MOBILE, Ala. — A highlight-reel play on the Senior Bowl can put a draft prospect on everybody’s radar, raise his draft inventory or elevate him to a brand new stage, nonetheless months earlier than picks are made in April.
For Jack Bech, it additionally helped him grieve.
The 6-foot-2 receiver from TCU caught the game-winning landing within the 2025 Senior Bowl, taking a knee ultimately zone after he scored.
Making performs is what he had completed all week. In apply Wednesday, there was a protracted throw from Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe down the appropriate sideline, maybe a bit underthrown. Bech got here again, rotated and made a leaping catch with two defenders on him.
He did it carrying an orange No. 7 jersey, not the No. 18 he wore at TCU whereas having fun with a breakout 2024 season, with 62 catches for 1,034 yards and 9 touchdowns.
This week, he is carrying his brother’s quantity.
Martin “Tiger” Bech, 27, a former Princeton receiver and New York stockbroker, was killed within the Bourbon Road assault in New Orleans within the early hours of New Yr’s Day, one in all 14 victims as a person drove a truck by way of a crowd. This week is the primary time Jack has had the prospect to return to the normalcy of soccer, enjoying within the showcase recreation for NFL prospects.
“Me and my household have positively felt all of the love and assist from everyone, and it is actually helped us attempt to take advantage of out of this example,” mentioned Bech, who’s from close by Lafayette, La., and had 30-plus relations and associates cheering for him at Saturday’s recreation.
Bech (rhymes with “mesh”) is not the one Senior Bowl participant who paid tribute to Martin on the recreation. Each participant on each groups had a sticker on the again of his helmet, with the quantity 7 in orange-and-black tiger stripes.
Bech additionally has a extra everlasting reminder of his brother. As he talked to reporters on the sphere after apply, he took the jersey off, exhibiting a pair of recent tattoos. The primary, on his collarbone underneath his left shoulder, reads “7 To Heaven” in script, and over his coronary heart, he has in Roman numerals the dates of his brother’s beginning and loss of life: “I.XVIII.MCMXCVII-I.I.MMXXV.”
“I’ve acquired angel wings on me,” Bech mentioned when requested about carrying his brother’s quantity. “I’ve acquired the best guardian angel of all of them, pulling me to the place I’m now. This was his final take a look at for me, figuring out if I can get previous this, something that is thrown at me will probably be nothing in comparison with this.”
Jack Bech exhibits reporters the tattoos on his chest that he acquired in remembrance of his slain brother.
It has been a tough month for Bech, coping with the sudden lack of his brother, nevertheless it’s additionally given him a brand new sense of gratitude for the time he has, for the privilege to play the sport he loves, figuring out how rapidly issues will be taken away. This week is his finest likelihood to persuade the NFL he is proficient sufficient to proceed enjoying on Sundays this fall and past.
“I am so blessed to be ready to be in entrance of those groups, so I really like this,” Bech mentioned. “I get up each morning and I thank God for placing me on this place, to benefit from each alternative I get.”
Bech is seen as a mid-round draft prospect, with bodily play, sharp route-running and the talent to make contested catches within the air just like the one he made Wednesday. Catching passes is a household enterprise — Jack and Martin’s uncle, Brett, performed receiver at LSU and for 3 seasons with the Saints from 1997-99.
A yr in the past, Bech wasn’t on the radar of the NFL or the Senior Bowl, having totaled 4 touchdowns in his first three years of school, together with two at LSU. However he emerged in an enormous approach, particularly within the second half of the season, totaling 647 yards and 6 touchdowns within the ultimate 5 video games. In TCU’s season finale, he caught a landing go within the fourth quarter to offer the Horned Frogs the lead for good in a win over Stanford. That led to him declaring as an underclassman for the draft, and Saturday was his large likelihood to introduce himself to the NFL.
“I need groups to know there is a excessive stage to my recreation velocity. I can stretch the sphere,” he mentioned. “I do know the sport tremendous effectively, all of the little nuances, with the ability to assault coverages. Regardless of who steps in entrance of me, I do not flinch and provides it my finest each time.”
Greg Auman is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports activities. He beforehand spent a decade overlaying the Buccaneers for the Tampa Bay Occasions and The Athletic. You may observe him on Twitter at @gregauman.
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