A.J. Henning Draft Diary: An inside look at Pro Day

“I feel like everything’s been leading up to this in my career, so this is a big day for me.”

Note: This is the first part of a three-part series profiling Northwestern wide receiver A.J. Henning as he prepares for the NFL Draft.

Three years ago, A.J. Henning watched on from Glick Field House as Aidan Hutchinson worked out for NFL scouts at Michigan’s Pro Day. He was still an underclassman, but that was the first moment that he saw what his future held. Henning remembers thinking, “In a few years, I’m going to be at my own Pro Day. This is going to get real.”

Three years, over 2,100 all-purpose yards and 10 touchdowns later, that reality came true. It was Henning, grinning as he walked off the field at Ryan Fieldhouse after his Pro Day, though he traded in the maize and blue for Northwestern’s purple and white.

Henning certainly had plenty to smile about after putting on a show for NFL scouts, but as easy as the receiver makes it look, March’s Pro Day was the product of months of grueling preparation and diligence.

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After Northwestern’s season ended on Nov. 30, Henning took a month to recover from the knicks, bruises and bumps accumulated throughout the 12-game season. But by Dec. 30, it was back to work mode. Henning packed his bags for Nashville, where he prepared for the next several months.

Henning trained at the X3 Performance & Physical Therapy facility for just over eight weeks on a regimented training program to help prepare him for the NFL. A litany of future pros have utilized X3 in their pre-draft process including Darnell Mooney and Tyrone Tracy. Henning, along with fellow Wildcat Marshall Lang, were among the 2025 group.

Henning said he arrived at 6:30 in the morning and trained for six to seven hours, while also becoming “bigger, stronger and faster.”

Physical conditioning was only half of the program. Henning was also on a carefully curated diet to ensure he was consuming the exact amount of protein, carbs and fiber he needed to maximize performance. “There was no cutting corners,” Henning said. Although Henning has a self-described sweet tooth, the program required cutting out all candy, as well as fast food, in favor of balanced meals built around chicken, steak and fish. As a result, Henning cut his body fat and gained two pounds of muscle.

In early March, Henning returned to Evanston to put the final touches on his Pro Day training, and the benefits from his time in Nashville were immediately apparent.

“This dude, he was fast before, and then he came back and got faster, which is crazy,” said quarterback Ryan Hilinski, who threw passes to Henning as part of the on-field workout.

That speed was put to the test at the very start of Northwestern’s Pro Day, with the famous 40-yard dash being the first drill of the day. And for A.J. Henning, there was no better event to start the day off right. Speed — that’s Henning’s whole thing.

“I feel like with my track background, I knew how to properly run,” Henning explained. He wouldn’t speculate any specific time before his run, instead opting for “something fast” as his official prediction. After all, Henning won state in eighth grade, emerging victorious in the 100-meter and 200-meter dash in his very first year running. In high school, he followed with a third-place state finish in his freshman year and a fourth-place result as a junior before the pandemic cut short his chance for more hardware.

So when Henning took position on the starting block, all eyes were on him, including those of NFL scouts donning the apparel of their franchises. As soon as he took off, it was apparent that Henning was moving at a different speed than anyone else at Northwestern’s Pro Day. When the timers stopped, scouts looked around to corroborate the times they saw on their stopwatches. After Henning’s second run, the buzz grew more tangible.

Whispers of “4-flat?” emerged from the peanut gallery. Murmurs of 4.37 or 4.39 made the rounds. Despite the lack of an official consensus time, there was no denying it — that’s NFL speed.

From there, Henning participated in the 3-cone drill, the 20-yard shuttle, the broad jump (10-foot-3), the vertical jump (34.5 inches) and the bench press (16 reps), putting up solid numbers across the board, including some personal bests.

Then, it was onto the on-field workout, where Henning sought to show off his versatility, as well as some of the more refined aspects of his game. The design of the workout gave the receiver a chance to show off some routes that he wasn’t asked to run at the college level, including some double moves and deeper concepts than Northwestern had in its playbook.

Even if the playbook was newer, the venue wasn’t. “I’ve been in this fieldhouse so many times running these routes or doing these dills,” Henning said. “It was almost like a comfort thing to fall back on.”

With the backdrop of Lake Michigan waves crashing onto the shore, Henning looked natural catching in-breakers and out-breakers from Hilinski while showing off his abilities to toe-tap on the sideline and track the ball over his shoulder.

“I felt really good about the on-field workout,” Henning told the media afterward. “No balls on the ground.”

That trend continued in the final stage of Henning’s day — the special teams aspect. After returning kicks and punts throughout college, Henning showed off his value in the return game for pro scouts and looked comfortable as, once again, no balls touched the turf.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better day,” Henning said. With NFL teams in attendance, Henning got the chance to speak to a few and said all the feedback was extremely positive.

When all the fanfare died down, Henning celebrated the proper way. A fancy steak dinner and a bag of Trolli sour gummy worms, his favorite, after outlawing sweets from his diet for three months. A worthy delicacy after acing the most important job interview of his life.

In the coming weeks, Henning will have more in-depth conversations with some of the teams who were in attendance but will continue working out and training, preparing for any opportunity that might come his way.