NFL Combine 2017: Winners and Losers from Thursday
The eyes of the NFL are squarely focused on Indianapolis, site of the 2017 NFL Scouting Combine.
Workouts have yet to begin in earnest at Lucas Oil Stadium, but that doesn't mean festivities aren't well underway. Group 1 (the offensive linemen, running backs and special teamers) have been through measurements, interviews, physicals and the bench press.
That last one can be rather a big deal for the big uglies.
Group 2 (the quarterbacks, wide receivers and tight ends) have been measured, had their physicals and begun their interviews. That, of course, can mean only one thing...
Obsessing about quarterback hand size!
Things will really ramp up Friday morning when Group 1 hits the field for drills (admit it, you can't wait to see USC tackle Zach Banner run the 40 at 353 pounds), but as you prepare to watch big men and quick backs get their big chance to make a quick push up draft boards, here's a look at some players who may already have made a dent (for better or worse) in their draft stock this year.
Winner: Mitch Trubisky, QB, North Carolina
1 of 9
He's tall!
He's TALL!!!
Leading up to the combine, speculation was rampant that North Carolina quarterback Mitch Trubisky's listed height at Chapel Hill was generous. That when the tape was reeled out in Indy, Trubisky could check in closer to (or even shorter than) 6'1".
In other words, short by NFL quarterback standards—and really short for a player under consideration to be the first player at his position selected in 2017.
Well, Trubisky and his camp can take a breath. As Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com reported, Trubisky measured just over 6'2" on Thursday, with a weight of 222 pounds and 9.5" hands.
In other words, fine, fine and also fine.
Per Cabot, Cleveland Browns head coach Hue Jackson was pleased upon hearing that Trubisky is tall enough to ride anything he wants at Cedar Point.
"I think that's great,'' Jackson said. "It's good that he's over 6'2". We all have a profile for what we like a quarterback to be, and I think you kind of work through that. I like a guy that's a little taller, and he's over 6'2", so that's great for him."
Given that came from the head coach of the team that holds the No. 1 overall pick, that news was great for Trubisky indeed.
Loser: Leonard Fournette, RB, LSU
2 of 9
In Leonard Fournette's case, calling him a "loser" so far in this year's combine falls somewhere between relative and nitpicky.
It's a not a huge deal that Fournette, per Chase Goodbread of NFL.com, chose not to lift in Indianapolis. Maybe he has a minor muscle pull. Maybe he's not a fan of the new format, where players lift in front of bleachers filled with fans.
No, really. They do.
And if Fournette runs a solid time in Friday's 40-yard dash, the fact that he weighed in this week at an eye-raising 240 pounds (five pounds over his playing weight at LSU) will be quickly relegated to the land of "meh."
But as Will Brinson of CBS Sports pointed out, Fournette's size has now become a topic of discussion at the combine.
"No one’s drafting him to be faster than everyone else," Brinson said, "but giving up an early pick for a running back is a risky proposition, and it’s even riskier if the running back is adding pounds."
Barring a Roland Emmerich-esque disaster over the next couple of months, Fournette is going to be a first-round pick in the 2017 draft.
But in a deep class at the position, Fournette hasn't done his chances of being a top-10 pick, or the first player at his position taken, any favors so far.
Winner: David Njoku, TE, Miami
3 of 9
Every team in the NFL that doesn't already have a big, athletic, field-stretching tight end is searching for a big, athletic, field-stretching tight end.
On Saturday, Miami's David Njoku will have a chance to show off his plus athleticism.
The big part is taken care of.
It isn't so much that Njoku, who reeled in 43 passes for 698 yards and eight scores for the Hurricanes in 2016, is especially tall. He checked in Thursday in Indy at 6'4" and 246 pounds, per Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports.
What blew draftniks away was Njoku's wingspan—a staggering 82.5 inches.
That's two inches less than LeBron James, for those keeping score at home.
As Emily Kaplan wrote for the MMQB before the combine, Mike Mayock of the NFL Network indicated NFL teams were already giddy about what Njoku might be capable of as a pro.
“I think people are salivating about him," Mayock said, "because they really don’t know him well but are fascinated at the kind of prospect he might be. He might be a little bit of a project, but so athletically gifted. Depending where you put him on the field, I think he wins a lot of matchups as a rookie.”
After finding out that in addition to being fast Njoku also has the wingspan of a condor, some of those scouts are probably going to need a bib.
.png?w=256)
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
Loser: Patrick Mahomes II, QB, Texas Tech
4 of 9
I would be remiss in my duties as a writer if I didn't single out at least one quarterback and overreact about the size of his hands.
It's a combine tradition.
None of this year's top prospects at the position measured under the panic-button amount of nine inches. If they had, Twitter would have exploded in a snarknado.
However, one player came close. As Chris Burke reported for Sports Illustrated, Texas Tech's Patrick Mahomes II measured at 6'2" even with 9.25" hands in Indianapolis. Both of those numbers are technically OK, but both are also the smallest of the signal-callers who could go in the first round of this year's draft.
Is that the kiss of draft-day death? No. But there were already concerns about Mahomes' funky mechanics. And his decision making. And the gimmicky Air Raid offense he played in at Texas Tech.
Per Emily Kaplan of the MMQB, Mahomes said he intended to allay all those concerns in Indianapolis.
"It’s understandable why people would think I’m just another Air Raid guy, not ready for [the pros],” he says. “Quarterbacks who came from our system haven’t done well in the NFL; that’s a fact. At the combine, I am going to show NFL teams that I am ready to play Day 1. Everyone knows I can make the throws, but I’m smarter than people think. I know these NFL concepts. I’m not a project."
Now he's going have to do it amid whispers about the size of his flippers.
Winner: Jalen Robinette, WR, Air Force
5 of 9
For some lesser-known prospects, the combine is incredibly important. Every measurement and time in drills can mean the difference between hearing their name called early on Day 3 or not at all.
So far, so good for Air Force wide receiver Jalen Robinette.
Robinette, who ranks 54th among wide receivers in this year's class per CBS Sports, checked in at just under 6'3" and 220 pounds at the combine, according to Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports.
That's decent size, but nothing to write home about. I'm not going to tell him that, though—for fear that I might get slapped with one of his nearly 11"-long hands.
Dude's wearing gloves even when he isn't wearing gloves.
Baseball gloves.
Robinette only had 35 catches in 2016, but that's a little misleading given that the Falcons throw the ball approximately never. And, as Pro Football Focus pointed out, no wideout in college football had more yards per route run in 2016 than Robinette.
There was already more than a little buzz around Robinette as a raw but talented late-round gem.
That buzz is only growing after Thursday.
Loser: Cam Robinson, OT, Alabama
6 of 9
I'm not going to sit here and hyperventilate about the bench press numbers of the running backs at the combine Thursday. Yes, Dalvin Cook's 22 reps at 225 pounds were impressive. Oklahoma tailback Samaje Perine threw up an eye-popping 30 reps, although that's not even his personal best.
Those showings certainly didn't hurt those players' stock, but they didn't necessarily help it a lot either. It's just not a drill that scouts put a ton of weight in (so to speak) at that position. Stanford's Christian McCaffrey isn't going to plummet down boards because he only managed 10 reps.
It's a more important drill for the big men up front, but I'm not going to freak out about the pedestrian outings by tackles Banner (22 reps) and Julie'n Davenport (17 reps) of Bucknell either. Both of those linemen have long wingspans (Davenport's is massive), and players with long arms often struggle in the bench press.
Stupid physics.
There's no doubt they'd have liked to do better, but it ain't the end of the world.
However, at least one high-end tackle sent up red flags Wednesday when he didn't lift at all.
On the same day that Alabama's Cam Robinson told Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle that he was the best tackle in this draft class, he begged off on the bench press, citing a shoulder injury.
Now, players get hurt. It happens.
But with Alabama players, this is a trend. An alarming trend stretching back more than a few years.
Per Ian Rapoport of NFL.com, Robinson's teammate (and fellow first-round prospect) Jonathan Allen hopes to lift in Indy later this week to allay the same concerns that Robinson just raised...
That the Crimson Tide's grueling practices have left him damaged goods.
As Joe Schad of the Palm Beach Post reported, former Crimson Tide player Joel Steen went so far as to infer banged-up Alabama players are encouraged to play through injuries they possibly shouldn't.
"If you can work through pain, you can go," he said. "But at 'Bama, that was the problem. A lot of things you went through and you shouldn’t have. You should have stayed off of it. That’s why a lot of guys from 'Bama are hurt."
As Gregg Bell of the Tacoma News-Tribune tweeted, Robinson himself admitted to reporters at the combine that Alabama's practices are often more grueling than their games.
Some will call this making a mountain of a molehill. And Nick Saban's job isn't to get his players ready for the NFL. It's to win games in Tuscaloosa. But more than once we've seen high-end Alabama prospects enter the NFL nicked up.
And don't think for a second scouts haven't noticed.
Winner: Forrest Lamp, OT, Western Kentucky
7 of 9
Forrest Lamp of Western Kentucky must be butter. Because he's on a roll.
Sorry. Couldn't be helped.
First, Lamp shined in practices at the Senior Bowl (per Sayre Bedinger of FanSided), routinely shutting down opponents before an ankle injury cut his week short.
Then, as Bob Condotta reported for the Seattle Times, the NFL Network's Mike Mayock absolutely gushed about Lamp's game tape during his annual pre-combine conference call.
“He had the best single offensive line game I’ve seen against Alabama in five years,” Mayock said. “He played left tackle there. I think he’s going to be a guard in the NFL, like a Zack Martin-type guard, that’s how good I think he is.”
That move to guard was in part predicated on Lamp's shorter-than-ideal arms. But when Lamp showed up at the combine, his arms measured at 32.25"—over an inch longer than they measured in Mobile.
Still pretty short by tackle standards, but getting better.
Those arms might not be especially long, but they're powerful. Lamp did 34 reps at 225 pounds in Thursday's bench press, tied for second among all offensive linemen.
The best part? Per Adam Hoge of WGN Radio, Lamp indicated he was a "little disappointed" by his effort.
Next up, Lamp will run a 4.5-second 40-yard dash and say he felt "a tad sluggish."
OK, maybe not.
Loser: Dede Westbrook, WR, Oklahoma
8 of 9
Dede Westbrook was a wildly productive player for the Sooners last year, topping 1,500 receiving yards and finding the end zone 17 times.
But as Dane Brugler of CBS Sports told Kevin Casas of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the lanky speedster entered the combine with plenty to prove.
“This is a player we haven’t seen since the season ended,” Brugler said. “The expectation is that he’ll run a 40 around 4.38 to 4.44 range and then with his yards-per-catch average, you know he’s a vertical threat, but what’s he going to weigh, has he improved on his ability to change directions?”
The weight question was one that came back to haunt Westbrook on Thursday. He weighed in at just 178 pounds, lightest of any of the wideouts in his group.
It's just the latest setback in what's been a rough draft season so far for Westbrook. First, he suddenly pulled out of the Senior Bowl, raising more than a few eyebrows.
Then the Tulsa World broke the story that Westbrook was arrested (but not convicted) in a pair of family violence incidents in 2012 and 2013.
It's certainly not how Westbrook probably saw this whole thing playing out as he stood in New York as a Heisman finalist.
There's not much to do about it now but answer the tough questions about his past the best he can and allay worries about his size by impressing with his speed on Saturday.
Winner: Isaac Asiata, OG, Utah
9 of 9
Utah's Isaac Asiata isn't blowing anyone away with his fleetness of foot. His 40-yard dash could be timed with a sundial.
I'm kidding, I'm kidding.
Maybe.
The point, as one AFC scout told Lance Zierlein of NFL.com, is that Asiata is a road-grader—a power guard in the truest sense.
"Really tough guy," the scout said. "He has to harness all that nasty out on the field, but I loved what he did to Washington, which has some really solid talent up front. He never backed down once and I think he had a couple of those guys intimidated."
That power was on display in Thursday's bench press. Asiata settled in and starting lifting, and by the time the 6'3", 323-pounder was finished he'd put up a lineman leading 35 reps of 225 pounds.
He can apparently even intimidate inanimate objects. The weight bench reportedly sobbed quietly.
OK, I'm kidding again.
Asiata, who was the Pac-12 Offensive Lineman of the Year in 2016, has been steadily climbing up boards since shining in practices at January's Senior Bowl (per Rob Rang of CBS Sports). He saw that trajectory get a lift Thursday.
Get it? Lift! HA! I kill me!
.png?w=480)
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
