JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Hazing isn't as intense as it used to be in the NFL, but rookies -- especially first-round picks -- are still expected to take care of their veteran teammates. That usually includes purchasing meals or snacks on certain days.

Taven Bryan got his instructions shortly after he was drafted 29th overall by the Jacksonville Jaguars when defensive tackle Malik Jackson posted on Instagram that rookies are expected to deliver doughnuts on Fridays, Chick-fil-A on Saturday mornings and Popeyes for the team charter.

Maybe a better idea would be to have Bryan do a little home maintenance. Paint a hallway. Fix a roof. Repave a driveway. Put on an addition.

The former Florida standout did all of that -- and more -- while growing up in Wyoming. Bryan's father, Brandy, is a firefighter but also did construction work on the side. He often took his son with him on jobs and put him to work -- even when Taven was in elementary school.

Those grueling days turned into valuable lessons about the importance of hard work, fighting through fatigue to finish a task and never settling for shoddy results. They're part of what turned Bryan into a first-round draft pick and traits the Jaguars loved during their scouting and interviews.

"I don't think I'm built anything special or anything crazy like that," Taven Bryan said. "I just go all-in and do my job and try to do the best I can."

Actually, Bryan is physically special. He's 6-foot-5, 291 pounds and has exceptional quickness -- especially with his first step off the ball. He ran the 40-yard dash in 4.98 seconds, had a 35-inch vertical jump and did 30 reps of 225 pounds on the bench press at the NFL scouting combine. He also has the ability to play inside as a three-technique tackle and outside at end.

All of that was born during those days working alongside his father as a youngster. It started before Taven was 10 years old.

Military mindset

Brandy Bryan brought his son along to a concrete job on a local ranch. The first thing that had to be done was to demolish the existing concrete work, so Brandy gave the 9-year-old Taven a 16-pound sledgehammer and told him to start swinging.

That quickly drew a crowd.

"The ranch manager sends his high school kids down and they kind of stand around and let him do the work, and then later on that night the ranch manager walks up and says, 'Hey, can I use your kid for a minute?'" Brandy said. "He pulls him over there and says, 'If I see this young man outwork you high school athletes one more time I'm going to fire all of you and we're going to replace you.'"

Brandy had his son's help on other projects, too. They've done some plumbing, electrical work, welding, roofing, framing, automotive work ...

"If there is something out there, I have probably done a little bit of it," Taven said.

If it sounds like Bryan didn't have much spare time as a kid, you're right. That was by design -- and it applied to his older sister, Chelsea, too. Brandy, a former Navy SEAL, made sure they were busy.

"My military influence changed my life, so I pretty much instilled the work ethic in him," he said. "My kids don't get a free ride for nothing. They have to work their way through everything.

"... Just teach him life. Life is about putting the work in to get out the benefits. He's played football since midget football and he's gone all the way through. He played football. He played a little bit of basketball. He wrestled. He's a really good wrestler. He threw the discus and shot. Played baseball. We gave him every opportunity, but what I told my kids, 'If you're not doing a sport or doing something extracurricular, you're going to be working.'"

Said Taven: "He taught me to work hard [and] just take care of my business."

'Strength coach's dream'

That certainly showed in the weight room. Bryan can squat 600 pounds and bench 425, but his strength is not what impressed former Florida strength and conditioning coordinator Jeff Dillman when Bryan walked into the weight room for the first time.

"He was a freak and he always wanted more," said Dillman, who is now the strength and conditioning coordinator at South Carolina. "He's one of those kids you have to say, 'Whoa!' instead of, 'Giddy-up!'

"... He was awesome to work with. He's actually a strength coach's dream, because he'll do whatever you tell him to do. He actually pushes strength coaches to be better, because he's always asking to do more."

Dillman said Bryan had a blue-collar mentality, which was just the attitude that Dillman and then-coach Will Muschamp wanted to instill in the Gators players. Bryan also loved being in the weight room and working out, and Dillman said Bryan never took any shortcuts with his workouts.

Shortcuts were something that didn't make sense to Bryan, which Dillman said was obviously something he learned early when he was working with his father.

"You're a product of your culture and you are who you surround yourself with," Dillman said. "If you surround yourself with trained assassins, you're going to be a trained assassin. If you surround yourself with lazy people, you're going to be lazy. We always say to our kids: 'You show me your friends and I'll show you your future. You are who you hang out with.'

"Biggest thing is the motor: The no-quit mentality."

That's really Bryan in a nutshell, Jaguars general manager Dave Caldwell said. The Jaguars generally don't interview players from Florida and Florida State at the combine, because they bring them in as part of their NFL-allotted 30 visits. That allows the players to spend more time with the Jaguars' staff. When Bryan came to Jacksonville, Caldwell said everyone quickly found out Bryan is a pretty straightforward person.

He loves working out and playing football, and there's not many other outside interests. Caldwell also said it's easy to see that lessons Bryan learned from working with his father combined with his athletic ability helped him thrive as a player.

"We knew he was a good kid, and we knew he was a top hard-nosed, good worker and all that stuff," Caldwell said. "He's very honest. He doesn't have much of a filter. He's going to tell you exactly how he feels and what he thinks, but he's a good kid and very -- I don't want to say simple, but he likes ball, he likes to work, he likes to train, and there's no BS about him."

Caldwell said Bryan will quickly win over his new teammates with that attitude. That doesn't mean they're not going to put him through the normal hazing and maybe even take extra advantage of his background. If one of the Jaguars veterans has a leaky faucet, needs a ceiling fan installed, wants to add some additional lighting around his pool, needs his kitchen counters redone or can't get his car started -- he can call the rookie.

Caldwell did say one thing is off limits, though: "The roofing days are over, by the way."