Penn State pro day

March 20, 2018

What if they held a pro day and nobody came?? Updated That appears to be almost the story at Penn State’s pro day earlier today. Because of the presence of RB Saquon Barkley,  the pretty near consensus #1 prospect overall for the 2018 draft, it was expected that there would be a big crowd in attendance including senior execs from teams with early picks. While every NFL team had a rep at the Penn State pro day, there were reportedly only two G.M.s – Kevin Colbert of Pittsburgh and Carolina’s Marty Hurney – neither of whom is likely going to get any where near close to selecting Barkley. There also weren’t any head coaches in attendance; heck, there weren’t even any RB coaches on hand. In fact, Barkley had planned to participate in positional drills today, but with no RB coaches to impress he passed. Of course, some of those teams with high picks are still expected to hold private workouts with Barkley, but reading through the tea leaves, it doesn’t sound like anything scheduled. So what’s it all mean for Barkley’s draft prospects? Hard to tell, but there is something of a buzz around the league, that because of his position – and not to mention the fact that QBs are expected to go at least 1-2-3, if not 1-2-3-4 – that he could slip out of the top 5. Update: In fact, a 3rd G.M. – Oakland’s Reggie McKenzie – was in attendance at the PSU pro day; it has also been noted that several teams including Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and the New York Jets had more than one rep on hand. Cleveland, of course, has the 1st and 4th picks and has to be at least considering Barkley with one of the picks, while the Jets have moved up to #3. At the same time, the Giants, who have the #2 pick and are probably the team most associated with Barkley in mock drafts around the web, had defensive backs coach Lou Anarumo at the Penn State pro day.