“His work ethic, his passion to be great – you knew by any means necessary, he was going to go out there and make a play for you on special teams,” Haynes said. “The only reason he probably did not play safety for us was just his lack of knowledge of playing [defensive back]. He was full steam ahead. He was just a downhill player, but you knew on kickoffs, on punts, he was going to be the first guy down there to make the tackle. You banked on it. You counted on it. It was going to happen. Ebner was going to make the play.

"He was one of the most fun kids that I’ve ever coached, still to this day, because you just knew he was going to give it his all. He just has so much confident in himself to get it done. He’s going to get it done on that level.”

Then, Haynes dropped the most eye-opening bomb.

“He was probably the most valuable player on that whole team, the most valuable player on that whole team last year,” Haynes said passionately. “If there was a guy that we were going to go down with, it would have been Nate Ebner by far. There isn’t a coach on that staff who wouldn’t say that.”