ORCHARD PARK — Intensity radiates from Zane Durant. Get too close and it sucks you into his orbit.
The Buffalo Bills rookie defensive tackle is rarely among the first players off the practice field. Once practice ends, Durant usually finds his way to a blocking sled, where he spends anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes pushing it, smacking it, working on his stance or his footwork — whatever he feels needs extra attention that day.
Durant isn't just doing it to improve or impress his new coaches. He wants to be out there. He loves playing football. It's why a kid from Orlando spurned Florida-based colleges to attend Penn State.
No distractions, just football.
"I wouldn't have left Florida to go to Penn State just because I like football. I love the game," Durant told GNN Sports. "I love growing from it, I love learning, I love the effort part and I love just challenging myself as much as I can so I can grow."
Loving football seems like a no-brainer for an NFL player. But it's not a requirement to play or even be successful. Many NFL players don't want to think about or watch football anymore than they are required.
But the Bills have been searching for players who love the game, or as quarterback Josh Allen calls them, "sickos." The Bills saw the sicko in Durant from the jump. The fifth-round pick was tagged with the elusive "Bills Blue" tag — the only player to receive in this year's draft class — for his character and effort.
The reviews they received from coaches and scouts were so immaculate that the Bills didn't feel it necessary to bring Durant in for a top-30 pre-draft visit or meet with him at the NFL scouting combine.
"If you feel like you've got all your Q&A solidified, you may not put the 30 visit resource into it, or the 45-man choice out of the 300-plus names at the combine because the player is so clean," Bills assistant general manager Brian Gaine told GNN Sports after the draft. "There's nothing else that needs to be done. I don't think we had him in either one of those compartments."
Gaine said Durant had a "captain profile," and was always first in line for drills and wasn't afraid to lead, whether it was vocally or by example. It's high praise for a rookie, but something Durant's coach at Lake Nona High School, Anthony Paradiso, saw from the moment he met the kid as a freshman.
It was hard not to see it considering Durant walked up to Paradiso and told him he was going to start immediately. Paradiso loved the confidence and that he already had goals he was willing to pursue.
"From Day One, he was different," Paradiso said in a phone interview. "He just had a sense of confidence in himself."
It's a little easier to be confident when you're a freak of nature. And Durant was one of the most physically-gifted prospects in this year's draft.
At 6-foot-1 and 290 pounds, Durant was the fastest defensive tackle at the combine, running a scorching 4.75-second 40-yard dash. He has a 33 ½-inch vertical jump that allows him to dunk a basketball.
Durant started his football career as a guard, played running back and linebacker as a kid, then moved to tight end and defensive end before finally landing at defensive tackle.
He also had some quarterback skills, according to Paradiso, who has coached five Division I quarterbacks during his nearly 30-year coaching career. Paradiso once saw Durant launch a ball 70 yards.
And while the Bills didn't have any questions about Durant's character and intelligence, Gaine wanted to see his famed athleticism in person at Penn State's pro day. But what stood out to Gaine was Durant's conditioning.
"The get-off, the explosiveness, body balance and body control and foot quickness stood out, as well as his level of conditioning," Gaine said. "That element for a defensive tackle reflects work ethic, readiness and dependability. Because they're working out on their own as they prepare for these pro days."
All that said, there's a reason 180 players were taken before Durant this year. If he was an inch taller or his 31 ⅞-inch arms were the NFL average of 33 inches, Durant likely would have gone in the first two days, if not the first round.
"I don't care," Durant said. "I can't control it."
Paradiso isn't so sure. He watched Durant leave for Penn State midway through his senior year of high school at 17 as an early enrollee. Durant yearned to attend Florida State but coach Mike Norvell kept telling Paradiso he was too short.
Durant could have entered the transfer portal and gone to Florida State — or another Florida school — for a hefty sum. He decided to stay at Penn State instead.
"Throughout the whole process, all the NFL teams that have reached out to me and come through the school asked, 'Tell me something bad about the kid because he's got no red flags,'" Paradiso said. "And the only thing I found bad is people said he wasn't tall enough. That's a normal thing, and I think, for him, it doesn't matter because he knows he's good enough."
