Highlights of Men in Shorts?(Combine)

[Kazkal]

I've been in the Hospital since Thursday so I haven't been able keep up with how things have been going...Any notable thoughts on the Combine?

[ArmyBengal]

I'm currently training at Fort Riley, KS and haven't been able to watch any of it, but I hope you are feeling better and that it was nothing serious.

[DC_Bengals_Fan]

I've been in the Hospital since Thursday so I haven't been able keep up with how things have been going...Any notable thoughts on the Combine?

Sorry man, hope you get out soon. I spent four days in the hospital in Dec, not much fun.

I haven't been watching the combine, but I haven't heard much of interest. PFT's got the usual "this guy did terrible in the interviews" and "that guy ran a 8.4 forty", etc.

Get well and stuff.

[wpeldios]

I've been in the Hospital since Thursday so I haven't been able keep up with how things have been going...Any notable thoughts on the Combine?

I've been able to catch alot of it so far and here are some things that have stood out. Everyone is in love with Golden Tate's work out, though personally I still don't think he is a viable first round option he really helped his case. The biggest issue for me is the amazing number of good looking big RBs.

Anthony Dixon 6'1 233, Jonathon Dwyer 5'11 229, Toby Gerhart 6'0 231, Montario Hardesty 6'0 225, Ryan Mathews 6'0 218, James Stark, 6'2 218 all had good to great workouts. Gerhart particularly impressed. This is great for the bengals because some of these guys will be there in the 4th roundish as a potential long term replacement for Benson to pair with Scott. I wouldn't be surprised to see one of these guys in orange and black next year. On a similar topic, Blount out of Oregon had a really rough workout. He is going to drop. And Jon Conner the FB out of Kentucky performed well which kind of upset me cause I wanted him to fall to us a little later. Been watching him for years and he is one of the best blocking fbs to come out in a while.

[cincyhokie]

I've been in the Hospital since Thursday so I haven't been able keep up with how things have been going...Any notable thoughts on the Combine?

Sorry man, hope you get out soon. I spent four days in the hospital in Dec, not much fun.

I haven't been watching the combine, but I haven't heard much of interest. PFT's got the usual "this guy did terrible in the interviews" and "that guy ran a 8.4 forty", etc.

Get well and stuff.

I've noticed that too about PFT. It's consistently slanted negatively and sarcastically. Pretty annoying.

[DC_Bengals_Fan]

I've noticed that too about PFT. It's consistently slanted negatively and sarcastically. Pretty annoying.

Florio's anti-combine (derisively calls it the Underwear Olympics). His point is that you get some combine superheroes who climb the chart based on workouts despite being mediocre at actual football. I think there's some legitimacy to that, seems like there's a Vernon Gholston every year.

To an extent, you could make a case that years of college football tells you why you *should* take a kid. The combine exists to tell you why you *shouldn't*. If I'm a scout, I want to see whether a guy has the physical skills to make the transition, whether he's coachable, and how he acts when he doesn't have his coaching staff around. Seems like a lot of the guys who really bombed the interviews tend to end up as head cases in the NFL too.

[HAPPYJAQ]

I've noticed that too about PFT. It's consistently slanted negatively and sarcastically. Pretty annoying.

Florio's anti-combine (derisively calls it the Underwear Olympics). His point is that you get some combine superheroes who climb the chart based on workouts despite being mediocre at actual football. I think there's some legitimacy to that, seems like there's a Vernon Gholston every year.

To an extent, you could make a case that years of college football tells you why you *should* take a kid. The combine exists to tell you why you *shouldn't*. If I'm a scout, I want to see whether a guy has the physical skills to make the transition, whether he's coachable, and how he acts when he doesn't have his coaching staff around. Seems like a lot of the guys who really bombed the interviews tend to end up as head cases in the NFL too.

I agree on Florio, but that's his gimmick.

I also agree on what was posted about what the Combine should be used for. I think Tom Dimitroff made a good point yesterday during the coverage that his staff uses the Combine performance to help compare similar prospects of the same position, and not to gauge their overall potential as NFL players. He says a fourth-round graded prospect could never leap into first-round consideration based on his performance at the Combine, based on how they evaluate players. I think that's precisely the reason the Bengals sometimes overdraft, and it's because of measureables. Kenny Irons, Jerome Simpson and the entire '04 draft immediately come to mind with that.

It's interesting to note that the Bengals coaches always talk about how fast a guy is, how he performed within his group at the Combine or specific physical traits ("large hands", "long arms", etc.), at the post-round press conferences on draft day.

I guess the Bengals would rather attempt to coach up a guy with superstar potential, than settle for a ready-to-play prospect with marginal potential.

In saying all of that, I think one WR that the Bengals will look hard at for sure is U of L WR Scott Long. He had a decent, but not great season for the Cards and has good size. He's a long-strider at 6'2'' and about 215, but I know he ran low 4.3s in the Spring and a solid 4.46 on what seems to be a slow track in Indy. He also registered the best vertical (41.5 inches) and 3-cone drill, placed #4 amongst WRs in the broad jump and added 20 reps in the bench. He might be an interesting 5th round pick.

Here's a good look at the results from yesterday from Scout.com:

/>http://profootball.scout.com/2/950015.html