Can Vontaze Burfict Recover from Poor 2012 NFL Combine?

Each year at the scouting combine there's one player that steals the show and boosts his stock with an incredible performance while another falls flatter than flat as the combine's biggest bust.

While Memphis defensive tackle Dontari Poe may well be this year's star after an outstanding performance in Monday's workouts, Arizona State linebacker Vontaze Burfict took home the booby prize as this year's combine pancake.

Everything that could go wrong did for Burfict in Indianapolis, beginning with the interview sessions. Burfict took the blame for his disappointing junior season and placed it on, well, everyone else, telling reporters among other things:

"

I played average. I could've played better. That's what hurt me at times. The coaches kind of messed me up. I didn't know if I would start a game or be benched. It hurt me, but I tried to fight through it.

"

If Burfict's curious and deflective interview questions raised some eyebrows, then his performance in workouts sent them fleeing from scout's foreheads as the 6'1", 242-pound Burfict was awful in position drills, ran a 40-yard dash time that was bested by the 346-pound Poe, and finished at or near the bottom of the linebackers in the vertical and broad jumps.

Burfict's miserable outing has sent his draft stock into free fall, and as one coach told CBS Sports, some teams may well have removed Burfict from their draft boards altogether.

"

I wouldn't touch him. He does have some talent, but he is so undisciplined on and off the field. The guy is completely out of control. There's no way you could trust him. I can't believe they (ASU coaching staff) didn't cut him loose.

You just scratch your head at some of the knucklehead things he does on tape. It was the same thing over and over and over again with him. He seemed to personify why that team always seemed to underachieve.

"

Once considered a potential first-round pick, Vontaze Burfict can almost certainly kiss any dreams he may have had about hearing his name called on the first day of the draft goodbye, and now the story seems to be not if Burfict is in for a draft day plunge but how far he will plummet.

For Burfict and his camp it's "circle the wagons" time. How he responds to this adversity both in the press and at Arizona State's March 16 pro day will go a long way toward determining how far the talented but troubled linebacker waits in April before hearing the name of the team brave enough to risk spending a draft pick on him.

Follow @IDPManor