Overnight combine updates, thoughts … A couple of late notes from yesterday’s on-field workouts for the QBs and receivers at the scouting combine in Indianapolis. For starters, in yesterday’s reporting, we neglected to mention that Ole Miss QB Matt Corral’s measurements were pretty good, at least for him. He measured in at 6-1.5 and 212 pounds, which isn’t huge, but bigger than some scouts expected. There were concerns that Corral was under 6-1 and closer to 200 pounds. Again, that’s still not huge, but at 212, Corral could be expected to absorb a few more hits than at his listed weight of 205. Corral did not work out, though, as he still rehabbing from an injury suffered during Ole Miss’ bowl game. Several of the top QBs did participate in the throwing drills last evening including Pitt’s Kenny Pickett and Malik Willis of Liberty, who are generally considered to be the top two QB prospects this year. Of course, its an odd environment where its hard for guys to get in any kind of rythym and not much should be read into the outcome, but it certainly appeared that Pickett had the better workout. He doesn’t have Willis’ pure arm strength, but was very smooth and consistently accurate with an easy release and excellent ball placement. For his part,Willis made some lovely throws, but he was also wildly inconsistent in terms of accuracy. Among the other QBs that threw yesterday, I thought Sam Howell of UNC looked the best.
The story of yesterday’s on-field workout though was the pure speed at the WR position with 8 guys running under 4.4 led by Baylor’s Tyquan Thornton’s run of 4.28. Thornton was originally clocked in what would have been a record 4.21 seconds, but his unofficial clocking was ultimately revised up to the 4.28 which is still effing fast. For those unfamiliar with Thompson, he was a high school track star with a PB of 10.5 over 100M. He was also a productive, big-play threat at Baylor where he averaged over 15 yards on 62 catches in 2021 including 10 for TDs on a team that didn’t throw the ball that often. Oho State’s Garrett Wilson also had a big night, running the 40 in 4.38 which could very well put him in the top ten conversation this coming April. Other WRs who helped themselves yesterday included Alec Pierce of Cincinnati, North Dakota State’s Christian Watson, Skyy Moore of Western Michigan, Calvin Austin of Memphis, George Pickens of Georgia, Kevin Austin of Notre Dame, Bo Melton of Rutgers and Isaiah Weston Northern Iowa.
UGA’s Pickens helped himself by simply showing up and showing that he was getting closer to full health as he ran a solid 4.47 40 after he played in just 4 games this year because of a torn ACL suffered in spring practice last year. Meanwhile, The Irish’s Austin, Melton and Weston, on the other hand, are more fringe prospects who at least earned themselves second looks by turning in really athletic performances yesterday. ND’s Austin, for example, ran a 4.43 40, had a 39-inch vertical and 11-inch long jump and was very quick in the agility drills, while Melton blitzed a 4.34 40 and had a 38-inch vertical and Westonhad a 4.42 40 clocking and a 40-inch vertical.
On the other hand, receivers who didn’t really help their grades yesterday included Arkansas’ Treylon Burks, whose 4.55 40 time isn’t bad for a 225-pounder, but its also not the stuff of top ten picks. At the same time, David Bell of Purdue was also considerably slower than expected with a 4.65 clocking as was that of UCLA’s Kyle Philips (4.58) who was being talked about as something of a riser.
Meanwhile, the RBs and offensive linemen are getting weighed and measure as we speak ans will hit the field for their on-field workouts,a gain at 4 PM ET on the NFL Network.
