A couple of notes for the upcoming workouts. Neither of WRs Mike Williams of Clemson nor Western Michigan’s, arguably the top two receivers in this year’s draft class, will run during tomorrow’s on-field drills. Williams has decided to opt out of running tomorrow and instead will do the 40 at the Tigers’ pro day on March 16. as usual, there’s been some grumbling from the scouting community about the fact that a top prospect won’t run at the combine. In the end, though, NFL teams will base their decision on how well he runs at the tape and what they’ve seen on tape. In contrast, Davis likely also won’t be workout at the WMU pro day later this month; he has an ankle injury and there is some concern whether he’ll be able to run at all before the draft. And that could cost Davis some spots, because there isn’t a real consensus around the league as to his pure speed and athleticism.
Michigan OLB/DB Jabrill will be doing double duty later this weekend as he will participate in positional drills for both the LBs on Sunday and the DBs on Monday. However, that shouldn’t be that much of a stretch for the versatile Peppers who took snaps at as many as 8 positions for the Wolverines. The die as to where Peppers ultimately plays at the next level may have been cast, though, at this morning’s weigh-in when Peppers measured in at a tad under 5-11. That’s awfully short for a LB meaning he may be forced to play at SS at the next level, although no doubt there are enterprising coaches out there who might find a way to play Peppers as a hybrid LB/DB giving a team an extra safety on the field.
While the offensive linemen and RBs were doing their thing on the field today, the defensive linemen and LBs were getting measured and weighed. Of note, Texas A&M Myles Garrett, pretty much the consensus top prospect overall for the upcoming draft, came in about shorter an inch shorter than expected at 6-4, 272. However, that’s hardly going to hurt Garrett’s final grade as he quickly earned those points back with 35-inch plus arms that NFL teams really like in a prototype 4-3 edge-rushing DE. In fact, it appears they grow ’em rangy down at A&M as Daeshon Hall (6-5, 266), Garrett’s partner-in-crime on the outside for the Aggies had even longer arms at just over 35.5 inches.
On the other hand, a number of tweener DE/OLB edge rushers turned up with shorter than optimum arms which could limit their effectiveness as pure 4-3 DEs. Indeed, Missouri’s Charles Harris (6-3, 253, 32.5), Derek Barnett (6-3, 259, 32.0) of Tennessee, Trey Hendrickson (6-4, 266, 32.0) of Florida Atlantic, and Penn State’s Garrett Sickels (6-3, 261, 32.0) each had arms in the 32-32.5 inch range. Auburn’s Carl Lawson (6-2, 261) was even a little worse as his arms measured barely 31.5 inches. At the same time, UCLA tweener Takk McKinley (6-2, 250) measured in a little smaller than the other tweeners, but he showed much better length with almost 35″ arms.
Michigan State DE/DT Malik McDowell measured in at a very robust 6-6, 295, almost 20 pounds more than his listed playing weight at MSU. At that weight, McDowell will still get some looks from 3-4 teams as a 5T DE, but he’ll also now have 4-3 teams looking at him as a DT with some real pass rush ability.
On the other hand, Alabama DE Jonathan Allen measured in at the combine roughly 5 pounds lighter than his listed playing weight in college. For the record, Allen measured in at 6-2.5, 286 with 33.5″ arms. That puts Allen squarely in the tweener category such that he’ll need to be relatively fast tomorrow or he could be pigeon-holed as more a 3-4 DE. same story for DEs Solomon Thomas (6-3, 273, 33.0) of Stanford and Michigan’s Taco Charlton (6-6, 277, 34.25).
