CUNNINGHAM TAMPERING? GABBERT'S IN PIZZA PARLOR BRAWL & A FEW COMBINE THOUGHTS
The 'Gun' is talking out of turn, Detroit defensive coordinator Guenther Cunningham is chatting up several current Chiefs defenders, which isn't cool. He & the Lions could be charged with tampering. Cunningham was saying that Kansas City had several defenders that would work in a scheme like the one he has in the Motor City, better than the 3-4 K.C. runs. He's absolutely right, had he left it at that, he probably would have been O.K. but mentioning the names of Derrick Johnson & Glenn Dorsey wasn't smart. There's not a doubt in my mind Scott Pioli & Todd Haley would love to trade both players out of the conference for a couple of draft picks. I guess I would be on board with it if two mid-round picks came this way. What's so very sad about trading these two is that they represent two first-round picks, Johnson in '05 & Dorsey in '08. They should be coming into their prime, instead we're talking about unloading two premium picks for possibly a 3rd & a 4th round selection. Since a new collective bargaining agreement won't get done before the March 5th free agent period begins, trade talks need to commence quickly.
The Gabbert brothers, Blaine & Tyler, both Mizzou quarterbacks & their running mate, linebacker Andrew Gachkar, got into a little scuffle early Sunday morning. The trio were in Gumby's Pizza Parlor in downtown Columbia late Saturday night. A verbal confrontation between the football players & a group of patrons in their late 30's quickly escalated & Tyler Gabbert got sucker-punched, suffering a broken nose. The result was 7-8 guys pushing, shoving & rolling around on the floor with Columbia Police en route. After an hour of interviewing everyone present in Gumby's, the police took off the handcuffs & sent everyone home. No charges were filed. Gumby's manager Noah Schmidt said "it was a case of several intoxicated people getting out of line, nothing different from any other Saturday night downtown." Blaine & Tyler Gabbert are 20 & 18 respectively, Gachkar, who needed a few stitches to his hand after cutting it on a broken plate is 21. No suspensions were anticipated.
A week from today the NFL Combine begins in Indianapolis. The 6-day event, televised by The NFL Network, will consist of every kind of testing NFL teams can think of & then some. The 350 players in attendance are grouped by position & to get thru everything on the schedule, it takes almost 2 1/2 days. They start with parading in front of scouts & coaches in nothing but gym shorts to be publicly weighed & measured. When I say measured, I mean really measured, height, hand size, arm length, neck & anything else that is requested by the assembled onlookers. Then they are scheduled for individual interviews with any team that requests their time. Each team may have as many as 60 15-minute interviews with prospects. Drug screening comes next along with injury evaluation by team doctors. Team trainers conduct the Cybex exams, testing strength & mobility of joints. This is followed by a Wonderlic Test, 50 questions that measures the quick, logical thought process. Prospects have but 10 minutes to complete the test, anything over 30 is very good, 40 is excellent & in the 33 years the test has been administered at the combine, only one person scored a perfect 50. Former Bengal punter, Pat McInally, a Harvard grad, go figure. The prospects go into the weight room to see how many reps they can bench press with 225-pounds. Some of the big boys can get into the 40's, which is really stout. Then it's out onto the field for more physical stuff. Ron the 40-yard dash twice. Do the vertical jump & standing broad jump twice. Then the 3-cone drill, 20-yard shuttle & position specific drills finish the day. Often times the primo prospects won't compete in all the tests at the combine, preferring to do them on campus at their school's 'Pro Day'. Sometimes this backfires as not all Pro Days are attended by every team. Very often a player comes out of nowhere & really excels at several of these drills & tests, only to be a flop in the NFL. They are designated "workout warriors". Two premium picks from the 2008 draft, #4 overall, Darren McFadden & #6 overall, Vernon Golston, knocked 'em out at the Indy combine but have very little impact in the NFL. Some 350 players are invited, about 55 of them juniors & there's always a few that don't get a combine invite who go on to big things in the league. A kid I really liked last season, Sebastian Vollmer, was snubbed at Indy but ended up a 2nd round choice of the Patriots & he started 12 games at both offensive tackle positions. My guy in that spot this year is Martin Tevaseu, a 340-pound nose tackle from UNLV. If this kid makes good in the league, I'll refer to the day I touted him on these pages. If he disappears, I'll never mention his name again. I'll have more on some of the later-round prospects I'm watching in the next few days.
The Gabbert brothers, Blaine & Tyler, both Mizzou quarterbacks & their running mate, linebacker Andrew Gachkar, got into a little scuffle early Sunday morning. The trio were in Gumby's Pizza Parlor in downtown Columbia late Saturday night. A verbal confrontation between the football players & a group of patrons in their late 30's quickly escalated & Tyler Gabbert got sucker-punched, suffering a broken nose. The result was 7-8 guys pushing, shoving & rolling around on the floor with Columbia Police en route. After an hour of interviewing everyone present in Gumby's, the police took off the handcuffs & sent everyone home. No charges were filed. Gumby's manager Noah Schmidt said "it was a case of several intoxicated people getting out of line, nothing different from any other Saturday night downtown." Blaine & Tyler Gabbert are 20 & 18 respectively, Gachkar, who needed a few stitches to his hand after cutting it on a broken plate is 21. No suspensions were anticipated.
A week from today the NFL Combine begins in Indianapolis. The 6-day event, televised by The NFL Network, will consist of every kind of testing NFL teams can think of & then some. The 350 players in attendance are grouped by position & to get thru everything on the schedule, it takes almost 2 1/2 days. They start with parading in front of scouts & coaches in nothing but gym shorts to be publicly weighed & measured. When I say measured, I mean really measured, height, hand size, arm length, neck & anything else that is requested by the assembled onlookers. Then they are scheduled for individual interviews with any team that requests their time. Each team may have as many as 60 15-minute interviews with prospects. Drug screening comes next along with injury evaluation by team doctors. Team trainers conduct the Cybex exams, testing strength & mobility of joints. This is followed by a Wonderlic Test, 50 questions that measures the quick, logical thought process. Prospects have but 10 minutes to complete the test, anything over 30 is very good, 40 is excellent & in the 33 years the test has been administered at the combine, only one person scored a perfect 50. Former Bengal punter, Pat McInally, a Harvard grad, go figure. The prospects go into the weight room to see how many reps they can bench press with 225-pounds. Some of the big boys can get into the 40's, which is really stout. Then it's out onto the field for more physical stuff. Ron the 40-yard dash twice. Do the vertical jump & standing broad jump twice. Then the 3-cone drill, 20-yard shuttle & position specific drills finish the day. Often times the primo prospects won't compete in all the tests at the combine, preferring to do them on campus at their school's 'Pro Day'. Sometimes this backfires as not all Pro Days are attended by every team. Very often a player comes out of nowhere & really excels at several of these drills & tests, only to be a flop in the NFL. They are designated "workout warriors". Two premium picks from the 2008 draft, #4 overall, Darren McFadden & #6 overall, Vernon Golston, knocked 'em out at the Indy combine but have very little impact in the NFL. Some 350 players are invited, about 55 of them juniors & there's always a few that don't get a combine invite who go on to big things in the league. A kid I really liked last season, Sebastian Vollmer, was snubbed at Indy but ended up a 2nd round choice of the Patriots & he started 12 games at both offensive tackle positions. My guy in that spot this year is Martin Tevaseu, a 340-pound nose tackle from UNLV. If this kid makes good in the league, I'll refer to the day I touted him on these pages. If he disappears, I'll never mention his name again. I'll have more on some of the later-round prospects I'm watching in the next few days.
Comments