Ladies and Gentlemen, Please Feed the Bears
You may have noticed that the NFL combine began last week - and you may be asking yourself, how are our Bears looking? The answer? Hungry.
From Todd McShay:
Two thoughts: First, I feel fat at 190 pounds. Second, I don’t know about what kind of frames THA1 and Forsett have, but it seems to me like guys looking to be professional football players can probably pack on a few more pounds. Maybe Tedford needs to look into hiring a different nutrionist for the team.• It is no secret that California WR DeSean Jackson is undersized, but few expected him to weigh in as low as 169 pounds. The lack of weight raises concerns about Jackson’s ability to take the pounding NFL receivers absorb over the course of a 16-game season. He had problems staying healthy in college, remember, and his lack of bulk also raises questions about how well he’ll be able to handle press coverage on the outside.
• Jackson’s measurements certainly weren’t the only disappointing ones of the day. In fact, eight of the 33 running backs here weigh less than 200 pounds. They are: Rutgers’ Ray Rice (5-foot-8, 199 pounds); Houston’s Anthony Alridge (5-9, 170); Cal’s Justin Forsett (5-8, 194); East Carolina’sChris Johnson (5-11, 197); Kentucky’s Rafael Little (5-8¾, 194) Oklahoma’s Allen Patrick (6-0¾, 198); Oklahoma State’s Dantrell Savage (5-8¼, 187); and West Virginia’s Steve Slaton (5-9⅛, 197).
More McShay:
While the 40-yard dash is among the most effective measuring sticks, the 20-yard split on the 40 tells scouts how quickly a prospect can get to full speed, which is critical to gaining separation from defensive backs off the line of scrimmage. Marques Colston ran a pedestrian 4.55 in the 40 at last year’s combine at nearly 6-foot-5 and 224 pounds, but his 20-yard split time (2.62 seconds) was among the best of the five receivers who ran. Considering his success as an NFL rookie maybe more stock should have been placed in his initial burst rather than his top-end speed.
Should test best: Mario Manningham (Michigan), DeSean Jackson (Cal) and Lavelle Hawkins (California)
If only the Bears had a quarterback last year that who could get off passes as quickly as our receivers got to top speed.
Craig Stevens!Their workouts may have been overlooked because of Keller’s dominance, but Kentucky’s Jacob Tamme and Cal’s Craig Stevens represented themselves well. Tamme showed he can stretch the field by running the 40 in 4.57, while Stevens ran better than expected at 4.62. Though Tamme dropped a pass he should have caught early in the receiving drills he showed excellent body control and made a nice adjustment on a seam route on his very next chance.
He may as well have substituted "Tamme" for "Stevens" in that last sentence there.
And finally, Stevens and Mike Gibson did pretty well in all of the other physical drills as well.
