Ad Disclosure
The NFL Combine is a terrific viewing opportunity for football fans, helping to bridge the gap between the College Football Playoff/Super Bowl and spring practice/the NFL draft.
All of the best draft-eligible players, including more than six dozen from the SEC, convene in Indianapolis to perform in front of NFL scouts and general managers. It’s a big part of the months-long job interview process leading up to this year’s draft (April 28-30).
Some fans and even media members get carried away. The phrase that guy just made himself a lot of money is overused and rarely true at the Combine.
Mostly, a strong or unexpected performance only will force scouts to re-watch game video of that player, essentially with a new filter. Perhaps there’s something they missed. Is that type of athleticism evident when the player gets on a field in pads in a live situation?
There are specific questions about specific players that help in the evaluation. But nothing can supersede how the player performed in college football games, which is a much, much more important piece of the overall evaluation.
Much of what happens in Indianapolis later this week that’s actually significant won’t be a 40-yard dash or a bench press. It’ll be a barrage of medical tests behind closed doors. Or private interviews with NFL teams who have dug into their personal lives and ask probing questions.
The evaluation of these players, especially the seniors, is close to complete. But there’s still room for some movement with a few of these guys.
Here are the five most important SEC-related questions that NFL scouts want to answer at the Combine.
1. Can Laquon Treadwell run a respectable time in the 40-yard dash?
1. Will avoiding the 40-yard dash until his pro day discourage teams from taking Laquon Treadwell in the top 10?
He’s the clear No. 1 receiver prospect in this NFL draft.
Treadwell attacks the ball in the air. He’s got a huge catch radius and at 6-foot-2 and 210 pounds, he was one of the most physical SEC receivers the last few years. He managed 1,153 yards last year coming off a gruesome leg injury, so the production is there.
When Treadwell was a five-star prep recruit, several recruiting services reported that he ran a 4.4-second 40-yard dash. But that could be a hand-timed 4.49, which could easily be in the 4.6-second range when electronically timed.
If he can run close to a 4.5, it could solidify him as a top 10 pick in the draft. Run 4.6 or worse and he could slip to later in the first round.
A curveball came Monday, though: Treadwell won’t run at all. Not in Indianapolis, anyway. And with that, the thing most NFL draft analysts looked forward to the most from SEC prospects at the Combine went out the window. We’ll see if it affects his draft stock.
Also, confirmed to me this morning by a source that Ole Miss WR Laquon Treadwell will not run at the Combine.
— Scott Bischoff (@Bischoff_Scott) February 22, 2016
2. Can Derrick Henry impress enough to become the third Nick Saban/Alabama RB taken in the second round?
You’ve probably seen video of Henry flipping tires or towing a truck. He’s the size of an NFL linebacker, yet he won the Heisman Trophy as a running back.
Still, even otherworldly talents are not guaranteed first-round status at running back any more. And there are some questions about Henry. Can he become a factor in the passing game, both as a receiver and a blocker? Is his vision good enough to avoid negative plays? What happens in the NFL if he doesn’t get as much of a runway to reach top speed?
With a great Combine — including testing and his on-field workout — Henry can impress enough NFL personnel folks to ensure himself a second-round selection.
3. What will the doctors say about the knees of Florida linebacker Antonio Morrison?
When healthy, Morrison was an All-SEC linebacker for the Gators. That usually translates well at the NFL level.
But Morrison shredded his knee against East Carolina in the Birmingham Bowl in January 2015, letting out an unforgettable scream on the Legion Field grass after tearing multiple ligaments, including his ACL. The injury eventually required two surgeries.
“In all the years that I’ve done this, I’ve never quite encountered anything like this or someone like him,” Florida’s director of rehabilitation Marty Huegel told ESPN.com. “For lack of a better term, it’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.”
We’ll see if doctors are amazed as well, or if they deem him an injury risk. We probably won’t know the results of those evaluations. Morrison or his agent probably will tell the media that everything went great and that the doctors all said good things. But the results could determine where Morrison gets drafted.
A good result and he may be a third-round pick.
4. Can Reggie Ragland convince teams that he’s capable of being something other than a liability in coverage?
Most consider the versatile linebacker to be a sure-thing first-round pick. He returned to Alabama for his senior year and became perhaps the biggest leader on a unit that boosted the team to a national championship.
He’s terrific against the run and also showed versatility as a pass-rusher. But he weighed 259 pounds at the Senior Bowl. Everyone knows he can play moving forward. But in today’s NFL, every linebacker must also play moving backward — in pass coverage.
On a conference call Monday, ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. said that Alabama linebacker Reuben Foster is faster from Point A to Point B. Ragland probably needs to shed some weight by the time he gets measured in Indianapolis. A good 40-yard dash time and impressive mobility in workouts could help as well.
5. Will LSU’s Deion Jones continue his meteoric rise up the draft board?
The linebacker entered the 2015 season as a fringe prospect to even get drafted at all. That name recognition may have cost him, as he didn’t make the Associated Press or Coaches All-SEC teams, first or second.
Some in the analytics crowd have made arguments that Jones was one of the best two or three linebackers in the entire conference in 2015, which he finished with 100 tackles, 5 sacks, 2 interceptions and 3 pass breakups.
A total of 219 pounds at last check, Jones is undersized even in today’s NFL. But bulk up to, say, 225 pounds in time for the NFL Combine and he probably solidifies himself as a second-round pick. ESPN’s Kiper Jr. even said that Jones could become a long-shot first-round selection.
An itinerant journalist, Christopher has moved between states 11 times in seven years. Formally an injury-prone Division I 800-meter specialist, he now wanders the Rockies in search of high peaks.
