Logan Bonner: Path To The NFL Draft

By Callum Squires

During last year’s pre-draft cycle, I had the pleasure of interviewing Utah State WR Brandon Bowling. Bowling was effusive in his praise for his coaches, teammates, and the university itself. This year, I was excited to be able to chat to one of those teammates, who shone extremely brightly during his time in Logan, Utah. 

Logan Bonner – not named after the aforementioned city – arrived at Utah State following a few seasons at Arkansas State, and helped lead the Aggies to their first ever Conference Championship. But it wasn’t all smooth sailing; Injuries have (unfortunately) been an undeniable part of Bonner’s college journey, but now, he’s fully recovered and the quarterback is setting his sights on the NFL Draft. His pro day, held last week, earned rave reviews on social media, with a number of teams reported to have interest in drafting Bonner in the latter rounds in Kansas City next month.

Rowlett, Texas

Bonner’s journey has been a long and winding one from the start, when he initially had no intention of being a team’s signal caller: 

“My first football memory is probably when I was 3-4 years old. I tried out for a flag football team in Rowlett, and made the team. I met one of my best friends, and his Dad was the head coach. I wanted to play receiver, but he said ‘No, you’re gonna play quarterback and you’re gonna hand the ball off to my son.’ I’ve been playing ever since. Went onto high school, and wanted to play college ball my entire life, and then obviously the NFL was a dream, and now it’s here… so I’ve been thinking about this since I was 4 years old!”

Growing up in Texas as a youth football player undoubtedly has its blessings. Born in Rowlett, a suburb in east Dallas, Bonner dreamed of playing under the ‘Friday Night Lights.’ In Texas especially, young men have to mature quickly to stay afloat in a state that is riddled with talent, and ultra-competitive at all levels:

“The scale is pretty big. Going to a 6A Division I school (the highest level in the state of Texas), playing the Kyler Murray’s, the Solomon Thomas’ or Myles Garrett’s, the Jamal Adams’… guys like that every week, and not just on one team. Every week you have somebody on that team who is gonna go play in the professional league. I had two or three teammates on my team who did that, and we were still getting beat – sometimes – by other schools. You knew every week was gonna be a handful, and obviously the crowds, and we played on TV pretty much every other week, and we’d have 10,000 people at the games. Some college teams don’t even get that… So it (Texas High School Football) prepares you a lot for the college life, and it’s really a blessing to grow up here. I’m biased, but it’s the best (state for football) in the country.”

That said, it wasn’t always smooth sailing for Bonner. Playing at such an elite level so young has its difficulties, challenges, and pitfalls, and sacrifices had to be made:

“There were some difficult times for sure. My first start, my sophomore year, I was only 15 years old, playing with 17/18 year olds. I had to leave a lot of my classmates behind. I was never really with my grade until my senior year. You had to grow up really fast; it came with a spotlight, especially when we were playing well, with recruiting and everybody knowing who you are. You had to figure out what you wanted in your life. Did you wanna play college ball, or did you wanna go out and party like a high school kid? To be honest, I was scared to death of losing everything I’d worked for. I would rather have a workout on Saturday morning and go to bed early, than go out on Friday night. That was just me. Sometimes in high school I got called lame for that, but I didn’t really care, I just wanted to play football, and that’s what I’m still doing. I guess it worked out for me.”

Hardly a lame outcome, is it? I’d give up a significant amount to be a potential NFL Draftee… Despite the bright lights, Bonner credits his family with keeping him grounded, and also being the shoulder to lean on that you need when chasing a near-impossible dream:

“My mom and dad did a really good job of just letting me be a kid, but helping guide me in saying if I really wanted something they would try to help me like ‘hey, this is how you do it.’ They were my biggest support system, my biggest fans, and they always kept my head on straight.”

The Jump to Jonesboro

After starring at Rowlett, making the jump to college became the centrepiece of Bonner’s life. Recruiting was complicated; there were early discussions with big programs, but Bonner often found himself in the position of ‘preferred backup’ as opposed to ‘desired starter’:

“I got recruited really hard as a Sophomore, but never really got any firm offers. I had interest from Texas, OU, Oklahoma State, some big schools I grew up dreaming to play for. But then my Junior year I got hurt a little bit, and I think they backed off of me some. Smaller schools like Arkansas State, Southern Miss… pretty much the whole Sun Belt offered me. So I had like 10-12 schools that I could go to and I was really happy with that. I had a really good Senior year, and the big schools were recruiting me, but they were always saying I was their 2nd or 3rd guy on the list.”

Bonner had a decision to make. Head to a big school with little-to-no guarantee of playing time or opportunity, or attempt to make a run for himself as the potential starter at a smaller program. He was clearly the 2nd choice for the University of Texas (his self-admitted ‘dream school’), behind current Kansas City Chief Shane Buechele:

“With Texas, it was only me and Shane (Buechele), and they said ‘he’s our number one guy.’ That’s kind of how it always was; I was the second or third guy at these big schools, but I was the number one guy at Arkansas State. I had a friend tell me ‘go where you’re wanted,’ so I ended up following my gut and I fell in love with Coach Anderson’s staff and I went to Arkansas State.”

Head Coach Blake Anderson is a figure that both Bowling, last year, and Bonner have spoken in nothing short of glowing terms about. Bonner believed that Anderson could help develop him, and trusted that the family-orientated coach had his heart in the right place:

“It was just his way of how he coached football. I could tell he was genuine. I went on a lot of visits, and met a lot of coaches, and you can always tell if someone is reading from a script or not. I could tell he really wanted me; I was his guy. It was a winning program, and I knew I could be the face of that program.”

The Struggles of the Adjustment

But it wouldn’t be that simple. Bonner did not immediately earn the starting role in Jonesboro. Instead, he was red-shirted behind Justice Hansen, and had to bide his time, waiting for an opportunity. Coming from the Texas high school football scene, playing second (or third or fourth) fiddle was difficult. This weighed heavily on Bonner, who was experiencing true adversity on the field that had often been reserved for off the field situations in high school. Bonner began to question himself, and had to fight to stay the course:

“To be honest, I struggled for two or three years. The Shane thing, I was right there – and he deserved that scholarship – but he started as a freshman, at my dream school, and I go to Arkansas State, and I’m a redshirt and not even playing. That messed me up mentally, cos I was right there, and I was a backup for two and a half years. I’d never backed up in my life. That was a really hard thing for me to go through. I really learned a lot about myself. I struggled mentally for those few years waiting for my turn.” 

When Bonner finally did get his opportunity to be the starting QB, disaster would strike. There’s never a good time for an injury, but you can understand why in that moment Bonner felt heartbroken and lost, when his likely break-out season was curtailed after merely a month:

“In 2019, I finally get my starting job, and I’m playing the best I’ve ever played. In 3 games, I think I’d thrown 10 touchdowns, 0 picks. In the 4th game, I broke my thumb, and had to have season-ending surgery. I think that was one of the lowest I’d been; I waited three years, I finally got my shot, we were playing unbelievable, and I just got it taken away from me. So I had to rehab all year, won the job back, and then covid happened. That was obviously a really crazy time for everybody. I told my parents I think this is time for me to move to a new slate, and I knew I was good enough to play, and there were guys leaving at other places that I could replace.”

Logan heads to... Logan!?

Enter: the transfer portal. Still a relatively new invention, the portal has revolutionised college athletics, allowing players a chance for a re-do, a mulligan, or a fresh start if where they end up after the initial recruiting process hasn’t panned out as they hoped. It’s just one element in what seems to be a long-overdue shift towards more player equity in decision making at this level: 

“When I first started college, the transfer portal wasn’t a thing; (if you transferred) you had to sit out a year no matter what. And then they finally came out with the Grad transfer, so if you graduated you got one free transfer, so I looked into that just in case. Then, covid happened,  and the portal started going crazy, and they said we got a free transfer anyway. I knew by probably mid-season that I was gonna leave. I didn’t wanna be a distraction for the team, so I didn’t tell a soul. I did everything I could, I played the best I could, but it was scary cos I didn’t know what was out there. I got in the portal, and that night I had like 3 or 4 schools offer me, so I felt really good about that, and then I was just gonna take visits. Me, my mum and my Dad just kinda travelled round the country taking visits, and then all of a sudden I was driving back to Jonesboro to get my stuff, and I get an ESPN notification that Coach Anderson took a job at Utah State.”

The shock was real. Anderson’s decision came out of left field, and all of sudden moved the goalposts for Bonner, who could now sense a potential opportunity to continue building with the coach he admired:

“So I texted him, and just said ‘hey, if this is true, congrats!’ and he just said ‘I’ll talk to you soon…’ But that soon was like 3 weeks later! I actually committed to another school, but then I was like maybe I made the wrong choice, and I made a few phone calls and flipped to Utah State. It all worked out in the end. I didn’t plan on going there. There were a couple other places: Western Kentucky, Middle Tennessee, or even SMU if they’d pulled the trigger. They were talking to me but ended up taking Tanner Mordecai. I would’ve jumped at that, that was ten minutes from home. But I ended up going 24 hours from home to Utah!”

Bonner was excited by a new challenge, and the prospect of testing himself at an even higher level after leaving the Sun Belt, and immediately found Utah State felt like home:

“I knew the Mountain West was a really good conference. Coming out of high school, I knew they were always top-ranked for the Group of 5 schools. I knew the competition was gonna be good. I knew the city of Logan was unbelievably beautiful and I could be outdoors and snowboard and ski, and it just kind of made a good fit. I didn’t take a visit, I just packed up my stuff and drove 26 hours to Utah and we started hitting the ground running.”

And hit the ground running he did. Bonner’s 2021 totals of 3,628 passing yards and 36 touchdowns both set new Utah State records. But it was the embrace of the place, and the fanbase, that means Logan holds an extra special place in Bonner’s heart:

“It’s just a different culture up there. The people are great, super nice, and it’s different when you’re from Texas, and went to Arkansas State and you’re really just from the South… there’s no mountains, it’s just flat plains. But you wake up out there and you’re already 6,000ft in the air. The Mountains don’t look real; they look fake. It’s the most beautiful place I’ve ever lived. I loved it. The fanbase was unbelievable – it’s called the Herd. The student section… 8,000… 10,000 people strong at the football games, selling out the stadium almost every home game. My first home game there I was like ‘wow, THIS is what a fanbase is supposed to look like.’ The whole fanbase embraced me… the amount of jokes I heard about if I was named after the city (Logan, Utah) was funny too. Going there changed my life for sure. That’s a great fanbase, great school. We were able to bring a championship there for the first time ever in the history of the program, which was really special. It’s been a rollercoaster for sure, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

Winning the Mountain West

The Aggies were not supposed to win the Mountain West championship, far from it. Pre-season polls had them languishing in the conference’s basement, and a relatively unknown core of players sought to shock the conference landscape, with Anderson at the helm. Bonner and his teammates believed they could upset the apple cart from the beginning:

“The whole year we were picked to finish second-to-last in the league, and it was kind of just having that chip on our shoulders, like ‘why not us?’ The first game of the year we go into Washington State and beat a Power 5 team for the first time in like 50 years. Our first home game against North Dakota, we win that one, and then we go to Air Force – our biggest rivals besides Boise State – and it’s a must-win game, it was a shootout and we win that… we’re 3-0. We’re all saying ‘we can do this thing.’ And then we played number 12, at the time, BYU. Sell-out home game… we had a chance to win the game and they ended up pulling it out. We play Boise the next week – we lose that one – we played like crap, and now we’re sitting 3-2, and it’s like ‘what are we gonna do?’ And a lot of the guys in the locker room are like ‘we’re gonna run the table.’”

That kind of belief and confidence permeates a locker room and can spread like wildfire. The Aggies responded to their adversity by rattling off a number of impressive consecutive wins that vaulted them up the standings and into the Mountain West Championship game. However, they still felt disrespected, going into their battle with San Diego State:

“We started going on a 7 game winning streak. We dropped one late to Wyoming, but were still in first place. Coming into the championship, they came out with all these First-Team, Second-Team (All-Conference) honours, and we had one guy on the First-Team. San Diego State had like 10, and they got Coach of the Year. No offense to Brady Hoke – he’s a good coach – but we believed Coach Anderson should have been the Coach of the Year. So we came into that game with a chip on our shoulder. Nobody was gonna beat us; we were gonna go in there and dominate. They thought they were gonna come in there and throw us around a little bit, but that wasn’t the case.”

A 46-13 rout of then #19 SDSU gave the Aggies their first conference title in school history. Vindication for Anderson, Bonner, and all the other players who uprooted their lives to join the Utah State revolution. Bonner himself went 29-42, for 318yds, 4TDs & 1INT. That’s a clutch performance in the biggest moment:

“Obviously it was surreal for me, because I’d waited 6 years for that moment. I’d been through a lot – on the field and off the field – waiting for that. Being the leader of that team, and getting those guys to where they’d never been before, and the first time in program history (for Utah State), was really special for me, and it was really good for the school and the community. When we got back home there were thousands of fans, at like twelve o’clock at night, that met us at Utah State – they were like rocking the bus and stuff – it was unbelievable.”

The College Career-Ender, and the Recovery

From the highest of highs, to more heartbreak. Utah State faced Oregon State in the Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl, and Bonner wouldn’t make it through unscathed. The Aggies would win, 24-13, but most of the heavy lifting at QB would be done by backup Cooper Legas, after Bonner was forced to exit with an injury. He recovered from that at an impressive rate, only to see his college career ended by a different injury just weeks later:

“I tore my ACL in the Bowl game against Oregon State. I went back to Dallas and had the Cowboys’ doctor look at it, and he said it was about 85% torn. He said ‘the good news is we can rehab (it), but you’re gonna have to bust your ass.’ I stayed in Logan, I didn’t take any breaks in the summer, I didn’t go home, I rehabbed every day. I tried to eat as healthily as possible, and I came back and played Week Zero against UConn. That was six and a half months out. And then against UNLV, second-to-last play of the game, I heard my foot just snap. I knew exactly what it was, and I knew right when it happened that my college year (and career) was over. That’s kind of how fast it happens.”

Having broken his foot against UNLV, it’s been a tough road to recovery, with all the typical pitfalls of rehab for Bonner. Thankfully, he now appears fully rehabilitated, and set to make an impact on the professional game:

“I feel great. I’m the best I’ve felt in a long time. I got released off my broken foot at the end of December, and I feel really good… My body’s the best it’s been during my entire college career.”

Pro Day Success, and Path to the Draft

Bonner’s Pro-Day last week was well-attended by interested NFL teams, with reports surfacing online that the Chiefs, Colts, Packers, Raiders & 49ers all met and held discussions with Bonner. Could Logan perhaps join his old mate Buechele in Kansas City?! Bonner ran a sub-4.80 40-yard dash, had a 32.0-inch vertical jump and a 9-8 broad jump, plus times of 7.23 in the three-cone run and 4.37 in the short-shuttle run. There was palpable online buzz following the event that Bonner was a prospect that many different NFL teams found interesting. That said, as you might expect of a Texas boy growing up in DFW, there is one team that would make his family cheer just that little bit louder than all the rest, were they to call on Draft Weekend. I queried as to whether Bonner was a childhood, and lifelong, Dallas Cowboys fan:

“Yeah, (laughs), that’s a really good guess! The Boyz are always The Boyz. Obviously that would be a dream of mine – to play for them – but whatever happens happens. If they were willing to take a chance on me, they wouldn’t regret it, for sure. But that’s with any team. I’m looking forward to any team that wants to take a chance on me – I’ll make the organisation better. But whatever team I go to… then I don’t like the Cowboys any more! I like whoever picks me.”

Bonner clearly has a sense of humour about the nature of the profession, despite his voracious hunger to play at the next level. When asked if the Philadelphia Eagles calling would upset his family, and how he might act, Bonner, with a smile so wide his face could barely contain it, said:

“Oh I’m going! I really don’t care… My family might be upset for a few days, but they’ll get over it!” 

Bonner’s realism is refreshing and infectious; he knows he isn’t going to be picked #1 overall like another Quarterback will be, but carries that chip on his shoulder with the right balance of grit, humility, and determination to repay the faith of whoever does take a chance on him. Bonner noted that the NFL Draft has been a part of his calendar for as long as he can remember, but the eventuality of being IN the draft can change things for even the most hardened NFL fan:

“First night I probably won’t be watching much, probably playing golf or something. I know I’m not a Day One guy, so it really doesn’t bother me. But probably by the mid 2nd day, I’ll start tuning in and see where people are falling, and then hopefully early day 3 some stuff will happen and I’ll be going somewhere! I’ve been watching the draft since I was six years old; I usually watch all the first round picks… but I don’t think I’ll be watching those this year.”

Bonner’s story is one of continued persistence, determination to battle through adversity, and constantly bet on himself. From Rowlett, Texas, to Jonesboro, Arkansas, to Logan, Utah, is about as varied a Path to the Draft as you’re likely to find, and yet it seems to be water off a duck’s back when you listen to Bonner describe his life. The fighting spirit and toughness is plain to see, the arm talent and grit extremely evident, and overcoming injuries and obstacles without developing a “woe is me” attitude makes Bonner an extremely easy guy to root for.

I’ll be watching Day 3 with eagle eyes and ears hoping to hear Logan’s name be called, but secretly crossing my fingers that someone does a “Cole Strange,” and gives the kid a chance earlier than the final few rounds. He deserves it, and when he looks you in the eyes (admittedly, over Zoom), and tells you he’ll make the organisation who drafts him better, it’s not hard to believe him. Young, Stroud, Levis and Richardson are understandably getting the most noise at the QB position, but don’t overlook what Bonner might achieve. If we’re to see another Brock Purdy-type story this season, I hope it’s Bonner who gets cast in that role. He’s battle-tested, and ready to shock the world all over again. Good luck, Logan.

Callum Squires

NFL ANALYST

Callum now resides in Dallas, but remains a loyal member of the Fins Fam, and Tu-Anon, and believes Tagovailoa will bounce back in 2023. 

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A huge thank you to Logan for taking the time to talk to us. Everyone at The Touchdown wishes him well in his future career.