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The combine kicked off yesterday and will start up in earnest tomorrow when the workouts begin.

Let's call this this the "Combine Thread" and we can update as there is any interesting news.

For anyone who is interested, I think the workouts are broadcast live at 11 AM on the NFL Network over the next 3 or 4 days, and they'll be replayed constantly.

I already have the recordings scheduled, which is going to take a bite out of my 30 minutes of nightly sleep, but how else can one evaluate motor or smoothness of skin?

To aid in further narrowing down Eagles prospects... Lets compile lists of the following:

- Sub 6-foot defensive linemen

- Sub 5'10" running backs

- Offensive linemen with weight problems or other ailments

- All linebackers projected to go day 2 or not get drafted at all

- Any players who had a teammate rated higher at the same position

And be sure not to overlook the "workout warrior" who raised his draft value at this combine.

Don't forget that by combining some of those attributes:

- Small
- Light
- Has a teamate at the same position who is projected to go higher.

You can actually identify players the Eagles may draft who aren't even invited to the Combine.

I'm talking about you, Matt McCoy. Ugh...that one stings.

Are fastballs counted here?

Also, be wary of anyone Tom Heckert calls "A heck of a football player".

That usually means the Eagles have unreasonable expectations for a garbage talent.

Does anyone have the clip of Heckert saying that he would be SHOCKED if Matt McCoy wasn't a major star in 2 years?

Can't write this type of comedy.

Heckert makes Spuds sound like the book of Revelations when it comes to evaluating the precious.

Can we just coin a new label now? We'll just call any player a "Heck" if HECKert ever called him a HECK of a player.

Kinda buzzed through the combine today because it was OL/TE day and I doubt the Eagles will be drafting an offensive lineman this in the first few rounds this year.

Among the TE's, Greg Olsen made himself a lot of money today. He's from the U, which will make people notice to begin with. He had a 35" vertical and ran a 4.45 and a 4.47. He also caught the ball well. I don't think he's on the level of those other Miami guys, but he did make himself some money today.

Of the other TE's, not many stood out. Zach Miller, considered the #1 or #1A TE performed really poorly across the board. He didn't run well at all (both time in the 4.8's) and didn't catch the ball well in the gauntlet drill. I'm not commenting on any of these guys as players, though...simply on their combine performances here.

There aren't many highly touted TE's in the draft and none ran well, other than Olsen. After him, a D III kid ran a 4.67 as the second fastest time, but no one else broke the 4.70 barrier.

A guy who did look good and looked faste in the rote running drills was Ben Patrick from Delaware. He's a big kid and looked pretty athletic, so maybe he's a guy the Birds would consider further down as a guy to groom for the future.

I don't think the Birds will be able to sign LJ to an extension because the money is going to be BIG and tempting for him, so I could see the Birds drafting a project and going with SCHOBOAT/Project in 2008.

Chris Leak scored an 8 on the Wonderlic. An F'ing 8. And by all accounts he is a marginal prospect. Nice job, Florida, congrats on the National Championship.

Maybe if he and McNabb worked on it together they'd crack double digits.


Maybe.

"A guy who did look good and looked faste in the rote running drills was Ben Patrick from Delaware."


Patrick is a one year player that transferred in from Duke after being All-Conference ACC (I believe) in 2005, so how long he has to be groomed could be marginal.

My bad, he was never all-ACC, but he was a Duke Transfer.

I wouldn't be suprised at all to see the Birds take a TE in the 2nd or 3rd rd to setup for the eventual departure of LJ. Also prepare to hear Shockey-type and poor mans Shockey until the end of the draft on Olsen. He already is projected to be the best Tight end coming out. Now with those numbers Kiper will be on his jock for a while.

I haven't watched all the combine stuff yet or really read up on the results yet, but here are some additional thoughts:

- Jason Hill from Washington state ran a lights out 40 (4.32) and seemed to have a great burst. He had a really good Senior Bowl, as well. Given the fact that he's going to be the 6th wideout taken AT BEST, I think he's a guy to keep an eye on for the Birds. He wasn't super productive in college, but did produce (600 yards and 7 TDs last year in 10 games). I'm not touting the guy as a superstar in the making, but he could potentially provide the deep speed the Eagles will be looking for and if things shakeout the way it looks right now, he could likely be had late in the first day or early in the second day. How often can you grab a WR with 4.32 speed that late?

- Everyone seems to be talking about Jarvis Moss from Florida, but he didn't floor me. I think the defensive end group looked really deep but very average, athletically. I mean, he ran a 4.7 and people are now saying he may be a top 10 pick (I also saw another headline saying: "The next Freak?"). Mark me down for his performance being criminally overrated. He might be a great player, but is he wasn't a top 10 pick 4 days ago, he certainly should be now.

- The Mamula of the draft is Brian Robison and it's not even close. The guy stinks and basically set the standards for all the measureables among the d-linemen.

- Spencer, the DE from Purdue is not athletic enough to play linebacker, but looks like a good prospect as a DE. One of the guys on the broadcast actually said he's a "Trent Cole-type DE who could step in immediately and be a great situational pass rusher". He's ranked as the 5th best DE in the draft by most of the experts, so he could potentially be around when the birds pick.

- Jon Beason from Miami didn't do any of the measurable drills very well, but he looks like a brick shithouse who is just a good football player. I've seen some places rate him as a "first day pick", I've seen lists of the top 10 LBers in the draft without him on them, and Mike Mayock has him ranked as the #1 LB in the draft (ahead of Willis). I have no idea where he will go, but he ran in the 4.8's, which will almost certainly drop him into the 3rd or 4th round. What I saw of him is he most the most natural, fluid LB in the bag drills and could be a good value.

- Justin Durant is another LB I'd be looking at. He was super-productive in college, but went to Hampton, so level of competition is a concern. He ran great (4.51) and was near the top in all the agility drills. The bag drills really seems top separate the LB's with good feet and bad feet. You also get to see them explode off the last bag, which is cool. Durant and Beason stood out in this drill for me.

- Poz from PSU is a lot bigger than I thought. Maybe it's the PSU uniforms that throw me off, but I always think their players look tiny. While he was standing next to the other backers, he's definitely not undersized compared to the other guys out there and he performed very well in the LB specific drills.

- I didn't watch the RB drills yet, but saw the "highlights" for Brian Leonard. He looks like a 70 year old man in the real running back-centric agility drills. His size and strength are excellent. He pass catching is natural and excellent. His straight line speed isn't bad at all. However, his short area burst and change of direction/agility is just poor, IMO. He did time well on the 3 cone drill but was so stiff and upright he looked like a d-lineman. He just doesn't have any wiggle at all and looked like a really athletic fullback, not a halfback.

I focussed on a couple random guys here, but what I saw in this combine so far is this appears to be an exceptionally deep draft as far as productive, athletic prospects.

- The defensive ends don't appear to have any "freaks", but they do appear very deep and talented. The DTs appear to be very thin after the top 2 or 3.

- There are tons of fast linebackers in this draft. There were 10 LBs who ran under 4.6. I think you normally expect maybe 2 or 3 on a great LB year, so this is an extremely fast group of linebackers.

- There are a lot of top flight WR prospects in this draft. Calvin Johnson proved himself to be a freakish athlete, but there are 5 absolute first rounders with quite a few sleepers in the mix at the next level down.

- The QBs have some interesting prospects, but probably only 2 first rounders.

I'll add more over the next couple days, but this looks like a really, really deep draft.

Thank God you have the time/energy for this.

I know it's fun and I used to get all into it too but man I just can't fathom puttin the kinda time i once did, into it now.

God bless you FD. I look fwd to your capsules. Honestly.

Okay...watched the DBs.

First, let me say again that as I'm getting into draft mode (watching the highlight footage, listening to guys like Mike Mayock, watching the combine, etc.) this is a really deep draft. Frankly, it seems like a great draft.

The winners and losers of the DBs?

- Landry (safety from LSU). He's a super productive player with great size for a safety (217 lbs. and yoked). He went out there and blew thedrills up. Ran in the 4.3's and knocked everything else out of the park. He's going to be considered a Sean Taylor-esque pick at this point and I wouldn't be shocked if he went top 10.

- Leon Hall was considered the best CB in the draft, but his speed was in question. He ran a 4.39, whioch has probably eliminated that question and he's raised his already high stock.

- Chris Houston from Arkansas was considered a top 5 corner, but slated to probably go in the 2nd round. However, as people started looking at him, he pretty much shut down Bowe, Jarret, and Meachem when he faced them this year. He came out and blew up the combine to boot (tore up the drills and ran a 4.32). I think people will start looking more closely at him now and he's going to go top 20.

- Revis hurt himself by not participating. He got weighted in and benched, but there were so many great performances from great athletes and he just sat there. It didn't look good. I would guess that Houston leapfrogged him.

- Aaron Ross ran a 4.44, which was faster than expected and should help him.

- Daymeion Hughes from UCLA got crushed. He was probably the consensus #2 or #3 CB in the draft, but he has virtually no athleticism. His BEST 40 time was a 4.65, he wasn't able to reach the vertical jump measurement thing...it was awful. He went from a first rounder to probably a 3rd rounder just on the combine performance, which is sad. However, that had to be the wrst combine performance in history and you do have to wonder how a CB is going to fair in the NFL when Jason Avant can get deep on him.

- The safeties, in general perfromed really well, with 7 of the top safety prospects clocking in under 4.5, but the guy who has to be the most intriguing is Sabby Piscatelli.

He's supposedly got great ball skills and great coverage ability close, but struggles deep (not a speed thing, but just doesn't do a good job covering in all that open space). He's 6'3", 224 lbs and he ran a 4.47. He's built like a brick shithouse and is considered a linebacker/safety tweener. However, he's probably not physical enough to play linebacker and he struggles deep at safety, so he's a project. However, you have to be intrigues by a guy his size who runs like he does.

- The guys who will most likely give HEckert a Giant boner? Eric Weddle. Oh, let me count the ways...

- Senior.
- Highly productive in college with 277 tackles, 23 passes broken up, 18 picks, 9 sacks, etc.
- Very versatile as a CB, Safety, punt returner, and even played a little RB, QB, and punted at Utah. He was a WR in high school.
- Went to Utah.
- Probably Mormon.
- Known for beign very active in the community and a great guy.
- The type who "won't impress you with physical skills, but is a gret player on the field".
- "Great motor".
- Great special teams player.

Do I have to continue?

He's got decent size (just under 6' and just over 200 lbs.), but he's considered a CB/Safety tweener. He ran a 4.48 at the combine, which should help his stock a litte, but he SCREAMS Eagle. This is the kind of player in the 2nd or 3rd round that they will cream their pants over.

He's potentially considered a man without a home at the NFL level, which is why he'll likely slide to at least the Eagles second round pick. He's not quite good enough in coverage to be a corner, he's not quite physical enough to play safety at the NFL level...I don't know how well he'll translate but he's a safety if anything at the pro level.

I think he's an interesting prospect, but I think he's the kind of guy the Eagles will go nuts for, which is why I spent so much time on him.

f-d,
You mean it's deep for secondary talent, right? Or do you mean overall talent?

I've also heard good things about Sabby. The kid I have my eye on is the safety from Wyoming.

I mean overall talent.

It's shallow in some spots (particularly tight end), but really deep overall. That's just my opinion, though.

The prospect profiles are up in NFL.com, which emans we can read up on the latest draft lingo.

Quite frankly, this is one of my favorite times of the year.

Bubble, Smooth skin, and similar phrases have become part of the 700level.com lexicon. I will not submit what I believe is the best one yet.

It was written regarding Charles Johnson, who I think I like as a potential 1st round pick. Let's see if you can locate the new phrase:

Shorter than ideal and, while he has good power, he can get walled off by the bigger blockers, especially when the opponent latches on to his jersey … Works well down the line, but needs to open his hips up quicker to redirect or change direction … Has a good swim and spin move, but gets frustrated when those moves fail to help him disengage … Lacks the "sand in his pants" to anchor vs. double teams

When looking for talent, i also look for good sand in the pants. I also look for strong ants in the pants as well.

Anyone have a chance to read Spud's scathing pc. on HONOR IS AT STAKE and how it steams him the way the Birds organization's integrity is questioned?


Gave me the shivers. He's mad, for really real,yo.

I've been listenign to WIP the last few days for FA news (I know...wasting my time).

They are offended that Dave is offended!

If you knock the Eagles, Spuds will call your parents and report you.

Like the kid in your neighborhood who thinks NOTHING of goin to your house and tellin your parents that you and the others wont play with him.....or that you tossed his new Mongoose over a stone bridge into a crick.


Geez.