NFL Combine Day 3 News

NFL Combine Day 3 News

Day 3 is now in the books and we finally got a chance to watch prospects take part in on the field test and drills. With the running backs and offensive lineman going through drills, QB/WR/TE doing bench press and defensive lineman and linebackers going through measurables this is always one of the busiest days of of the 2019 Scouting Combine. Don’t worry as our NFL Combine Day 3 News and Notes has you covered.

NFL Combine Day 3 News and Notes

Ed Oliver Weigh In

Much like Kyler Murray, the weigh in was going to be big for Ed Oliver because there is general concern for his size. While being just a hair under 6’2 is nice and the 287 isn’t as bad as 274lbs, there is a concern about his short arms. 31 6/8″ is pretty short even for a defensive tackle and will raise issues with teams who may be concerned he lacks the length to keep defenders off his body. Now Oliver is an explosive athlete so he can mitigate that with his speed and quickness, but that could cause him to drop on a some teams boards who want length along their defense live.

Interior Offensive Lineman Shine

We knew about the talent of this interior offensive line group and that was true today as Garrett Brabury, Chris Lindstrom, Erik McCoy all shined in both the testing and position drills. All three players ran sub 5.0 40 yard dashes while looking fluid and quick on the field drills. Bradbury is locking in his status a first round pick while Linstrom is making his case. McCoy is likely a lock second round pick who has the bulk and strength to play in a man scheme but the movement skills for a zone scheme.

Andre Dillard Confirms Tape

Coming into the NFL Combine we knew that Andre Dillard was going to move well and shine in the testing, so when he’s gone out there and produced well it just confirms what we’ve seen on tape. It started with the 40 yard dash and Dillard was the only offensive tackle to run under 5.0 seconds. From there Dillard showed his lateral quickness and change of direction ability throughout the team drills. But what was the most impressive was that Dillard ran a 4.40 in his 20 yard shuttle which is insane for his size. As Rotoworld’s Josh Norris pointed out this is the second fastest time for an offensive lineman has proven over time no be a a strong indicator of success in the NFL.

Jonah Williams Checking Boxes

So far Jonah Williams has done nothing at the Combine but check boxes and show to everybody that he is and should be the first lineman taken in the draft. Yesterday his arm length was better than expected while his performance on the field today matches up with other top prospects from the tackle position. On the field drills he moved well both in the shadow drill and in the kick step drill. Williams is proving that he should get a first crack at tackle before a team decides to move him him inside or not.

Jawaan Taylor Guts out the Workout

With a hamstring injury affecting him Taylor chose not to do the 40 yard ash but wanted to still do the rest of the on field drills. While you could tell that hamstring was bothering him at various times, he still showed great footwork and movement skills that we saw on tape throughout this past season. Still going through these workouts despite the injury is going to get him some adulation about his toughness but this should only solidify him as one of the best tackles in this class and a top 10 pick.

Devin Bush under 6’0

One of the top linebackers in this class Devin Bush is known for his aggressive play style that often has him flying to the ball and delivering big hits. Today in Indianapolis Bush measured in at under 6’0 and 240lbs. And while on the surface that may sound alarming, we have to understand that others in the NFL have succeeded at similar sizes. As former Scout Dan Shonka pointed out, Ray Lewis was also under 6’0 and that didn’t stop him from becoming one of the top linebackers in NFL history. If you watch Bush play on tape, you’ll see that size is not an issue. Let’s remember that the Big 10 does feature some big offensive lines and he still had success.

Could Murray Go Number one 1 after all?

The drama of Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals is not going to go away and will be something we will have to deal with and try to gauge how much of it is true or not. In this latest article by Ralph Vacchiano said he spoke with various scouts, team officials and even agents feel that the Cardinals are serious about their interest in Murray. I mean it makes sense given the fact that Murray has experience in the Air Raid style of offense and his skill set is what Kingsbury has had success with. That being said, you just traded up to get Josh Rosen who was a much better prospect coming out than Kyler Murray, had nobody to work with last year and his coaching staff got fired after one year. But this is also a team that hired Kliff Kingsbury as their head coach who couldn’t win in college but recruited good quarterbacks. So I guess this would make sense.

Unimpressive 40 Time for Holyfield, Singletary and Montgomery

It was a rough 40 yard session for these top backs who have been getting a lot of attention from the Draft media leading up to the event. Now before we go any further, neither of these running backs were expected to put up fast times but we did expect them to do better than what they did. Holyfield’s 4.79 time along with him catching the ball awkwardly raises some major questions and having some wonder if he’ll fall all the way to the bottom of the draft. Montgomery is known for his lateral agility and contact balance but now we have to wonder if he can create any misses on his own. Where as Singletary has been compared to Lesean McCoy who ran much faster. Now we can’t just say they ran slow and now they are done. We should go back to the tape and see if this shows up but also we need to go to their pro day and see if they can improve on these times. It helps that most of the running back class didn’t look great either.

Josh Jacobs Doesn’t Work Out

The consensus top running back by most people’s accounts Josh Jacobs is nursing an injury and chose not to participate in the timed events or the on field drills waiting till his Pro Day to go through the events. But this could have been a blessing in disguise as most of the running backs failed to put up great numbers. So by default Jacobs could look better without even doing anything.

Broncos Don’t Meet with Top Quarterbacks

There are a couple of different ways that you could take this news. First off they just traded for Joe Flacco and could be all in on the former Super Bowl winning quarterback and would be going with another position other than quarterback. But just because a team didn’t meet with a player at the Combine doesn’t mean they won’t draft that player. Let’s not forget that Denver was very involved with the quarterbacks at the Senior Bowl and Drew Lock and Daniel Jones are two players expected to go in the first round. Denver may be assuming that Murray and Haskins will be gone by the time they draft and don’t want to waste one of their meetings on a player they don’t think they’ll be getting.