FanHouse FanHouse At The Combine

Notes on a trip to the NFL Scouting Combine.

College football fans who enjoy a good trick play will remember this one, when Rutgers called a lateral to 300-pound offensive lineman Jeremy Zuttah. Zuttah rumbled 13 yards and even tried to hurdle a defender at the end:

After seeing that play, you won't be surprised to learn that Zuttah was the fastest offensive lineman and the only offensive lineman to break five seconds in the 40-yard dash today at the Indianapolis Scouting Combine. Zuttah barely broke five seconds -- 4.99, to be exact -- but it was still an impressive showing at the offensive lineman workouts for Zuttah, who improved his draft stock today.

Notes on a trip to the NFL Scouting Combine.

The 2008 NFL Scouting Combine is three days old, and although there are many 40s yet to be run and many Wonderlics yet to be taken, we've seen enough for an early look at the winners and losers:

Winner: Rashard Mendenhall. The Illinois running back considers himself the best back in the draft, and there are definitely NFL coaches who agree with that assessment.

Loser: Darren McFadden. After he weighed in at 211 pounds, a whole lot of people in Indianapolis were saying McFadden, the Arkansas running back, just doesn't have enough lower-body muscle to fight for tough yards in the NFL.

Notes on a trip to the NFL Scouting Combine.

Arizona Cardinals general manager Rod Graves made it as clear as he possibly could today that wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald isn't going anywhere, despite an enormous contract that will be a strain on the team's salary cap.

Speaking to the media at the Indianapolis Scouting Combine, Graves said he would like to renegotiate the contract that calls for Fitzgerald to earn a base salary of $16.5 million this year, but that if he can't, the team is prepared to carry Fitzgerald, even at that number. Graves referred to Fitgerald as a "core player" that the team wouldn't even think of releasing.

As for the decision to place the franchise tag on linebacker Karlos Dansby, Graves said that was mostly just a matter of giving both sides to work out a long-term deal.

"I still anticipate that we will get a long-term deal in place with Karlos. That's still our intention," Graves said. "The franchise tag is more or less a tool to allow you to negotiate over a longer period of time."

The Fitzgerald and Dansby contract situations could handcuff the Cardinals as they try to sign other free agents, but Graves pronounced the team in good shape heading into the free agency period.

Notes on a trip to the NFL Scouting Combine.

If LSU defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey's absence from the combine causes him to move down on draft boards, who will move up?

The answer may be North Carolina defensive tackle Kentwan Balmer, an engaging young man who says he's excited about the prospect of working out in front of all 32 NFL coaches.

"That's what we came here for, to work out, right?" Balmer said when asked if he'd go through every drill.

Balmer, a 6-foot-4, 300-pounder, takes his football seriously. He talked about the way he watches what he eats, always makes sure to get enough sleep, and studies lots of films. So detailed is his film study, Balmer says, that he's at times been able to know whether a run or pass is coming because he has learned that an opposing offensive lineman tips off whether he's run blocking or pass blocking based on whether he staggers his feet when he lines up.

Balmer's likely NFL position is as a three-technique defensive tackle, but he can play anywhere on the defensive line. Although everyone seems to think the top three defensive lineman in this year's draft are, in some order, Dorsey, Chris Long and Sedrick Ellis, don't be surprised if Balmer makes a move.

Notes on a trip to the NFL Scouting Combine.

This may come as a shock, but Matt Millen is not particularly well respected in NFL circles.

In Indianapolis for the Combine this week, I've heard a whole lot of people laughing at the expense of Millen, the Lions' president. I've heard a couple of reporters talking about how clueless Millen sounded when he talked to the media. I've heard an agent say the Lions need to be told how to orchestrate trades. I've heard a personnel guy make the requisite joke about how Millen is sure to take a first-round wide receiver. And so on.

It feels a little cruel to pick on Millen at this point, given that he's been picked on plenty while leading the Lions to a 31-81 record in seven years at the helm. Of course, it's nowhere near as cruel as what Millen as inflicted upon Lions fans.

Ultimately, however, Millen is getting the last laugh. Lions owner William Clay Ford has all but declared him president of the team for life, making him more secure in his job than any of the people joking about him are in theirs.

Notes on a trip to the NFL Scouting Combine.

New Atlanta Falcons head coach Mike Smith met with about 50 members of the NFL media today in Indianapolis, and although this was his first press conference before the national media, he looked like a seasoned pro at the art of saying something while not really saying anything.

The hot topic around Atlanta right now is Falcons cornerback DeAngelo Hall's insistence that he's done with the Falcons, but Smith wouldn't take the bait on that one.

"I'm sorry that DeAngelo feels that way," Smith said. "I think he's an outstanding football player. But it's really our policy not to comment on speculative roster moves."

As for the NFL draft, whenever he was asked what kind of player he would like to take with the third overall pick, Smith offered some variation of the same answer: "We're going to pursue all options."

Smith spoke highly of kicker Morten Andersen, suggesting that Andersen can play until he's 50. But for the most part, Smith effectively accomplished every coach's goal: Leaving a press conference without saying anything remarkable.

Notes on a trip to the NFL Scouting Combine.

Giants General Manager Jerry Reese said today in Indianapolis that he's long past celebrating the Giants' Super Bowl win and is now focused completely on the 2008 season.

"That season's over," Reese said. "It was a great run to the Super Bowl, but in personnel you've got to move on."

In fact, Reese even noted that there's a down side to getting to the Super Bowl -- the other 30 teams have had more time to evaluate their own players, potential free agent signings and the draft.

"We haven't quite caught up, but we're close to catching up," Reese said, not that he was complaining.

Reese said he thinks about the Super Bowl mostly when an NFL colleague congratulates him for it.

"You get a lot of 'atta-boys,'" Reese said. "Everybody's happy for us, and it's exciting to be on top right now, but you can't just pat yourself on the back. You have to move on to a new season."

And Reese said he understands that a new season means a new team, with some players who were in the Super Bowl not being around next year.

"We won with that team last year," Reese said. "This is a new team. Some players might not be on the team, some players might retire, there's a lot of movement in the off-season."

Notes on a trip to the NFL Scouting Combine.

* Update Appended

There's a sense here in Indianapolis that LSU defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey's absence is a problem for some NFL teams.

Dorsey, seen as a likely Top 5 pick, is missing the Combine because his grandmother died recently. And although this may sound callous, some NFL coaches don't think that's a good enough reason. After all, Adrian Peterson put on a show at last year's Combine just hours after learning that his brother had been shot and killed.

Dorsey will work out at the LSU pro day on March 26, and scouts have plenty of game tape of him to watch, so the Combine might not seem all that important for him. But Dorsey suffered through a knee injury for much of the 2007 season, and NFL teams want to get a look at that knee. And coaches -- some of whom won't make it to LSU's pro day -- want to meet Dorsey in person and ask him to tell a joke.

Will missing the Combine cause Dorsey's stock to fall? Probably not on most teams' boards. But if missing the Combine causes Dorsey to fall just a few spots, it will cost him millions of dollars.

Update: Dorsey had a change of heart and showed up Saturday afternoon.

Notes on a trip to the NFL Scouting Combine.

I've had two different men tell me this week that they admire Maurice Jones-Drew's butt.

Jones-Drew, the Jacksonville Jaguars running back, packs 208 pounds on his 5-foot-7 frame, and a whole lot of that weight is concentrated in his stocky thighs, and yes, his gluteus maximus. Jones-Drew's muscular lower body is the reason he's able to break through the tackles of much larger defenders.

And Jones-Drew's muscular lower body is now serving as the model for what NFL scouts look for when they gawk at running backs at the Indianapolis Combine. The two sources I talked to mentioned that when running backs parade in front of NFL coaches wearing nothing but skimpy shorts, the coaches are checking out their backsides and thinking, "Is this guy's butt as good as Maurice Jones-Drew's?"

Specifically, I've been told that there's a lot of concern that Arkansas running back Darren McFadden simply doesn't have enough bulk below the waist to be a tough inside runner at the next level. Illinois running back Rashard Mendenhall and Oregon running back Jonathan Stewart, on the other hand, do have the stocky frames NFL coaches crave.

Scoff if you will at the idea of NFL coaches scrutinizing the physiques of these prospects, and it's true, as Michael Silver wrote at Yahoo, that the Combine meat market can get a little disturbing at times. But NFL scouts really do care what kind of butt the players have, and no one has a nicer one than Maurice Jones-Drew.

Notes on a trip to the NFL Scouting Combine.

The one-on-one interviews between players and coaches at the NFL Scouting Combine are nothing at all like any job interview I've ever had. At the Combine, coaches seem to enjoy nothing more than making players feel uncomfortable and then sitting back and watching how they cope.

One player who has had some off-field problems had a coach read a list of allegations against him and then just say one word: "Explain." Another player said the first thing a coach said to him was, "Tell me a joke." (The player said he couldn't repeat the joke he told.) And then there's this from NFL.com:

One smart head coach turns the lights out the second the kid gets in the room and runs college game tape where the guy is playing poorly. The coach wants to hear what the player has to say about his performance, who is to blame for the problems, and what did he do to improve. Then the player is shown another tape from two weeks later and the coach points out that the player didn't improve at all.

The key for NFL coaches is to ask questions for which they think the player won't have a scripted simple answer. "What is your greatest strength?" might be the kind of question you hear at most job interviews, but there's nothing that easy at the Combine.