February 27, 2015 - Greg Gabriel
14 players that need to have a strong Pro Day
Now that the Combine is complete, the next phase in the evaluation process are the pro days. Starting next week, there will be numerous pro days Monday through Friday, through the month of March. When a club really wants to get up close and personal with a prospect, they will schedule a private workout with the player but we wont see many of these until after their school has it's pro day.
The pro day is important for a number of reasons. First off, the players from a school who weren't invited to the Combine get to workout in front of NFL evaluators. Every year there are about 35 players who did not get invited to the Combine who end up getting drafted.
Over the years, I have seen some drafted as high as the second round, but the majority of these players start coming off the board starting around the fourth round. While teams are interested in these players because of the way they played during the season, their performance on their pro day is also important in the evaluation process. These non-combine players have to have workout numbers better or similar to invited players at their position.
The pro days are also important for the players that didn't live up to expectations at the Combine. The players who are happy with their Combine results will not take part in the measurable events such as the 40, the 20 yard shuttle, the 3-cone and the jumps. They will only do the position-specific drills for coaches after the measurable drills are finished.
There are other players who feel they need to improve on some of their combine times in order to keep their value high. After going through the Combine results, here are some players who may want to redo some of their drills.
Ameer Abdullah - Nebraska - Â While his jumps and agilities were excellent, he only ran 4.61. He may want to run the 40 again.
Melvin Gordon -Â Wisconsin - The same holds true for Gordon. I think every scout in the league felt Gordon would break 4.45. When he ran 4.52 that was a bit disappointing.
Duke Johnson - Miami -Â He is another running back who ran slower than expected. He may also want to try and improve on his 33.5" vertical jump. Johnson did not run any of the agilities, so he needs to run those also.
Trae Waynes - Michigan State - While Waynes ran fast, his agility times were slow compared with the other top corner prospects. Slow times in the agility drills can mean a prospect is tight in the knees or hips.
Marcus Peters -Â Washington -Â Marcus looks fast on tape, but he didn't run fast at Indy. 4.54 is not first round corner speed. His other drills were good enough.
Kevin Johnson - Wake Forest -Â With Kevin, it's the same story as Peters, excellent jumps and agilities and an average 40 time.
Ladarius Gunter - Miami -Â Most felt he would run in the low 4.5's. He ran in the 4.60's. He has to run again.
Quinten Rollins - Miami (Ohio) -Â He ran much slower than anticipated, the problem he may have is Miami (Ohio) does not have an indoor facility and he may want to wait until early April before he attempts to run again.
Danny Shelton - Washington - Every one want to compare Shelton to Ngata, but Ngata ran a 5.13 at Indy and Shelton ran in the 5.6's. He needs to improve his speed or his value will drop a little.
Justin Hardy - East Carolina - I never thought Hardy was a burner, but his average time of 4.58 is not quite fast enough.
Vince Mayle - Washington State - The same holds true with Mayle as he ran 4.67.
Maxx Williams - Minnesota - Â His speed was disappointing in that he ran 4.85, 4.77. He needs to run in the 4.6's if he wants to be considered as a first round candidate.
Paul Dawson - TCU - No one thought he was going to be a speedster, but 4.95 is way too slow. I would think he will be first in line to run at TCU's pro day.
Shaq Thompson - Washington - Shaq plays like he can run in the mid 4.5's. His 40 times were 4.72 and 4.69. If I were him, I'd run again.
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