft, becoming the 55th draftee in program history and the first Griz selected since Toure went to the Green Bay Packers in 2022. That same spring, defensive end Hayden Harris signed as an undrafted free agent and offensive tackle Brandon Casey earned a minicamp invite, three different exit ramps out of a single Pro Day cycle. Montana has now produced 23 NFL draft picks across its FCS era, a Big Sky-best figure that carries real institutional credibility with front offices.

Also running through testing on March 31: Liam Brown, Kellen Detrick, Prince Ford, Kenzel Lawler, Ty Morrison, Cannon Panfiloff, Hunter Peck, Grayson Pibal, Stevie Rocker Jr., Evan Shafer and Elijawah Tolbert. The depth of the field illustrates what makes the Montana Pro Day useful as a scouting event: two years of talent concentrated in one location, with matching film already catalogued. For any player in that group, a single strong number, a 4.42 flash, a 38-inch vertical, can be the difference between a call on draft weekend and a waiver claim in August. Bergen proved the formula works. Wortham arrived on March 31 with the credentials to be next.