By Marissa Essenburg | Sports Writer
On a day built around evaluations, measurements and first impressions, Michael Trigg looked, and felt, right at home.
With NFL scouts in Waco for Baylor’s Pro Day on Saturday, former green-and-gold standouts — now draft hopefuls — had one more opportunity to put their game on display. For Trigg, the day was less about chasing the moment and more about leaning into the game he’s always known.
“Football is never stressful to me,” Trigg said. “When it’s the game you love, you put in so much work just to be here, so I’m just blessed honestly.”
That calm showed up in the way he carried himself all afternoon.
For Trigg, a 6-foot-4 tight end, Pro Day was part showcase, part sendoff — a chance to work out in front of NFL personnel and spend one more day on the field with the teammates who helped shape his time at Baylor.
“It felt good to be out here with my guys, to throw with Sawyer a couple more times before we go to the draft, just a great experience,” Trigg said.
One last time in Waco, catching passes from quarterback Sawyer Robertson, gave Trigg the chance to lean on a connection built over time before the next stage begins, once more doing what had become second nature.
What he put on display was the same thing that has followed him throughout his time at Baylor: versatility.
“I think I run routes pretty smooth,” Trigg said. “I can run routes like a receiver and block like a tight end or a fullback.”
As the role of a tight end at the next level continues to expand, versatility carries more value than ever. Now the league is calling for players who can move like a receiver, seal the edge in the run game and produce from multiple alignments — all things Trigg believes are strengths of his game.
“Most of my conversations have been about how much I love football,” Trigg said. “Talking about my versatility, being able to do those things in the passing game and in the run game.”
That range has become the center of his conversations with scouts, as teams look less at whether he fits a single role and more at how many ways he can be deployed.
Still, the jump from college football to the NFL brings a different level of expectation, even for players confident in their game.
“It’s been kind of funny, trying to get the full effort out of me, really just trying to help me do it the NFL way and not the Baylor way,” Trigg said.
It’s the kind of adjustment every prospect has to adjust to. The game speeds up, the margin for error shrinks and the details carry more weight. For Trigg, that transition is already underway.
But even with Pro Day carrying its usual pressure and the draft still ahead, Trigg’s outlook stayed rooted in gratitude.
It’s not just the routes, or the versatility, or even the potential, but the way Trigg talks about football like it has always been simple.
He loves the game. He trusts the work. And now, with the draft ahead, he is carrying both with him into whatever comes next.
The 2026 NFL Draft will be held April 23-25 in Pittsburgh. It will be broadcast on ABC.
