Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Bears in the NFL: Combine Report

The NFL Combine has come and gone, and some of the Bears have made a little bit of noise.

As per my previous report, 7 Bears were invited to the NFL Combine:

(MLB) Anthony Felder
(OLB) Zack Follett
(MLB) Worrell Williams
(TE) Cameron Morrah (JR)
(C) Alex Mack
(DE) Rulon Davis

One of the more entertaining pieces of info to come out of combine interviews came from none other than our own beloved Zack Follett. Follett’s Football Inspiration? Lawrence Taylor? Mike Singletary? Brian Urlacher?

Naw man. Terry Tate. Office Linebacker.

“Growing up, Terry Tate, No. 56, the Office Linebacker, he was my hero watching those commercials. I tried to emulate him when I was out there. ... Junior year of high school, I went to Champs Sports and they sold a Reebok Terry Tate number 56 jersey, and I bought one immediately.”



It explains so much…

Zack Follett also ran the 9th best time in the 40-yard dash among linebackers with a 4.75. While I’m sure Follett would have liked to hit the 4.6 range, he’s in good company and has a decent time for an OLB.

Perhaps more impressive, was that Follett notched the top mark in the vertical leap among linebackers with 37 inches.

Worrell Williams also did well with 35 inches, which was good for seventh among linebackers.


Anthony Felder had the 4th best number of reps in the Bench Press exercise, with 28 reps. Brian “No Neck” Cushing from USC tied for first with 30.

Cameron Morrah who had been considered a borderline draft prospect, knew that he would need a solid combine performance to move up draft boards. He did just that by notching 24 reps in the bench press (tied for 4th), as well as the 3rd best time in the 40-yard dash with 4.66. I still think another season would have helped Morrah plenty, but he certainly took care of business by putting on a solid show.

Alex Mack was unable to participate because of a recent ankle injury. It probably didn’t hurt his stock too much given his dominant Senior Bowl performance, as he’s regarded as a possible first round pick at this point. The only thing holding him back is his position, with centers not as high of a need at the next level as say, a tackle.

Mack will run his drills at Cal’s Pro Day, but I doubt his 40 time will have little bearing on his stock at this point. Perhaps, if scouts saw him do the splits first hand though, they might be more tempted to take him with their first pick.

Rulon Davis has yet to appear in any Top 10 listing for any of the combine drills, which is a bit surprise given his physical tools. No word as to which he had participated in. Here’s a pretty good article though, regarding Davis and his background.

Oh and as for Patrick Chung, I don’t care what he says, he will always be known as “stiff-armed” to me. (See header).

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Check here, not sure where they were able to get the data: http://www.footballsfuture.com/2009/combine/de.html

Also see Monday recap for some Davis comments

Caleb said...

gotta love terry tate

Bear with Fangs said...

Thanks for the link Anonymous. Looks like Davis did ok with his 40, and subpar with his bench. Good stuff.

corsair said...

Should've sign'd in rather than post anonymously...

Considering that Davis tied for the longest arms of the DE's, putting up reps in the mid-20's is quite an accomplishment in the battle of physiology. Longer arms = greater distance to push & more muscle needed to contract.