2012 NFL Combine, Day 1 (OL/TE)

Day 1 of the 2012 NFL Combine was newsworthy mostly for its lack of news. Let's see if we can manufacture some, then:

Offensive line

* The Rams have a very viable alternative to taking Justin Blackmon at the top of the draft if they want one. Matt Kalil cemented his status as top offensive lineman in the draft with good performances in just about everything. He had the 2nd-fastest 40 at the position at 4.99 and the 2nd-fastest 10-yard split at 1.70. He also did a very respectable 30 bench presses. He's the right size, he's got his weight over 300 – he's this year's elite offensive lineman. And it's not like the Rams don't need one. Or two. RamView's first preference for the Rams' first-round pick has been, and still is, Matt Kalil.

* The player who made the biggest leap today, at least in my estimation, was Georgia's Cordy Glenn. He built on a strong Senior Bowl showing with a 5.15 40, 1.76 10-yard split and 31 bench press reps. But he didn't just shine at the “Pajama Olympic” stuff. Glenn moved extremely well for his 345-pound size in all of the drills. His lateral movement was terrific; he was one of the few who maintained solid straight lines, again, despite his size. He was quick out of his stance in the kick-slide drill and showed a good sense for a cutoff angle. (Has to be careful with that, though, or veterans will inside-out him silly.) He was also close to flawless in the mirror drill. I'm convinced Cordy Glenn ranks as a top-15 pick in the draft.

* Huh, I just opened up my football dictionary to “guard”, and whose picture was there? David DeCastro. DeCastro is the best guard prospect we've seen in many years. He moves well, covers ground well, does everything so textbook he was the guy the coaches kept using to show everyone else how to do the drill. He showed excellent recovery speed the rare moments he got successfully faked during the mirror drill. One of the best bench pressers there, too (34). He should be picked higher than the 17 Mike Iupati went a couple of years ago. DeCastro is arguably a top-ten prospect.

* Donald Stephenson (Oklahoma) won the Pajama Olympic medal with the fastest 40 (4.94), best broad jump (9'6”) and a ridiculous best vertical jump (35.5). We didn't really get to see him in drills, though that explosiveness showed in how well he covered ground in kick-slide. Silver medal goes to Adam Gettis (Iowa, 5.00, 9'4”, 31.5). Gettis did well in the mirror drill but opened himself up so much in the pull-block drill I'm certain a defender would have put him on the ground.

* Mike Adams (Ohio State), who's considered a late first-rounder, is going to test a lot of front offices. He's had injury issues, he was suspended a couple of times in school, and his weak 19 bench presses didn't speak well to his upper body strength. It'll be important for him to move well, and he did, covering a lot of ground in kick-slide and moving very well laterally in the mirror drill. I fell pretty sure Adams would not be on Steve Spagnuolo's big board; what about Jeff Fisher's?

* Rishaw Johnson (Cal, Pa.) had a very good and a very bad day. He ranks near the top on just about all the non-positional drills. But his lateral movement was horrible; he hopped back and forth instead of sliding. He also showed a disturbing amount of trouble following coaches' directions, which included a hilarious moment where he ran the wrong way as the “rabbit” on the kick-slide drill. His line coach could have a very exasperating training camp if he can't catch on to things quicker.

* Some underrated prospects:

* Ben Jones, Georgia: didn't show elite change-of-direction, but looked surprisingly nimble in kick-slide, and finished near the top in a lot of the non-positional drills.

* Lamar Holmes, Southern Miss: seemed like one of the top linemen athletically and looked good in a lot of the drills. Looked a little slow in his first kick-slide rep but improved on it measurably the second time. Moved very smoothly.

* Philip Blake, Baylor: showed well athletically, looked good in kick-slide and won NFL Network's “Value Player” award.

* Desmond Wynn, Rutgers: very solid athlete who caught my eye a lot. Moved very smoothly. Good lateral agility. May be a little slow getting his feet right when he comes out of his stance.

* Kevin Zeitler, Wisconsin: guards don't usually look as good as he did in the kick-slide drill. He even looked better than DeCastro, which is saying something.

* Nate Miller, Colorado: excellent in Shrine Game, covered ground well in kick-slide drill. Not sure about the angles he took in the pull-block drill, though.

Also: Kelechi Osemele, Iowa State; Mitchell Schwartz, Cal; Amini Silatolu, Midwestern State. If you knew that's in Wichita Falls, Texas, you get the star. I was guessing Oklahoma.

* Some (possibly) overrated prospects:

* Going out on a limb, Riley Reiff. Can't say I really get it with him just yet. I don't see a top-10 or top-5 prospect there. (Actually, I see Fred Flintstone.) Didn't think his change-of-direction was very good, and he took poor angles in the pull-block drill. Where he looked best was kick-slide, so I imagine there's a lot of enthusiasm for him as a pass protector.

* Mike Brewster (Ohio State) played with much poorer balance than I'd expect from a well-regarded center. Agility of any kind is a weakness for him. Gets his head out too far on blocks, plays too out-of-control. Looked clumsy in kick-slide, though that's not unexpected for interior linemen. Did look good in the mirror drill.

* Jonathan Martin (Stanford) – honestly, didn't get to see a lot of him. Took a bad angle in the pull-block drill. I really expected that drill to be run a whole lot more cleanly than it was.

* Prospects who were just bad:

* Justin Anderson (Georgia) spent about half the Combine on the ground. Plays with really poor balance.

* Brandon Washington (The U) should have stayed in school. He needs a lot more coaching. His kick-slide footwork was atrocious, like he was trying to skip backwards. And talk about playing out of control - he nearly veered off the course running the 40. And he looked like a horror show when he was on course, like a very large Pekingese.

* Zebrie Sanders (Florida State) looked something like Jabba the Hutt when he ran, and the Combine is unfortunately serving as confirmation of his Senior Bowl week, which didn't go well.

Tight end

Any tight end acquisition the Rams do is going to have to be in free agency. This year's class of tight ends is very small and very bad. None of which bodes well for the Rams, whose new head coach and offensive coordinator have histories of loving to throw to the TE, and have nothing at the position with their new team besides hands-of-stone Lance Kendricks. Wasn't Frank Wycheck the primary receiver on the final play of Super Bowl XXXIV? Hard to believe there's even any Wychecks in this class:

* Orson Charles (Georgia) is supposed to be the #1 prospect, and after killing everyone in the weight room with 35 benches, appeared poised to dominate the Combine at the position, but instead, CHOSE not to run any of the other non-positional drills. The hell? He did run position drills, with mixed results. He looked good on the comeback route and had a perfect second gauntlet. He also dropped one deep ball that was right in his hands, adjusted poorly to balls in the air and botched his first gauntlet by RUNNING THE WRONG WAY before the last throw. Hey, the end zone's THAT WAY! Also let the ball into his body just a little when making catches.

* James Hanna (Oklahoma) impressed with a 4.49, then un-impressed with hands of stone on a couple of pass-route drills. He did run a perfect gauntlet drill, though. Also didn't adjust well to the ball in the air.

* Cory Harkey (UCLA) was one of my favorite players for his blocking at the Shrine Game. At the Combine, though, ugh. How can the best blocking TE in the country only do 13 bench press reps? We also found out he had exactly one catch last season. It showed in his route running. He turned way too soon on timing routes and simply didn't have the speed to run the corner route, finishing well short of a (rare) perfectly-thrown pass. He at least ran the gauntlet well.

* Mike Egnew (Missouri) looked tall. As a converted basketball player, he excelled as expected at the jumping events. That's about it. He looked like an amazingly uninstinctive player. The ball catches him, not vice versa. He had a drop in the gauntlet and in the comeback drill. Lets the ball into his body too much. In the first drill, where they're supposed to run a three-yard out, he ran a one-yard out.

* Ladarius Green (La-Lafayette) ran a 4.53, but didn't shine here like he did Senior Bowl week. He also cut his short out routes too short. He did have a flawless gauntlet route, and looked fine on the comeback route. Not certain if he skipped lifting or did too poorly to make the top 10. Neither is encouraging.

* DeAngelo Peterson (LSU) had the worst gauntlet drill of the day, with two drops. He also nearly botched an underthrown ball on a deep corner route.

Not every tight end was disappointing, though I'm still not sure what they'll amount to:

* I say Evan Rodriguez (Temple) had the best Combine at the position. Even with a drop in the gauntlet, he was the best route-runner there, and didn't mess up at anything else. Smooth, good hands, always playing under control. He's a H-back, though, I think about 6'1”. Not going to be a feature tight end in the traditional mode.

* Dwayne Allen's (Clemson) 40 time was a very disappointing 4.89, and he had a drop during gauntlet, but he still played very in-control, and had the best catch of the day on the sideline to kick off the corner route drill.

* Drake Dunsmore (Northwestern) caught everything and looked good on the comeback route and the deep corner. He did weave a lot in his first gauntlet run but had a perfect second run.

* Emil Igwenagu (UMass) showed off good hands early, but poor throws during the gauntlet drill got him out of sync, and he later dropped a deep pass. He's also considered an H-back type.

* David Paulson (Oregon) was good in the gauntlet and in the corner route drill but is well behind the rest of the TE pack athletically.

NFL Network: I like the improved graphics this year, but there are still a lot of the usual problems in NFL Network's Combine coverage. After drooling about it for an hour, they turned out to be off a full tenth of a second on Gettis' 40 time. At least we know at home by now not to trust any unofficial time, right? They annoyingly continue so far to not list every player's bench results. In fact, the bottom crawl only ever showed the top ten performers at the non-positional drills – that had better expand through the course of the weekend. I demand everybody. They pissed away most of the o-line group 2 drills to interview Jerry Freaking Jones. At least interview the owner of a winning team, would ya? They took a commercial break right in the middle of the tight end gauntlet. You will be able to hear me howling for miles if (when) they do that during the wide receivers tomorrow.

The most annoying thing, though, was to have Jamie Dukes and Michael Irvin demonstrating what to expect from specific drills, while that drill was going on. You're supposed to show us that stuff BEFORE the drill starts!!

Also, how long before people start getting as annoyed with constant Peyton Manning hype as we did with Brett Favre? I'm getting there.

Tomorrow, the glamor positions: QB, RB, WR. Let's see how much ground the absent Justin Blackmon gives up to Michael Floyd, Kendall Wright or Alshon Jeffery.

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