UW-Whitewater's Quinn Meinerz sees his NFL Draft stock rise

 

WHITEWATER, W.I. (CBS 58) - Hartford native Quinn Meinerz did not even have a senior football season at UW-Whitewater and still his NFL stock is rising

At nearly 6'3'' and 320 pounds, Meinerz is pretty impressive. He proved it to the NFL world in January at this year's Senior Bowl. 

"Nobody really knew who I was before going into the senior bowl," said Meinerz. 

The UW-Whitewater interior offensive lineman is a household name now, 29 NFL teams came to his Pro Day. 

"Whether there was one or 32 I was gonna go out here and give it my all and accomplish the goals I was trying to do," said Meinerz following the workout. "I had a lot of big goals today, I think I did a lot of those things I set out to do so I think I performed really well today." 

Meinerz has gotten used to the extra attention the last few months. A video he posted of a workout he did in Canada this winter has more than 10,000 views on YouTube and comes up with teams now during interviews, although he does more traditional workouts these days. 

"Yeah you can only get so strong with propane tanks and stuff but It’s what I had," said Meinerz. 

Quinn has also used the extra attention to help someone close to him. He created shirts with "Belly of the Beast", alluding to what he calls The Gut. All proceeds from the shirt is going to help his high school offensive line coach Paul Shelsta's daughter, Alaina and the Hugs for Alaina campaign. She’s a 14 year old battling GLUT1deficiency syndrome, a rare disorder affecting the nervous system.

"It really means a lot to me to be able to do this for him because I’ve been thinking about it for years," said Meinerz. 

Next month, Meinerz hopes to become the first Warhawks player drafted to the NFL since Derek Stanley was drafted in 2007. 

The NFL Draft begins April 29th and runs through May 1st.