HARRISONBURG — There are no more restrictions for David Eldridge.

“Now being fully healthy and getting my body right with everything going good so far,” the former James Madison wide receiver said, “I’m looking for the opportunity to go out there on pro day and just do what I know I can do to maximize my opportunity and hopefully get a chance to play somewhere next year at the next level.”

Coming off his senior season — one he said didn’t match his own expectations — Eldridge is in need of a strong display at JMU’s NFL pro day on March 26 in Harrisonburg to earn a crack at continuing his football career.

He caught only 22 passes for 314 yards this past fall, but dealt with a knee injury in the first few months of the 2018 campaign that never allowed him to get on track. Eldridge wore a bulky knee brace, hampering his mobility.

“It was frustrating on me and my team,” Eldridge, who transferred from Virginia to JMU ahead of the 2017 season, said. “I knew I could help my team a little bit more than I was physically able to at that time.

“But going into the late part of the season, I was starting to get back to my normal self … So after the season, I told myself that I would give everything I got in this offseason to training and dedicate myself to pursue my dream since I felt like my senior year was kind of limited off of an injury. So that’s my mindset, to go all out and show that I still have the ability to do good things.”

Even when he wasn’t fully healthy, Eldridge had a knack for making the acrobatic catch like his 33-yard leaping grab in the Dukes’ home loss to Elon in October. And when he was healthy, he made a laterally diving touchdown snag to help JMU beat East Tennessee State in September of 2017.

As a junior, Eldridge had 42 catches for 533 yards and four touchdowns for Madison.

“I actually have had a lot of deep-threat catches where I went up and got it over some defenders,” Eldridge said. “So that’s one of my best attributes. I can go up and get that ball when it’s in the air.”

The 6-foot-1 receiver hopes his game tape featuring some of those athletic catches along with his performance next month is enough to entice scouts to give him the shot he wants.

“I want to show I have speed to stretch the field and that my vertical and broad jump are good,” Eldridge said. “And I’m looking forward to position work and getting the chance to show different routes as a receiver, because as a tall receiver I can actually run those routes on the inside. I ran a lot of inside receiver, too, this year and my junior year, so I played both inside and outside. So I’m excited for the chance to run some routes in front of scouts and show them I have the ability to get in and out of breaks, use my hands and show them I can bring a lot to the table.”

In preparation for the event, Eldridge is splitting his training regiment between Harrisonburg and Northern Virginia, which has him driving I-81 and I-66 three or four days a week since he’s still finishing up his sociology degree at JMU.

He does his weightlifting lifting at JMU alongside a few fellow outgoing teammates — Darrious Carter, Robert Carter Jr., Cardon Johnson and Trai Sharp — while Dukes assistant strength and conditioning coach Mike Morris leads the workouts. Eldridge then does his on-field drills at The Elite Athletic Program in Ashburn.

“It’s a sacrifice I make to try to be great,” Eldridge said.

And although his senior season didn’t go as planned, Eldridge said he’s very thankful for the decision he made to transfer from Virginia to JMU.

He played in 18 career games and started twice for the Cavaliers, but departed one year into coach Bronco Mendenhall’s tenure there.

“I came from a struggling program, at the time, at U.Va.,” Eldridge said, “which was just getting in the mix of finding themselves and their identity. But I made the move, and going from where I was to jumping into a program off a national championship, was a big step.

“And it was an overwhelmingly great experience. I wasn’t used to playing in December, so it was new on the body, but I was grateful for the opportunity and the chance that [former JMU coach Mike] Houston and the staff gave me as well as my teammates allowing me in because it’s always hard being a new player going into a new atmosphere and program, but they accepted me well and I appreciate that.”