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NFL Combine Day 5: Florida’s McAllister turns heads; How good is Alabama’s Jarran Reed?

Tom Brew

By Tom Brew

Published:

Sunday was Day 5 at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis. It was a day for the defensive linemen and linebackers to hit the field for drills.

It’s no surprise, considering how everyone talked about all the great front sevens in the SEC were all year, that many of the league’s best athletes turned some heads.

RELATED: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4

Here are Sunday’s big winners:

40-yard dash

Deion Jones of LSU was the fourth-fastest outside linebacker in the 40-yard dash, clocking a swift 4.59. Georgia’s Leonard Floyd was fifth at 4.60 and Vanderbilt’s Stephen Weatherly tied for sixth at 4.61. They were the only three SEC performers in the top 15.

Alex McAllister of Florida was the fastest SEC defensive lineman, running in 4.80, good for a tie for eighth overall.  No other defensive lineman was in the top 15.

Bench press

Vanderbilt’s Weatherly was the top SEC performer, finishing tied for third among the linebackers with 23 reps at 225 pounds. (Clemson’s B.J. Goodson was first with 30). Auburn’s Casanova McKinzy tied for 10th with 21 and Missouri’s Kentrell Brothers tied for 13th with 19. Weatherly was the only SEC linebacker in the top of both the bench and 40-yard dash rankings.

Among the defensive lineman, Georgia’s Chris Mayes put on a show, doing 33 reps, the highest count of the day. Robert Nkemdiche of Ole Miss tied for 11th overall with 28.

Vertical leap

Georgia’s Floyd almost won this category, too. He hit 39.5 inches, good for the second-best leap among linebackers, losing out by a half-inch. Jordan Jenkins was fourth (36.5), and LSU’s Jones tied for 13th (33.0). Among the defensive linemen, Nkemdiche tied for fourth with a 35-inch leap. McAllister tied for ninth with 33.5.

Broad jump

Floyd was third in the broad jump (10-feet, 7 inches), Jenkins tied for sixth (10-1) and LSU’s Jones tied for ninth (10-0). Kentucky’s Josh Forrest and Vanderbilt Weatherly also made the top 15.

Florida DL Alex McAllister was tops among the linemen with a 10-8 jump. It’s worth a look.

3-cone drill

Missouri’s Kentrell Brothers crushed this drill, finishing third among the linebackers at 6.99 seconds. Beniquez Brown of Mississippi State tied for fifth at 7.07.

McAllister starred in this drill as well, finishing fourth overall among the defensive linemen at 7.01 seconds. His Gator teammate Jonathan Bullard made the top 15, but that was it for SEC performers.

20-yard shuttle

Brothers was sharp in this drill, finishing second at 4.11 seconds. Brown and Alabama’s Reggie Ragland tied for sixth at 4.28.

Florida’s McAllister finished first here as well, and by a wide margin (4.00 to 4.28) over Ohio State’s Joey Bosa.

Sunday notebook

Just how good is Jarren Reed?: An interesting story in the Washington Post had people talking on Sunday. The piece basically talked about the difficulties in evaluating Alabama players for the next level.

Some NFL scouts – and critics – think that Nick Saban works his kids so hard in practice all the time that they tend to flame out on the next level faster than others. They point to running back Trent Richardson (a lot) as a bust, and Eddie Lacy to a lesser degree. And for as good as Alabama’s defense has been, there haven’t been many all-pros lately.

Fast forward to this year. Alabama defensive tackles A’Shawn Robinson and Jarran Reed are projected first-round picks after having played on arguably the best defensive line in the country last year. But some aren’t sure whether Reed is worthy of such a high grade, given his two career sacks in two seasons. He ran a slow 5.21 in the 40 at the combine on Sunday.

“I think everybody looks at success and they draft success,” former Dallas Cowboys vice president of player personnel and current NFL.com analyst Gil Brandt told the Washington Post.

“I think everybody looks better at Alabama because they’re playing on a good team and they’re playing with good guys next to him. People will draft somebody like Reed, who I think made one sack this year, and people are talking about him as a first-round pick. It doesn’t equate out, really. The fact that you’re looking for defensive linemen, they’re hard to find, and people will overdraft a guy.

“Is that Alabama’s fault? I don’t think so.”

He did at least come up with a good line in his press conference Saturday.

A little reminder on how athletic Clowney is: Everybody was making a big deal out of Joey Bosa’s 40-yard dash on Sunday. The Ohio State star is a potential No. 1 overall pick.

He was fast until the NFL Network overlaid his run against J.J. Watt and South Carolina’s Jadeveon Clowney. It was a rout.

The workouts end Monday with the defensive backs.

Tom Brew

Tom Brew is an award-winning journalist and author who is covering SEC football for Saturday Down South.

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