Ochaun Mathis, Trey Palmer and Travis Vokolek aim to impress at NFL Combine

Two of the biggest transfer additions to last year’s Nebraska football team are the two players most likely to be selected in next month’s NFL Draft.

Receiver Trey Palmer and outside linebacker Ochaun Mathis are also two of the three former Huskers headed to this week’s NFL Combine in Indianapolis. Tight end Travis Vokolek — also a transfer, though he played four years at Nebraska — is the third prospect.

Palmer and Vokolek will showcase their talents Saturday. Mathis, working with the edge rushers and linebackers, is up first  Thursday. NFL Network will televise all on-field workouts starting at 2 p.m. Thursday and Friday and noon Saturday and Sunday.

Of the former Husker trio, Mathis has the highest prospect grade — 5.94 — on the NFL Combine web site. NFL Draft Buzz rates the 6-foot-4, 247-pounder as the 146th-best prospect in the draft and a fifth-round pick.

Mathis may have hoped for better buzz after his one season at Nebraska, which he’d hoped would propel him into at least a second- or third-round pick when he transferred from TCU, but Mathis chose to forgo an extra year of eligibility at NU and turn pro. After a slow start in 2022, Mathis progressed into one of the Huskers’ top defenders, finishing with 50 tackles, 3½ sacks and, according to Pro Football Focus, 25 quarterback hurries — including five against Iowa.

He’ll work out with the linebackers while hoping to show off his pass-rushing skills.

“I feel like the arm length and stature I have helps me a lot with the speed-to-power (moves),” Mathis said Wednesday during a NFL Combine news conference. “I have a lot of power in my legs, so getting low, at my type of height, I have a tendency to bend down pretty low, stick that arm out, thumb up. I feel like that, with my speed and get-off, that’ll catch them off-guard.”

Opponents are well aware of Palmer’s top strength: He’s fast. It’s likely the 6-foot, 193-pounder will run one of the quickest 40-yard dashes of the weekend, perhaps faster than 4.4 seconds.

“He’s an athletic mover with good leaping ability and a quiet engine that can unleash a big second gear to chase the deep throw,” NFL Combine analyst Lance Zierlein wrote of Palmer, who set Nebraska’s single-season record with 1,043 receiving yards.

Projected as a fifth-round pick by NFL Draft Buzz, Palmer torched Iowa’s highly-rated secondary for 165 yards and two touchdowns to end the season. But he struggled against the tighter man coverage played by Illinois and Michigan, with just six catches for 12 yards in the two games.

Vokolek, 6-7 and 260 pounds, spent six years in college, peaking as a senior with 20 catches for 240 yards and two touchdowns. A likely undrafted free agent, Vokolek can nevertheless work the same path as former Husker teammate Jack Stoll, who turned a free agent contract with the Philadelphia Eagles into a starting role with a Super Bowl team.

Several more former Huskers — including Garrett Nelson, Caleb Tannor, Chris Kolarevic and Oliver Martin — will get a chance to work out for NFL scouts at Nebraska’s Pro Day later in March. The advantage of working out at the NFL Combine is the immediate availability of all NFL franchises, the battery of team and media interviews, and even playing field in terms of testing surface.