Abdul Hodge 4.76
DeMeco Ryans 4.62
I have a lot of notes here. If you want info on someone I don't mention, ask and ye may receive. I'm just going to use this as a rough draft for a longer piece I'll blog later.
Defensive Notes
LBs
Hawk was a beast all day in positional drills. Very very impressive
Ryans was expected to struggle here. Nope. He's been very strong and considering Greenway's performance, Ryans may be LB2.
Thomas Howard may have something to say about that though. He's the best overall athlete of the LBs. This is sort of expected, but now it is proven.
Greenway did show why he is so good though. He was very good in positional drills. Quick feet, great change of direction, fluid hips, yada.
Hodge, Parham and some other lesser names were mostly disappointing.
Lesser names who impressed include Spencer Havner (caveat emptor), Dale Robinson, Clint Ingram, and the sleeper stars of the day-- James Anderson and Jon Alton.
DTs
Brodrick Bunkley (can people start spelling his name right, not Broderick, Brodrick). He kicked butt in the drills, nuff said. If Greenway fell, he's a good candidate to take his spot among elite (top 15) prospects. Think Cleveland.
The only knock on Ngata has been that he's maybe not a real hard worker and it showed today. He wore out and was lazy towards the end of workouts. He seemed "disinterested".
Rod Wright and Gabe Watson followed Ngata's example and seemed to wear down. Maybe it's just the big boys, but John McCargo hung with Bunkley all day and made a postitive impression. Not as positive as the sleeper star of the day-- Dusty Dvoracek. He's just a non stop worker, competitive, and fundamentally very sound in the drills.
DEs
Manny Lawson's 40 time (4.41) is just awesome, but he didn't disappoint in other work either. He's being compared to Jason Taylor. He is often regarded as a 3-4 OLB at the next level and he sort of ruled out the possibility by choosing NOT to work out with a bunch of DE/OLB conversion candidates. Maybe he just knows he made his mark and wanted to leave it at that. He'll have another opportunity to run through LB drills tomorrow.
Mario Williams didn't disappoint. He's probably top 5. Comparisons to Peppers are starting to look realistic.
Mark Anderson continued his impressive post season. He and James Wyche (name to remember) both had fast 40s and were impressive elsewhere. Not as impressive as the star of the day (not counting Mario and Manny)-- Mathias Kiwanuka. How about that? He stopped the bleeding. He blew everyone away, including Lawson, in the short shuttle, and that is considered the key event for DEs. He was also extremely sound fundamentally and ultra quick in the drills. Good for him.
eta: He said he wasn't going to lift, but he was going to do everything else. NFL.com is only posting top 10 scores or so. I had to seek info on Parham specifically. Hodge may be having a very bad showing. :dunno:
