Brandon

http://www.draftdaddy.com/blog/nfldraft.cfm If that little part about his agent being thrown out of the Pro Day is true, I can imagine how well it was received. Again, if its true, and he doesn't fire that guy, I wouldn't draft him period.

One could just as easily say that it was a sign of his competitiveness. He felt he was being cheated and instead of just taking it, he made his feelings known (even if it was more than a bit whiny).

It may, but we have no idea what he said in front of the scouts or whether or not they find some truth in his words.

I agree with you completely. As long as he just aired his concern to the scouts over it and didn't act like a whiny B word, he'll probably be fine. Just let the guy run where he wants. There's no harm in it. Teams have always adjusted 40s based on varying surfaces and conditions. I suspect that individual teams will give him that opportunity and he'll run much better.

He's whining, but in a way, I don't blame him (although he should have known). Let the guy run where he wants and feels most comfortable. If the Bills or any other team don't feel that its a surface equal to what he'll run on in the NFL, they'll adjust his time, and everyone's happy. You'd be pissed off too, if you thought it might cost you $5-10 millon.

I agree. I'm simply sick of the comparisons every time someone bombs their 40. That's all.

I absolutely agree. The point is that the comparisons to a once-in-a-generation player gets old after the 10,000th time. I could just as easily say that he's the next Dewayne Jarrett. Doesn't make it anywhere close to being true.

Very carefully lol. Probably not the best choice of descriptors on my part.

It was the same on my HS team as well. The point, of course, is that the difference between a pro football player and a bum off the street is suprisingly small...about half a second. In that context, a .3 difference is absolutely enormous.

Yet at the same time, the scouts and GMs continue to sit in the stands at the combine for hours, stopwatches in hand. Meanwhile, NFL owners continue spending tens of thousands of dollars flying those same scouts to dozens of campus workouts. Its not all important, but it IS important. And as for .3 of a second, well, consider the range your talking about. The average kid off the street can probably run a 40 in 5 flat.

I think that he probably is too, perhaps siginificantly faster, but if he wants to reclaim his draft position, I think he has to prove it. The knock on him all along has been speed and separation ability. He did nothing but magnify those concerns today.

I agree, if he stays around a 4.7, he's in trouble, but despite my rantings in this thread, don't discount the possibility that he could still improve it significantly before the draft and still go 11th. He may have simply had a bad day, or perhaps, as was mentioned in another post, it may have been a slow track. If he runs again at a private workout in a few days and posts a 4.55, all bets are off.

That *might* be very interesting. Its too bad that more Sooners didn't run at the combine so we could see if the entire group ran poorly compared to their times at Indy. CB Marcus Walker did, in fact, run about .2 slower today than at his combine workout, so it might be something worth checking into.

I think that the way they value them is as a cutoff point, after which most players at a given position simply aren't fast enough to play in the NFL. It doesn't mean he won't be drafted (I think he goes in R3-4 if he doesn't improve his times), but that he'll move into the same category as the project guys who have one or more very serious flaws in their game. There may be the odd exception and Kelly may be one, but generally speaking, I think that's how they view it.

Does it matter? Are Malcolm Kelly and Jerry Rice the same person? No. I'm not saying that Kelly won't make it in the NFL. He might. In fact, it would not suprise me if he posts much better times in private workouts between now and the draft. The argument is simply something that grates on my nerves. Every year, somebody gets compared to Jerry Rice or Emmitt Smith just because they ran underwhelming 40s. Well, guess what? Jerry Rice was an exceptional player in many ways, not the least of which was his exceptionally average 4.6 40 time 23 years ago. Malcolm Kelly may turn out to be a great player. But to even begin to argue that he'll beat the odds because one exceptional player did it when many, MANY others didn't, just doesn't make sense to me.

I'm not making any argument except that Jerry Rice ran a 4.6 and that trying to use 40 times to compare Kelly to arguably the greatest football player in NFL history is ridiculous.

Jerry Rice's combine time gets slower every year in order to justify a current prospect's poor showing.

I think he'll drop a good bit further than that. If teams don't think he can run, they won't touch him. As for the Bills, I think that this just makes drafting a WR at 11 all the more likely. The top tier of WRs is thinning considerably before the draft even starts. Manningham, Bowman, and now Kelly, all originally prospects for the top 2 rounds appear to be dropping fast for various reasons James Hardy may also be off their board. And inevitably, some of the players at the top simply aren't what the Bills are looking for and don't fit their system. I think that if they have a first round grade on Sweed or Thomas, they're very likely to draft one of them now.

If I wouldn't take Kelly in R1 based on a 40 time, I wouldn't take him in R2, either. Taking him one round later won't suddenly make him fast enough to play. If his times continue to hold up until the draft, I think he'll drop into R3-4 territory, right around where the 'projects' start coming off the board. Myself, I think I'd just draft someone else.

In any event, I think it more or less forces the Bills hand at 11, provided they have 1st round grades on Sweed and/or Thomas. The field of WRs in the first 2-3 rounds has been thinned considerably with the problems of Bowman, Manningham and possibly Hardy, and now Kelly turning in a horrid 40. The odds are starting to stack considerably against finding a good prospect to fill that need for a big, physical #2 WR outside of R1.

The same rumor is circulating on the NFL Draft Countdown forums. 4.75 and 4.77, with a 32" vertical and a 9'10" broadjump. If its true, he's done and is in 3rd-4th round territory now.

You can trade a pick twice. Its the compensatory picks that cannot be traded.

In Sweed's case, I think the question is whether or not he can separate from the DB, which is a speed/quickness issue. I do think he's strong enough to fight through a jam. As for the other guys, I'm not worried about Malcolm Kelly's injury issues. He's missed very little time at Oklahoma. If there's a problem, I'll trust the Bills staff to find it. Thomas? I agree that his hands may be a problem, but his lack of experience is a bigger issue for me. Still, in all of these cases, the Bills do have one advantage given that they're not drafting the guy to be a #1, and he probably won't be facing the opposing team's #1 CB that much. Finally, as for the TE position, I am in complete agreement that TE is the way to go in R2. It appears as though it'll be such a good value that I'd almost plan my entire draft around picking one there.

Admittedly, I haven't seen him play much at all, but from what I have seen, I think he's going to have trouble beating press coverage in the NFL. He's big, but he's looks like he's not at all physical and ironically, that's a very typical problem with big WRs coming out of the draft. I think that NFL CBs will be able to jam him and knock him off his routes.

Fitzgerald ran a 4.63 at the combine, followed up by a 4.51 at his Pro Day. Boldin ran poorly at the combine, but was struggling with knee issues.