Titus Leo keeps getting asked the same questions during his preparations ahead of the NFL draft.
From team executives, from other draft prospects and from draft analysts trying to get to know him better, they consistently come up.
He enjoys answering them.
But if he accomplishes what he’s set out to do, he envisions the inquiry no longer being necessary.
“When I work out, I wear my Wagner gear no matter what,” Leo told The Post. “Everybody asks me what college it is. Going on these visits with teams, they’re like ‘Where’s Wagner College?’ I’ve got my Wagner College gear on, probably my shorts and a sweatshirt of Wagner College, and I’m still gonna be carrying that on to an NFL locker room.
“It doesn’t matter where you play. You can’t let your environment dictate your actions. Wagner College means everything to me. It gave me the opportunity of a lifetime, I got my education from there, and I got an opportunity to play in the NFL from there.”
Leo wants to put Wagner on the map. And he has the talent to do so.
He is on the verge of joining a small group of players from Wagner — which Leo informs his curious inquirers is located on Staten Island — to play in the NFL.
If he is drafted, he’ll be just the fourth player ever drafted from the school.
Competing at the FCS level in the Northeastern Conference, Wagner College currently has the Buccaneers’ Cam Gill and the Colts’ Chris Williams, as well as Julian Stanford and Greg Senat, who are currently free agents but last year were on the rosters of the Ravens and Jets.
Gill was a part of the Bucs’ Super Bowl-winning team from the 2020 season.
A hybrid edge rusher/defensive end, Leo played with Gill and Williams at Wagner and has a close relationship with Stanford.
For Leo and those around him, the path to the NFL was feasible, and there was a blueprint for him to follow.
“I realized pretty quickly that he was different than most college athletes, most college football players,” Wagner head football coach Tom Masella told The Post. “Not only in his ability, but the way he attacked the goal of playing in the NFL. I almost want to say obsessed with the goal of putting himself in the position to be an NFL football player.”
But before he began the path toward carrying the torch held by his predecessors, Leo’s journey started just a few miles away in a different borough.
Leo grew up in Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn and attended Sheepshead Bay High School.
His decision to attend Wagner didn’t have much to do with staying close to home. It was his only Division I offer.
From Brooklyn to Staten Island to soon somewhere in the NFL, Leo lives and breathes New York City.
“That’s my whole character,” Leo said. “I’m always a busy body. Always on time. Because you know in New York City, if a bus comes at 4:30, the bus is not gonna be there at 4:31. You’re gonna miss the bus. So that’s who I am, a very punctual person. And just the attitude and the mindset, always working and always striving to get something. And that’s what I think New York City is all about, and I really embody that.”
When he first arrived at Wagner, making it to the NFL wasn’t on his mind.
He wanted to use his football acumen as a pathway to get his higher education.
But his rise to an NFL prospect was dramatic.
At Wagner, Leo was a back-to-back NEC Defensive Player of the Year and three-time First Team All-NEC selection.
NFL Network lead draft analyst and former NFL scout Daniel Jeremiah listed Leo as one of his two favorite edge rushers that did not get invited to the NFL combine.
Bruce Feldman, whose top-100 athletic freaks list of prospects every year before the draft is highly acclaimed, had the 6-foot-4, 245-pound Leo listed at No. 92.
If he didn’t receive ample attention at Wagner, he’s made up for it ahead of the draft.
He capitalized on an invite to the East-West Shrine Bowl, where he excelled and turned heads against NFL-caliber opposition.
Leo has a good shot at being drafted in the late Day 3 range.
Otherwise, he’ll be one of the most sought after undrafted free agents.
“For a guy that did not get invited to the combine, I can give you at least a handful of guys that were there that Leo deserved to be there over,” David Syvertsen, a lead scout for Ourlads Scouting Services, told The Post. “Just his production but then also athletically … he absolutely has the potential to be a late riser.”
