As his eyes rolled up trying to remember the last time he got a haircut, all A.J. Dillon could do was chuckle. It’s been nearly two months. He remembers because it was right before the NFL Combine, which feels like a lifetime ago.
When he got back from Indianapolis last month, the former Boston College running back was confident he had answered any questions and impressed the NFL scouts and executives on hand.
From there, Dillon planned on spending a few more weeks in Orange County, Calif., where he had been training, then set up shop at BC for pro day and any workouts. He expected to fly out to visit with NFL teams then head home afterward to Connecticut to share the draft-day experience with his family.
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Since the coronavirus outbreak, though, nothing about his draft process has gone the way Dillon imagined it would. But Dillon has taken pride in being able to adapt.
“It’s definitely a lot different,” Dillon said in a video conference with reporters Monday. “I’ve been asked a lot of times, 'How would you compare this to what you thought?’ But this is my only draft, so this is my normal.”
Normal for Dillon has been waking up before 9 a.m., grabbing breakfast, pushing through a body weight workout, grinding through 500 push-ups and sit-ups, squeezing in some work on his TRX weights, running stairs and going for jogs around his neighborhood. If he can find a friend to throw him a football, he’ll catch passes.
“It’s a lot tougher than when you have trainers and things like that,” he said. “But I’m making the most of it. Everybody is. It’s honestly not too bad, because now we’re getting into football shape, not combine prep. That’s what this part of the process is. It’s not about benching 225 [pounds] however many times you can. So I feel like I’ve been making the most of it.”
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Those team visits he was preparing for have been replaced by video conferencing.
“It’s different,” he said. “There’s something about that face-to-face, personal connection when you sit down across from somebody. But I think everybody’s adapting pretty well.”
The thought crossed Dillon’s mind of getting on a plane and flying home to be with family during a time of crisis, but he thought better of it.
“I didn’t want to risk getting on a plane and bringing that back to my family,” he said.
He has one friend with him in California. Beyond that, FaceTime has been a godsend. He keeps in touch with his mother daily, plays video games with some of his former teammates, and has reached out for advice from Will Harris and Zach Allen, Eagles who are now in the NFL.
"I’ve been really close to my mom throughout this process,” he said. "Talking to her. FaceTiming a lot. Then I’ve just been focused on the grind. Trying not to pay attention. The more I pay attention to when the draft is, the slower the days get. So I’ve been trying to distract myself.
Boredom, however, is inevitable. He found himself going down a rabbit hole and watching old game tape not long ago.
"I watched our entire season pretty much, the other day because I had nothing else to do,” he said.
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The highlights Dillon put together as BC’s all-time leading rusher (with 845 carries for 4,382 yards and 38 touchdowns) put him on the NFL radar from the time he was a freshman even if exposure at BC wasn’t at the level of some of the higher-profile programs around the Atlantic Coast Conference.
But the combine gave Dillon the chance to showcase his entire skill set. He put up eye-popping numbers, running the 40-yard dash in 4.53 seconds and posting a 41-inch vertical leap and a 131-inch broad jump.
"I had no doubt in my mind that I was going to go to the combine and put up the numbers I did,” he said. "But I feel like it came as a shock to a lot of other people. It’s one thing for me to just say that, ‘Yeah, I’m athletic, I’m fast, I can jump,’ and all those things . . . Catch the ball . . . It’s another thing to go out there and show it.”
When observers started making comparisons with Tennessee Titans running back Derrick Henry, last year’s NFL’s rushing leader, Dillon was flattered.
"That’s definitely a large comparison,” he said. "I mean, the man was the NFL rushing leader this year, so it’s definitely nice when you hear your name attached to somebody like that.”
He came away feeling like he proved himself as a pass-catcher as well.
"I feel like I answered a lot of questions,” he said.
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One of those questions was whether he could be an every-down back. Part of his combine prep was catching passes from Utah State’s Jordan Love and Oregon’s Justin Herbert.
"I had ample time to work out with them and be put in different positions I wasn’t actually put in at BC,” he said. "So I’ve got a lot more confidence in my ability.”
While the next few weeks will be different than he imagined, Dillon’s anticipation level for draft day is the same.
“It’ll be probably one of the best days of my life, for sure,” Dillon said. “And I’m going to be excited and ready to go to work with whatever team it is.”
Julian Benbow can be reached at julian.benbow@globe.com.
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