Top 5 NFL Scouting Combine Moments of All Time!
INDIANAPOLIS -- The 2017 NFL Combine continued Friday in Indianapolis with more player media availability, including quarterbacks.
With the Browns owning 11 draft picks, and eight Ohio State players invited to the combine, cleveland.com dispatched six reporters to Indianapolis to cover the event.
This blog kept readers up to date with what"s going on. Check out the developments below. We"ll have more coverage throughout the combine on cleveland.com/browns and cleveland.com/osu.
5:55 p.m.
While the combine blog is done, the coverage of the combine and Ohio State"s draft hopefuls never ends. Keep an eye on the Browns and Buckeyes blogs throughout the weekend for the latest.
5:52 p.m.
With the stadium clearing out, let"s finish today"s blog with an update on Ohio State"s talented Curtis Samuel, who"s facing a familiar problem with pro teams.
Where exactly will he play? Bill Landis got some thoughts on that topic from Samuel.
"Ohio State had another kind of positionless player here last year when Braxton Miller got invited as a receiver. He was a quarterback, obviously, then an H-back without much experience at either receiver or running back.
"Miller has elite-level athleticism, but had to answer questions about his ability to settle into one position in the NFL. He did, and ended up being a third-round draft pick at receiver by the Houston Texans. Samuel isn"t quite as raw postionally as Miller was, but he admitted to seeing some similarities.
""I spoke to Braxton about the process," Samuel said. "He was a little bit like me. We both went to a position that we both didn"t know too much about, so it was different for both of us. He"s doing a great job with the Texans, and I"m hoping I can have impact such as he did or even more.""
5:23 p.m.
Beware of fast-moving objects in the elevator lobby...
5:04 p.m.
The Mysterious Case of Noah Brown is a tale of surprise: The four-touchdown game vs. Oklahoma (the only scores he had this season), the Buckeyes" inconsistent passing attack and the certainty that if he returned for 2017, he would be the team"s No. 1 target.
Yet he filed for the draft. Friday, he explained why.
"Brown is aware that a lot of people were confused by his decision, that most thought he"d be best-served coming back to be Ohio State"s top receiver in 2017. That stuff didn"t matter to him.
"Because unlike most players who come and go on Ohio State"s football roster, Brown is familiar with what it"s like to suffer a major injury [a broken leg in 2015], to have to consider that there"s a chance that his football career is over.
""That was one of the biggest parts of my decision," Brown said of his leg injury. "When I was hurt, I realized how quickly football can be taken away. This is the dream of my childhood, so I decided (to go for it). With everything I did last year and being injured the year before that, this is the best opportunity right now.""
4:46 p.m.
Repeat after me: "Nothing is hyped at the combine, everything is true..."
How does he compare to ... oh, say Clark Kent?
4:26 p.m.
Oh, the fickle winds of rumor season...
On Thursday there was buzz that Hue Jackson and the Browns front office might be coming together over Mitch Trubisky. By Friday morning, our Doug Lesmerises suggested that Jackson and Sashi Brown might have found a common target who might be worth the first pick in the draft.
But nationally, most writers aren"t buying it. Consider this take from The Ringer"s Danny Kelly.
"Of course, it could all be a smokescreen, but between his official press conference at the podium in Indy and his informal huddle-up right after, Jackson repeated the same thought three times: He"s a big believer in assembling a strong support system (which the Browns do not have) before throwing a young quarterback into the fray."
Remember ... throw enough opinions into the ether, and you"re going to be right sometime!
4:16 p.m.
The criticism of Mitch Trubisky for not playing more than one season as a North Carolina starting QB has always had a flaw -- some college coaches are extremely partial to upperclassmen, especially for someone in charge of a program that isn"t a national power. If you"re going to pin your professional future on a bunch of young men, you may well default to the most experienced players if you have the opportunity.
But the topic has followed Trubisky since the end of his season at the Sun Bowl -- and Doug Lesmerises was interested in the answer.
"Trubisky didn"t bite on questions about becoming the next quarterback of the Browns, the team he grew up rooting for. He"s been coached away from that question. His message is to prove he"s ready for any team, though he"s seen less action than quarterbacks like Deshaun Watson and DeShone Kizer.
""I"m a student of the game," Trubisky said. "I"ve seen a lot of defenses. I think that"s going to help me. I feel like I"m in a really good spot to take my game to the next level. I feel really confident."
"He said waiting his turn with the Tar Heels even helped him prepare for this.
""Not everything is going to go your way," Trubisky said. "Being on the bench taught me to be a better teammate. I found other ways to get better, I found other ways to push my teammates and be a leader even though you"re not in that starting position.""
3:58 p.m.
Still determined to be angry by Deshaun Watson"s comments about wanting to be a Cowboy? Turns out that it was an inside joke between Watson and Dallas coach Jason Garrett during the first of two Davey O"Brien QB awards won by the Clemson star.
Dan Labbe got the explanation Friday during Watson"s press interview.
"When he won the [O"Brien] award the year prior, he promised [Jason] Garrett that he would come back and win it again and they would have to draft him. This was, of course, before the Cowboys had uncovered Dak Prescott.
""We laughed, had a good time, so what the Davey O"Brien people wanted me to do was bring that back up and say, hey, I kept my promise and now you"ve got to keep yours and draft me," Watson said."
"So, what if the Browns did end up drafting him?
""I"d really be excited to go up there and play for those guys and Hue Jackson," Watson said."
3:43 p.m.
I really think Texas A&M coach Kliff Kingsbury was trying to compliment Cal (and former Aggie) QB Davis Webb on 92.3 The Fan this afternoon. I"m just not sure he thought it out all that well.
Ouch.
3:37 p.m.
OK, so you"re excited by the results of 40-yard dashes by football players not worrying about tacklers or wearing pads. So this probably makes your day.
OK, so debate who"s the better choice. Go.
3:29 p.m.
From the "Kinda Important (but really not) File...
Feast your eyes on the fastest running back at the combine.
Context: A four-year player at North Carolina, Logan averaged 5.4 yards a carry -- but never ran for more than 650 yards in a season. He had 29 receptions as a senior, totaling 244 yards with seven touchdowns.
Chris Johnson, this isn"t. Right?
3:01 p.m.
Interesting note about how the NFL is looking at this year"s Swiss Army Knife player ...
2:40 p.m.
Picture"s worth a thousands words. My photographic look at the throng of reporters listening to Deshaun Watson during his podium session:
2:37 p.m.
Clemson"s Deshaun Watson provided a reason for why he skipped the Senior Bowl, where he would have been able to work with Browns coach Hue Jackson and his staff for a whole week.
2:35 p.m.
Mitch Trubisky isn"t the only quarterback who says he"d be fine with playing for the Browns:
2 p.m.
North Carolina quarterback and Mentor native Mitch Trubisky has met with the media. We"ll have more from him shortly, but by way of a quick summary:
- He says he"s confident he can be a franchise quarterback in the NFL.
- He says his mobility is underrated.
- He says he believes he can start right away but knows it"s not his decision.
1:49 p.m.
Here are NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock"s top running backs in this year"s draft.
1:37 p.m.
No doubt, a question is nagging at you: How fast did running backs weighing 240 pounds-plus run at the combine through the years? Look no further:
1:34 p.m.
LSU running back Leonard Fournette surprised many by showing up at the Combine weighing 240 pounds, and then claiming that the extra 5-8 pounds was "water weight." Today he went out and did this:
12:55 p.m.
The Eagles got the 14th pick in the draft Friday by winning a coin toss over the Colts. But the toss wasn"t the real story. The real story was the journey to get there.
12:24 p.m.
The Eagles and Colts will have a coin flip today to determine draft order. The 14th pick never meant so much, apparently.
12:07 p.m.
When you"re almost flattened by LeBron James while sitting courtside, you realize that nothing should be taken for granted. Not even lunch.
12 p.m.
A big headline on Thursday was news that the Patriots don"t want to trade Jimmy Garoppolo. But Mary Kay Cabot did a little digging and found that the door probably isn"t closed. Everybody has a price.
From Mary Kay"s story:
But the source insists coach Bill Belichick will part with Garoppolo if the compensation is right. One preliminary "offer" has already been floated and another is expected to come soon from a second team.
11:56 a.m.
Marvin Lewis was almost certainly happy about that. Why else would you be the only coach/GM talking on Friday morning, before most media arrives for afternoon player interviews?
11:46 a.m.
Zach Berman of Philly.com wrote today about the Vikings, Browns and Eagles figure they all came out winners on their 2016 trades. Or, at least they can all still potentially be winners, as Sashi Brown pointed out on Wednesday.
"We do like the trade," Browns general manager Sashi Brown said. "It positioned us, understanding where we were as a roster, understanding that we were passing on the opportunity to take a player, whether it"s [Joey] Bosa or Wentz, and you tip your hat to Carson. I think he came in and played well for Philadelphia and seems to be a quarterback with a high upside.
"I think this is a trade when you probably look back at it that will work out for both teams. It allowed us to be in the position today where we have two firsts, two seconds, and had two thirds as well. So we do like the trade for our side, and I think time will tell how all these guys that came out of that trade will develop."
11:43 a.m.
You can play along at home.
11:31 a.m.
Joe Thomas ran a 4.92 in 2007.
11:13 a.m.
If you want to get caught up with where the Browns stand on their QB search (or just be somewhat confused), here are two stories you should check out.
1. Mary Kay Cabot wrote about Hue Jackson"s role in the team"s QB search.
2. Doug Lesmerises wrote about how Mitch Trubisky could be a uniting force.
3. Finally, there"s the video below (which goes with another Doug story).
11:05 a.m.
Before the flood of QB news takes over this blog, here"s a look at how the Browns are approaching player interviews, via Bill Landis" story on Indiana offensive lineman Dan Feeney.
It includes this quote:
"You expect to go in there and talk about your offense, or learn their offense, and here"s a guy with a deck of cards and you"re like, "Hey man are we playing blackjack or something?" It"s definitely something different," Feeney said Thursday.
11 a.m.
We"re underway on Day 3 in Indy. Running backs and offensive linemen have on-field workouts today, and quarterbacks, wide receivers, tight ends and specialists will talk to the media from 2-5 p.m.
That means Mitch Trubisky, Deshaun Watson, DeShone Kizer and Patrick Mahomes will likely drive the news of the day.
Source: http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2017/03/nfl_combine_2017_live_updates_2.html
