NFL Combine 2012: Looking at Areas Where Top First-Round Prospects Must Improve

At the 2012 NFL Scouting Combine it's a great learning experience for all the college players looking to become pro athletes. Their strengths and weaknesses will be exposed, which provides us to analyze even more where they need to improve.

That being said, here are three potential first-round picks to watch for and the areas where they need to improve.

Quinton Coples: DE, North Carolina

Arguably the most complete defensive lineman in the draft, Quinton Coples is a menacing force off the edge and has excellent straight to compensate for less lateral agility (although that's still impressive as well).

The key for Coples to get his game on the next level is to expand his repertoire. Because of his size and strength, Coples mainly uses brute power to get off blocks, get immediate separation and make plays.

In the NFL, however, he'll need to utilize a swim over the top, whip (quick hand movement inside) and/or rip underneath to get past the blind side left tackles. If he continues to simply try and overpower everyone, there's no element of surprise when it comes to how Coples will attack.

Therefore, that makes it easier to gameplan and scheme for isolating him. However, provided that Coples can display versatility in his pass rush at the combine, he'll be an easy top 10 pick and potential All-Pro in 2012. 

Michael Brockers: DT, LSU

A bit of a late bloomer so to speak during the course of the 2011 college football season, Michael Brockers is only a red-shirt sophomore so having played just two seasons will be concerning. As for his game though, Brockers was legitimately sound in the trenches.

Although he only recorded two sacks, Brockers made 54 tackles, 10 for loss and made four QB hurries. An immovable force along the defensive line, Brockers has great potential as a 4-3 defensive tackle.

He does however, need to control gaps better when double-teamed and improve in ball awareness. Brockers' all-out effort more than makes up for getting himself out of position at times, but he will only see limited playing time unless he learns to read and react quicker.

Michael Floyd: WR, Notre Dame

One major area favoring Michael Floyd is that he never had a standout quarterback tossing him the rock at Notre Dame. And still, he managed to break all kinds of records and be a definite first-round selection.

To that end, though, Floyd does need to get quicker and increase his top speed. His route running is rather fluid as his solid reliability over the middle. Not to mention Floyd has great size and strength to be a legit No. 1 receiver.

The biggest tangible concern is field awareness. Whether the play isn't designed toward him or his role on a specific play is to be a decoy, Floyd can sometimes get out of position and be unreliable on a broken play.

And those are arguably the plays that can change the complexion of a game, especially on third downs when a defense's coverage tightens up and pass-rushers bring a little more to apply QB pressure.

John Rozum on Twitter.