NFL Combine Speculation At Full Throttle

By: Chicago Sports Review

There’s a peculiar feel to the NFL Combine. It’s not that it isn’t important, but if there is a more speculative media event that has ever been conceived, (aside from an Oscars pre-party) I’d like to know where it is.And who caters it.

At one point this weekend, I found myself ten feet in front of Tony Dungy’s podium, and ready to ask him a question, when I was distracted as an NFL representative walked into our conference room at the Indianapolis Convention Center, and quietly began writing forty-times of running backs on a dry erase board. Here is the coach of the team with the best record in football being peppered with questions on what is sure to be a wild off-season, and the really important stuff for the most powerful sports league on the planet is taking place with the aid of a marker.

“Maurice Drew, UCLA, 4.38″

Finally, something concrete from this circus.

And then there’s Dungy saying he’s already looked at a lot of tape on running backs. We’ve questioned over 14 NFL head coaches in two days, and I don’t think a single one has acknowledged that they’ve done much tape studying. Hmm. Edgerrin James, call your agent.

You know him, that’s Drew Rosenhaus. And he’s everywhere at this event. I think there’s three of him. One for the phones. One for the chats. One for the press conferences in the driveway. Hey, he has three phones. Herm Edwards pointed that out.

But back to the point … if Dungy is willing to admit that he’s already going through tapes of running backs when most NFL head coaches are still in the process of calling back scouts, and starting to get a plan together with their GM, I’d say Drew’s client James should plan to dump his Indy pad for good.

But again, that’s just speculation. And that’s what this weekend is. Important, concrete numbers posted by prospective pro’s, muted by chatter.

Since we in the media are essentially barred from watching the workouts that take place in the RCA Dome across the street - instead taking them in off of closed circuit TV from the NFL Network while we mingle with potential draftees, coaches, and wait for the caterers to bring more sandwiches and cookies - the whole scene provides a great deal of time for guess-work.

So here’s some of mine. Conclusions, notes, quotes, and anecdotes from the NFL Combine.

A Cut Above

Jay Cutler was a hit. No other way to say it. From the ease with which he answered questions, to the fact that he is almosy surely a top ten pick, pretty much knows it, and was still willing to work out for scouts and face the media, he got rave reviews.

His best line?

Asked if the money would change him, Cutler responded, “We’ll find out soon.”

It’s a stupid comparison, but he reminded more than a few of us of a younger Brett Favre. He’s enjoying the hype it seems, but he’s naïve enough to let people in a little, and enjoy the moment. That, and he’s a gun-slinging type, enjoys that characterization, and is all small-town. He even shares the same agent as old #4.

Oh, but Cutler is a big Bears fan. Oh well.

Jeff Fisher, whose Titans hold the third pick, admitted he was intrigued by Cutler, who wouldn’t be a bad fit as a Tennessee college-kid from Vanderbilt, and an understudy to an aging Steve McNair, who Fisher says still has good football left in him.

Then there was Packers GM Ted Thompson, who, while he doesn’t know what Favre will do, said in either case he wasn’t willing to rule out taking a quarterback with the fifth pick. His comparison? The Portland Trailblazers taking Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan because they needed a center, as opposed to the best guy available.

Sure, the Packers need more than a QB, especially if Brett comes back, but if I’m Aaron Rodgers, I take that to heart and have the best off-season of my life. You also wonder if Thompson is in love with a Cutler or Vince Young with his fifth pick.

My advice, stick with A.J. Hawk. Still, if Brett hangs them up between now and the draft, Thompson’s Sam Bowie declarations will be lingering in my mind.

And the fact that Favre reminds me of Cutler? Well, that will be lingering too.

Vince Young. Call Him Google

When the Google stock prices fell two weeks ago, dropping nearly 25% of their initial value, some analysts launched into discussions about the stock, claiming they had furtive thoughts that the stock would plummet all along.

Right.

Smarter analysts simply stated that the initial Google stock-price was based on the notion of perfection; huge earnings, better profits, solid growth outlook, etc. and thus the fallen price was just really an adjustment back to reality, which was still really good.

The message? If you base all your projections on perfection, you’re bound to be disappointed.

Good point. Just ask the artist formerly known as Vincanity.

Here’s Vince Young, who, eight weeks ago, was perfect in every way. Sure, he had a hitch in his delivery and footwork, but his accuracy and arm strength off-set that. Sure, he played behind a remarkably good offensive line, but his scrambling was still so good, and so timely, that surely it was a translatable skill.

But at the combine, where Young refused to workout, I felt as though it was mostly negative. Or was it just a re-adjustment to reality?

There were the issues of scouts lowering their assessments. Call it Vick-lash. The inevitable comparison. Then there were the fabled Wonderlic scores.

“Was it really a 6? Wow, a 6, is that possible? No, mistake, it was a 16. Still, that seems low for a QB. Does it seem low to you? Seems low to me.”

What I found was a quarterback who had been tenderized by all the negativity, so much so that some of his glee was gone, and he was becoming more of a defensive robot.

I asked Young how he was dealing with people constantly searching for his flaws, coming off a January where he was always lauded for his strengths. But instead of a heartfelt response about how it was hard, and how he just needed to test for these guys and show his true ability, he answered about how he was involved in volunteer work and was trying to silence his critics in that manner.

What?

And I realized that Young felt that I was implying that people were attacking his character. It bothered me. Was he clueless, and simply incapable of comprehending what I was asking? Did I ask him in a confusing manner? Or was he just tired of criticism and assumed he needed to go on the offensive because he was being attacked? Was it just a prepared answer? At that moment I felt bad for Young, in a weird, you’ll-be-a-millionaire-soon-and-even-falling-you’re-still-a-top-ten-lock kind of way.

He’s Google. Weeks ago, he was perfection in motion, and now he’s back in the fish bowl like the rest, and he can barely use the john without being analyzed. All I know about Vince Young is this: I have no idea what kind of an NFL quarterback he will be. The physical skills are breathtaking. The leadership skills are apparent, based on results. The mental skills have question marks. Still, QB’s don’t have to be Rhodes Scholar’s, they have to have instinct.

We’ll see…

White Thunder, or is it Lightning?

As the Thunder part of the Thunder and Lightning duo at USC, LenDale White was known for his bruising style.

Still, White says he can run, (he thinks mid 4.4’s) and when he handled the ball against Texas in the Rose Bowl, the country saw why he holds the USC touchdown rushing record after only three years, over some chump named Charles White.

When questioned about his playing weight, White said that he hovers in the mid 230’s, plenty enough weight to still be a bruising NFL back. Still, the baby-faced White instigated himself the fact that he played the Rose Bowl at 253. It wasn’t begged out of him. He didn’t have to acknowledge that. What, was he going to say he was at 235, and some journalist was going to pipe up and say, “Actually, we had that scale audited LenDale, come out with it!”

Now some people might say, “Uh oh, weight problems.”

Not me. I think White pulled a quick one, and wanted to state and show that even when he was twenty pounds over his ideal playing weight he could still run through, around, and away from a fast and physical Texas defense.

Several times that game, White got to the outside and threw devastating stiff-arms, most notably on certain early pick Michael Huff, a Texas defensive back.

And yes, that is the same Huff who says he looks forward to being drafted and signing his contract so he can own an IHOP.

I say Huff calls White and signs him as a taste-tester. White wanted us to know that he’s a great player, and even heavy, he ain’t that bad. (I believe the saying goes that great players are like sex. Even when they’re bad, they’re not that bad.)

Get on the phone Huff. I smell a partnership. IHOP for everybody! LenDale first.

Matt Leinart, Pro

So, apparently Matt Leinart is going to be a top pick, probably number two to New Orleans, or number three to Tennessee. Now with the Texans apparently shopping the number one pick, who knows, the golden boy could land in the top spot.

As for whether he raised or lowered projections of himself at the draft? I got nothing.

Nobody did.

It’s because Leinart has been a pro for a year, filling stadiums like U2, and sadly, just doesn’t have the money to show for it because to the NCAA, he’s worth a scholarship. He is so adept at the press conference scene, that I wondered as I looked around me and saw every notable football reporter in the world with their tape recorders running, whether it was even the biggest press conference Leinart had given.

Probably not.

He is rightly defensive about what people say he can’t do, run … “I’m deceptively fast, and throw on the run well … we completed something like 85% of my roll-outs.” … but he’s also got all the “work hard” assessments down for what he surely must do to become a great NFL QB. (Yawn)

Would he like to land at number three and work with Norm Chow? Sure, it’d be great. I love Norm.

What about New Orleans and that mess? “I’d love to be a part of the rebuilding effort.”

Leinart is too good at the press conference game. It’s a joke.

Draft him. Give him a jersey. Give him a football. Call me in August.

Bloomin’ Onions

To steal from Bill Raftery, Jeremy Bloom surely proved his onions by showing at the combine, and actually testing and running just two days after he arrived from Turin, Italy, where he was an Olympian.

The fact that Bloom was willing to run, after basically starving himself down to 170-pounds to be at optimal skiing weight, and not using his ankles for anything but moguls for practically two years, told scouts all they needed to know.

He had so many built-in excuses to go out and stumble his way to a 4.9 that scouts and GM’s would have still kept him as a middle-round guy, just based on his competitiveness and moxie.

So when he ran a 4.49 and then a 4.5 on Sunday, he merely re-confirmed what people already knew. A kid who has devoted himself to football only on a part-time basis is already as fast as many of the receivers and returners in the draft, and when he has time to get himself in football shape, tinker with his technique, and - seriously - find some cleats that fit, he’s going to jack that number down a tenth of a second at his pro day on April 2nd and be at least a 3rd round lock.

Bloom looked like he’d just gotten off of Apollo 13 at the press conference, had to be reminded what day it was, had to answer the standard questions about the NCAA, and how um, special they are to him, and still left a good impression with media, scouts, and probably the dude who delivered the sandwiches.

Yeah, I like Bloom. Yeah, I think the NCAA stuck it to him. Yeah, I think critics who called his skiing a waste of time are either jealous or drinking Bode’s bong juice, (and I like Bode too, so there!) but I’ll tell you this: I’m not alone.

He was a hit at the combine. Simple as that.

NFL Notes and Quotes

Nick Saban pre-empted all of our questions at his press conference with a 10-minute opening statement that all but threatened any members of the media to ask him about the situation with Ricky Williams. He couldn’t talk about it, he said. League rules. He’s right.

Afterwards, and after I wiped away my drool from the ten-minute nap, the rest of us opted to skip his warnings and ask questions about …. drumroll …. Gus Frerotte! No. Kidding. We asked about Ricky Williams, he of the unluckiest drug tests ever!

Saban then said - as Peter King noted in his MMQB - something wonderful, which touched all of us, and that was that Ricky was in India on a retreat, and that he respected that. That was in response to a question as to whether he or anyone else with the Dolphins had asked Williams to leave India to come back and address all this.

Saban basically implied that Ricky was just fine in India, thank you, and that if he was here, what could he do anyway?

I had an answer: fail another drug test.

I decided not to mention it….

…Herman Edwards was asked about the possibility of Terrell Owens (can we call him Terrell The Owens yet?) joining his team in Kansas City, and Edwards didn’t dismiss it. He said that Drew Rosenhaus had walked by him in the lobby with his three phones and said “We need to talk.” which meant to him that Owens was a part of the potential discussion.

Edwards said that Chiefs GM Carl Peterson would handle whatever there was to handle.

But he didn’t dismiss it! As if that means anything. I’m speculating here. Still, I take Edwards as a hard-line guy, who wouldn’t tolerate the shenanigans, and his half-hearted receptiveness surprised me.

Maybe the market was re-warmed to TO.

…I’m guessing Mike Vanderjagt is going to need a realtor. Mike Chappell of the Indianapolis Star was clever enough to ask the same question about the loose-cannon Colt kicker to both Tony Dungy and Colts President Bill Polian. Basically, will your kicker be back?

While Dungy was himself, aka, Diplomacy Dungy, and stated how much Vanderjagt had done for the franchise, and basically ended it with a “We’ll see,” Polian dismissed completely the idea that Vanderjagt would be back. And he signs the checks.

…Polian also further added fuel to the Edge is Out theory by pointing out that re-signing James was his third priority, behind Reggie Wayne and Robert Mathis. It was in the David Thornton range of priorities, in fact, according to Polian. Drew Rosenhaus can build bulletin board material out of a Mother Theresa soundbite, so I’m sure this will have him ramped up to move his gold-grilled client elsewhere.

How about New England? It fits, doesn’t it?

…and if there was one thing that was asked of every coach, GM, and even the sandwich guy, it was what the league should do to address the referee problem. The Super Bowl, it seems, was still on the minds of many.

Still, most everybody dismissed the notion of a serious problem. They consider it be something of an anomaly, and don’t see anything drastic happening, though yes, we all saw what you saw. Jeff Fisher, however, sided with the officials completely, saying that the only call he saw as wrong was the low-block whistle on Matt Hasselbeck.

So much for controversy. Then again, Fisher is the head of the competition committee, so this isn’t ground-breaking.

Even when it was learned that Mike Holmgren had decided to leave the competition committee so he can concentrate on other things, the media and other coaches didn’t make much of a deal of it.

If you’re in Seattle, your suffering has likely led to … well, probably very little. Congrats.

But it’s almost Spring. Even in Seattle. And Spring means the draft. And after the draft, the sweet speculation involved in training camp, late free agent signings, and other things that have nothing to do with a final score.

Mmm. Football.

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