Pooka runs well at KU pro day … Not sure if these are totally neutral results, but former Kansas RB Pooka Williams reportedly was timed in under 4.4 seconds for the 40 at the Jayhawks’ pro day on Friday, the first on the pro day schedule. Not sure who exactly reported the numbers but Williams was listed as having run the 40 in 4.38 seconds. That’s fast, but he’s also an undersized scatback type who only measured in at 5-8.5 and 175 pounds meaning he’s probably destined to be a 3rd down back, rotational type at the next level. Williams also posted a relatively quick 3-cone time of 7.02 seconds, but his leaps were not at all up to what one would expect from a 4.4 sprinter; indeed, Williams managed only a 31.5″ vertical and 9-10 inches in the long jump, both of which would have been among the 2-3 lowest figures at last year’s combine. Meanwhile, the only other results that appear to have been posted from the Kansas pro day are those for LS Logan Klusman, a legit FA candidate, who measured in at 6-0, 233 and posted a 5.13 40 clocking. (Note that both players have the same agent and it may have been the agency that dropped the numbers, suggesting they should be corroborated.)

Pigskin’s random draft musings … With the 2021 draft now just 55 days away and counting, GBN Associate Editor Pigskin Paul Guillemette has some thoughts on several players that should be getting extra credit here.

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Pro day sched kicks off … This year’s pro day schedule gets underway later today with an on-campus workout at Kansas. And with the cancellation of this year’s scouting combine in Indianapolis because of the pandemic, the pro day workouts will take on added importance this year. Indeed, the pro days will literally be the only chance that NFL teams get to test and/or workout draft prospects this year. And while Kansas kicks things off today, the pro day schedule really starts to heat up next week with workouts at Clemson on Wednesday, March 11th and North Dakota State on the 12th. Other key dates on the pro day schedule include Georgia on March 17th, Alabama on the 23rd, BYU on the 26th, Ohio State on the 30th, Florida, Notre Dame AND LSU on the 31st, and Oregon on April 2nd. Here’s the full pro day schedule as we have it currently.

As much as possible, we’ll be reporting on the results from this month’s pro days. However, its important to note that, as in the past, each individual school will still be running its own pro day. And in the past, every school did things differently. Some published complete results. Many do not. It also means, of course, that players will be running on different courses in different weather conditions so exact comparisons are going to be difficult. In fact, the primary results from the pro days will be largely generated by the teams themselves, which means there could be some variation in reported 40 times and the like. There will also be plenty of leaked results from agents and players, so beware of statements like ‘some teams had so-and-so running as low as 4.2!’

In addition to the actual on-field results, the other interesting element of the pro days is which NFL teams send which reps to which workouts. If the GM and head coach from a particular team show up at a particular workout, the odds are they are there to check out a particular top prospect, and teams generally don’t waste the valuable time of their top personnel people sending them to watch players they don’t already have a very good grade on. Note, though, that individual pro teams will be limited to just three representatives at any pro day, meaning they’ll have to be that much more selective in who goes where. At the same time, all the workouts will be taped and every team will get a copy and that’s when a lot of the actual, evaluation will take place.

Road to the draft still leads thru Indy … sort of … Even though this year’s scouting combine was cancelled because of the pandemic, the NFL powers that be have still released the list of 323 players that would have been invited to Indianapolis this year. Not surprisingly, the list includes a whopping 14 players from Ohio State, along with 11 each from national champion Alabama, Georgia, and Notre Dame, and 9 from Florida.

And while the players won’t be going to Indianapolis this winter, the list is still significant in the sense that those invited to attend are the players that NFL teams want to see and that historically the players that participate in the combine make up the large majority of those drafted overall, and almost all of those selected in the first three rounds. Indeed, in recent years, 85-90% of all players that were drafted had attended the combine.

Still, no system is perfect, and every year certain players that were snubbed by the combine end up being drafted. According to GBN Chief Scout Larry Parker, this year’s major snubs include QBs K.J. Costello of Mississippi State and Tulsa’s Zach Smith; WRs Damonte Coxie of Memphis and Marlon Williams of Central Florida; Stanford OT Foster Sarell; Texas A&M C Ryan McCollum; DEs Raymond Johnson of Georgia Southern and Wisconsin’s Isaiahh Loudermilk; DTs Mustafa Johnson of Colorado, Jerome Johnson of Indiana, and Kenny Randall of Charleston; Miami of Ohio CB Emmanuel Rugamba; safeties Reed Blankenship of Middle Tennessee and Tariq Thompson of San Diego State; and Michigan LS Camaron Cheeseman. Of course, with the combine activities shifted to the pro days, all the players not invited to the combine will be starting from a position pretty much even with those that would have attended.

Big Kat transfer again … Former Auburn DE Big Kat Bryant announced earlier this week that he is transferring to Central Florida where he will be reunited with former AU head coach Gus Malzahn. The 6-5, 260-pound Bryant, a mid-to-late round prospect for the 2022 draft with 10 career sacks, had originally indicated that he was staying in the SEC and transferring to Tennessee, but changed his mind when the Volunteers fired coach Jeremy Pruitt.

Is a sea change in draft data on the way …Interesting article for those that haven’t seen it in which NFL.com’s lead draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah suggests that we could be as little as 2-3 years away from pro personnel departments replacing long-standard draft metrics such as the 40 times with in-game data provided by the GPS units. The technology is already reported being used in the college game to measure such things as actual playing speeds which in the end may ultimately be a much better indicator of a player’s athleticism than a simple timed sprint. Time will tell!

Watt flies off to desert … In a bit of surprise former Houston DE J J Watt has agreed to a 2-year deal with Arizona.

Big Board tweaked, extended … For those that have not noticed already, the GBN Big Board has been revised based on the latest intelligence; it has also been extended to include the top 200 prospects for this year’s draft, which for the record is now just 60 days away. Also note that several of the positional rankings have also been revised per the drop down menu above.

All-ACC CB Kendrick out at Clemson … Clemson CB Derion Kendrick, a late first round prospect for the 2022 draft has been dismissed from the program. Kendrick was a solid cover corner but had more than his share of disciplinary issues and suspensions that cost him three games last fall. In fact, league observers were more than a little surprised when Kendrick opted to stay in school rather than enter the upcoming draft. He’ll still be staying in school just not at Clemson; no word yet on where he will try and play next fall.

Clemson DE Foster retires … Veteran Clemson DE Justin Foster, who would have been a solid 3rd day prospect for the upcoming draft, has decided to give up football. Foster, who has congenital asthma and allergy issues, missed the 2020 season after contracting COVID-19 from which he still hasn’t fully recovered. Foster, though, has graduated and reportedly has a job outside football awaiting him.

Updated GBN mock posted … Most draft years tend to hard to mock, however, this year feels even harder than most. We have a pretty good idea that Jacksonville is going to take Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence with the first pick overall. After that, though, it really is a crap shoot, at least when it comes to trying to predict what individual teams are actually going to do when they get on the clock on April 29th. In particular, most of the teams with early picks this year have a myriad of needs literally each of which they literally address with one of this year’s top prospects. There is also the strong possibility that there will be a number of trades early in this year’s draft with so many teams apparently looking for a QB upgrade from a talented, albeit limited supply of prospects at the position. As such, one could put together a reasonably reasonable first-round projection and then do an entirely different one based on a separate set of assumptions that would be just as reasonably reasonable. That said, we have updated our first-round projection based largely on the ‘what-if’ assumption that there is an early run on QBs including trades. It doesn’t take a whole lot of imagination, though, to see that changing the assumption would very much influence the direction of the early picks. And, of course, that’s what NFL teams when they prepare for the draft. They don’t do just one mock, but rather they do multiple versions based on all the likely scenarios.

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To QB or not to QB … With Jacksonville about as committed to taking former Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence with the #1 pick in the 2021 draft – now just over two months away for those that keep track of these things – as is possible, the upcoming draft will really start with the NY Jets at the second pick. The early thinking had been that the Jets would also use the pick to select a QB, presumably either Zack Wilson of BYU or Ohio State’s Justin Fields to replace Sam Darnold, that is if they didn’t somehow swing a trade with Houston for DeShaun Watson. However, it appears that there may be an emerging consensus within the Jets’ organization that that the roster is so talent-thin that what they really need to do is build up the supporting cast before they make a big move at QB. What that means is that there is a growing likelihood that the Jets will opt to stick with Darnold for at least another year and instead look to trade the the second overall selection for a package of picks to go along with the two firsts they already heading into the draft. And if they opt to shop the #2 pick, the Jets should get plenty of interest with any number of teams likely to be interested in moving up to get a QB themselves with Philadelphia at #6 and Carolina at #8 likely to be the most interested.

The Jets are in fact on of three teams that the Texans’ Watson has reportedly indicated that he’d accept a trade to along with Miami and Carolina. And while almost trade involving Watson would shake up the draft, for now Houston is adamant that Watson is not available. Of course, they could change their mind if Watson ultimately holds out and the situation becomes unsustainable, but for now the Texans appear to be willing to let it ride hoping that Watson will have a change of heart because rising young QBs – he led the NFL in passing this season playing on a bad team – are just so hard to come by. Stay tuned!

Tag days get underway … Starting today, NFL teams can tag veteran free agents with either the franchise or transition dags. Teams have until March 9th to designate tagged players. The whole tag process is somewhat complicated by the fact that teams still don’t know exactly what the salary cap will be when the new NFL year begins on March 17th. The league and the players’ association have agreed that the cap will be at least $180M million, but it is not expected to be more than $185M. Either way it represents a big drop from the cap of $198 million last year. Players designated with a franchise tag are guaranteed the average of the top five salaries at their respective position over the past five years, while transition tag salaries are based on the average of the top 10 salaries at the position and offer players the chance to sign an offer sheet with other clubs. ESPN has a piece on the top candidates to be tagged including Dallas QB Dak Prescott, Detroit WR Kenny Golladay and Giants’ DE Leonard Williams.

Colts top nfl.com rook grades … Not sure if it can be considered to be a roll, but literally the same day that Indianapolis acquired veteran QB Carson Wentz in a trade with Philadelphia, a report by nfl.com gives the Colts’ 2020 rookie class the top grade among all teams’ first-year crops. Other teams rounding out the top 5 grades include Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay, Cincinnati, Minnesota and Cleveland. Meanwhile, sticking with nfl.com fora moment, Bucky Brooks, one of the site’s lead draft analysts, posted his initial ranking of the top 5 prospects at each position.

Eagles land pair of picks from Colts for QB Wentz … We were going to post a brief update on some of the QB rumblings around the league these days which was going to include the note that Philadelphia was having trouble moving QB Carson Wentz as it appeared that the only team interested was Indianapolis. In fact, that’s where Wentz is headed as the Eagles and Colts have reportedly agreed on a deal in which the QB goes to Indy in exchange for a 3rd round pick this year – the 85th overall – along with a conditional 2nd rounder in 2022 that could escalate into a first-rounder if Wentz either plays at least 75% of the Colts’ offensive snaps next fall or plays at least 70% of the snaps and the Colts reach the playoffs. And with the departure of Wentz, Jalen Hurts becomes the de facto Eagles’ starting QB. However, he had something of an up-and-down rookie season last fall which may prompt Philadelphia to consider taking a QB with the 6th pick overall this coming April. Stay tuned!

QB Lawrence undergoes surgery … As planned, Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence, the presumptive #1 pick at the 2021 draft, underwent surgery on his non-throwing shoulder earlier today. According to sources close to the situation there were no complications and the doctors expect Lawrence to be ready for training camp this summer. It is expected that Jacksonville, which has the first pick this year, will get at least one more look at Lawrence’s situation as he is expected to be one of the players who will be asked to undergo a follow-up medical exam in early April.

Pro day sched grows … The number of schools releasing the dates of their pro days this year continues to grow, albeit slowly. Here is the full list as we aware of it as of today. Among the latest additions to the list are North Dakota State on March 12th where QB Trey Lance, a potential top 10 prospect who ended up playing in only one game this fall because of the pandemic, will be one of the players working out. Meanwhile, Georgia will hold its pro day on March 17th. Of course, if anyone is aware of others dates we’d appreciate hearing them. ed

Big Board tweaked … For those that haven’t noticed as yet the GBN Big Board ranking of the top 100 prospects for the 2021 draft has been updated here.

QB Lawrence works out for Jags, other teams … Former Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence had a pretty solid workout earlier this morning as the presumptive #1 pick at this year’s draft threw for reps from 17 NFL teams at a private pro day workout. Clemson’s actual pro day is scheduled for March 11th, but Lawrence is slated to have shoulder surgery later this month and would not have been available for the Tigers’ official pro day. Lawrence went through a scripted 55-pass program today that was good, but maybe wasn’t quite as impressive as the workouts as some of the other top-rated QB prospects in recent years. Normally in these kinds of workouts, for example, there will be 3-4 passes that hit the ground; however, Lawrence had as many as 9-10 incompletions, although at least 3-4 of those were outright drops. There were also 3-4 passes in the red zone portion of the workout where the receiver caught the ball, but was well out of bounds. We’ll leave the final call to analysts with a higher pay grade than ours, but the sense here was that while Lawrence has plenty of arm strength, it may be a tad below that of other recent QB prospects like Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen and Justin Herbert. What you did see from Lawrence, though, was a very easy throwing motion that produced darts that were consistently on the numbers as he threw what appeared to be a very catchable ball. He also threw the ball well on the run. In the end, it is hard to see a scenario in which today’s work out did anything to hurt Lawrence’s chances of being the first player selected on April 29th. If there was in fact anything to see figure that Jacksonville head coach Urban Meyer, whose Jags have the top pick this year and are expected to take Lawrence, will have seen it. Meyer was never more than 7-10 yards away from Lawrence throughout the workout where he spent much of it standing next to Clemson coach Dabo Swinney. In fact, according to some late reports, the idea of the whole early workout by Lawrence was at the request of Meyer and the Jaguars. For the record, Lawrence measured in at a tad taller than 6-5 and a 1/2 and 213 pounds; the latter figure, though, was a little lighter than expected, although Lawrence clearly has the frame to add as much as another 15-20 pounds.

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Texans to release JJ Watt … There are several media reports at this hour that Houston is going to release star DE JJ Watt. Watt, the 11th player selected at the 2011 draft, was a dominant defender in his first 5 years earning NFL defensive player of the year awards, but he’s had only one really productive season since 2016 because of a series of injuries including a bad back, knee injury and torn pectoral muscle.