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Saturday, February 21, 2015

More thoughts from the combine

We bugged out of Indianapolis late Friday afternoon to head home and beat the snow back to Pittsburgh. I was going to blog my final thoughts from Indianapolis last night, but pretty much crashed as soon as I got home.

Here are some thoughts I had Friday:

@ Nebraska's Randy Gregory didn't help himself by coming in at 235 pounds. That's especially true when you consider that he's 6-5.

Remember, Plalxico Burress was 6-5, 229 - as a wide receiver.

Gregory almost certainly will have to be a weak side backer, which likely takes him off the Steelers' board. They will be looking for a larger linebacker to possibly replace Jason Worilds since Jarvis Jones has to play the weak side.

@ Vic Beasley, on the other hand, showed up at 246, about 10 pounds heavier than his playing weight last year at Clemson.

Beasley was also a weakside guy in college - like Jones - but unlike Jones, who has struggled to put on any weight since joining the Steelers and is still in that 235-240 range, Beasley showed he can easily bulk up.

And he carried that weight well.

@ My good friend Jim Wexell of SteelCityInsider noted that Washington linebacker Hau'oli Kikaha looks a lot like Steelers safety Troy Polamalu, right down to some of the mannerisms while talking.

Kikaha, at 6-2, 253, is a strong-side guy who could be had in the second or third round - depending on his workouts this weekend.

He was a big sack guy for the Huskies, putting up 19 in 14 games last season and is on the Steelers' radar.

@ Another bigger linebacker on the team's radar is Kentucky's Bud Dupree, who weighed in at an almost-too-heavy 269 pounds. He's 6-3, so he can afford to carry a little extra weight, but the Steelers, who met with Dupree, would likely ask him to scale it back - at least a little.

@ I heard some rumblings that there are some who think Trae Waynes of Michigan State, who weighed in at 6-0, 186 on Saturday, will run in the 4.3 to 4.4 range. If that happens, he'll go before the Steelers pick at 22.

That would leave the Steelers looking at a guy such as Marcus Peters, who was thrown off the team at Washington for arguing with his coaches. Peters will very much be under the microscope this weekend.

He can play, but if he's such a pain in the behind that his college coaches didn't want to deal with him, he must really be a MAJOR problem.

@ Beyond those two guys, there might not be a corner worthy of being the 22nd pick.

The real value at cornerback this year is in the second and third rounds.

I like Stanford's Alex Carter, who fits the Steelers' MO as a true junior who happened to play at a major college, but if he tests well this weekend, he might not slip to their spot in the second round.

But there are a number of other guys who will be available in that range.

@ Forget about speed being an issue for West Virginia receiver Kevin White. At 6-3, 215 pounds, he ran a 4.35 40.

That's lighting fast for a guy of that size.

2 comments:

LexingtonLegend said...

Just read on ky sports radio that mike Tomlin was one of three head coaches to attend UK's proday. The other two were Mike Zimmer and Marvin Lewis.

Unseen Game said...

Thiss was a lovely blog post