Since joining Howard's program in 2020, David Davis, the assistant athletic director for football operations, has had the NFL's HBCU Showcase circled on his calendar each year. Usually, his attendance requires a flight. This year, however, Davis just had to hop in his car and drive a couple dozen miles to BigBear.ai Training Center at Commanders Park.
"It just makes sense for it to be here in the DMV," Davis said. "There's so much to offer."
Since their inception, the HBCU Showcase and International Player Pathway Pro Day have each, respectively, been about giving exposure to prospects who might not otherwise get it. Combining the Pro Days for often overlooked players for the first time in Ashburn, Virginia, specifically, helped to "create more value for these athletes," according to the NFL's Director of Football Development Daniel Van Norton.
In the last three years, only two HBCU players have been drafted into the NFL. In 2026, no active player from an HBCU was officially invited to the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis.
Not getting drafted doesn't mean HBCU players haven't made it to the league recently. Season after season, several make active NFL rosters after being signed as undrafted free agents. A lot of these moves can be traced back to interactions at this Pro Day.
"Here you've got to try to find the talent," Grambling State graduate Doug Williams said. "I think when you have something like this showcase, you give them an opportunity to show the NFL something they haven't looked at the whole year, and that's the important part of this."
Throughout the three days, the 48 HBCU prospects and 11 IPP prospects had a chance to do position drills, combine drills and have face-to-face interactions with NFL personnel. These opportunities can help move the needle for players looking to have a chance at being among the professional ranks.
"Some of them are on the radars of teams, but it just takes an event like this for them to get to know them a little bit more, evaluate them and decide to bring them on to their organizations," Van Norton said.
Centralizing the opportunity via a pro day is one way to help with identification. Putting it in Ashburn, goes even further to support that goal.
New Orleans hosted the last few years. Birmingham, Alabama before that. Unlike those locations, the D.C. area has some key advantages. There are three major airports in the region. Commanders Park is less than a 15-minute drive from Dulles. There are hotels galore.
What's more, there are eleven HBCUs in the DMV, and five NFL organizations within 300 miles. All these factors made the Commanders training facility, as Van Norton put it, a "great place" to host. The location being the backyard of perhaps the most famous HBCU NFL alum was a bonus.
"We had a great relationship with Doug [Williams]. We worked with him over years with the Black College Hall of Fame, with the Legacy Bowl, so it just it was a perfect fit in that sense from the connection there," Van Norton said.
In Ashburn, Van Norton witnessed what he described as more of a mix of NFL personnel in attendance than previous versions of the event. Bringing together what used to be separate pro days for HBCU prospects and international players made it so "scouts aren't looking at two places on the calendar they have to try to be." The result at Commanders Park this year was an elevated, easier-to-access platform for so many, which in turn just may make a few more dreams come true.
"The biggest thing that every kid asks for is just as an opportunity," Davis said. "I'm so thankful that the NFL is giving these guys a platform in order to do that."
