NFL COMBINE PREVIEW

2009 NFL COMBINE PREVIEW
By Dr. Donovan Goldbond
Lead NFL Draft Expert

Another Super bowl champion has been crowned and it’s time to focus on the NFL’s version of a job fair. The NFL Combine will be held on February 18th-24th in Indianapolis, IN at Lucas Oil Stadium. I realize the Pro Bowl is slated to be held this week-end but I thought I would do us all, “a solid” and spotlight the heart and soul of the NFL off-season with some NFL draft preparation, beginning with the Combine.


Here is a preview of the big 3 skill positions for starters!

QBs

With Georgia QB, Matt Stafford and USC QB, Mark Sanchez going toe to toe to see who is the #1 quarterback and possibly the #1 pick in the draft overall, we should expect both players to participate in some of the workouts. One QB who needs to have an impressive combine is Texas Tech’s Graham Harrell. He already has the curse of other Texas Tech QBs going against him as none of them have been successful at the next level. If he wants to sniff the top four rounds he needs to bring it this week and even that won’t grantee anything come draft day.

RBs

This year’s big story at the RB position could be titled, “The Young and the Restless”. All five of my top prospects are underclassmen including Georgia’s Knowshon Moreno, Ohio States Chris Wells, Iowa’s Shonn Greene, UConn’s Donald Brown and Pitt’s LeSean McCoy. One RB to keep an eye on is Iowa’s Shonn Greene. He won the 2008 Doak Walker Award and was a consensus All-American. Greene had a monster year tallying 1,850 yards and 20 touchdowns in 2008, even when other teams were stacking 8 or more guys in the box and daring Iowa to pass the ball. With a ton of talented underclassman entering this year’s draft at the RB position, Greene will have to show that he has the speed and receiving skills to be a late 1st or early 2nd round pick.

WR

There is one clear cut favorite at the WR position and the only question is, where in the top 5 will he go in the draft? Texas Tech’s Michael Crabtree has been compared to Randy Moss, Larry Fitzgerald and Calvin Johnson and we all know how those three legendary receivers have turned out at the next level. One guy I’m looking forward to seeing at the Combine is North Carolina’s Hakeem Nicks. He was a man child in their bowl game versus West Virginia catching 8 balls for 217 yards and 3 scores. If he can run a good 40, he could possibly be a first rounder. Another big WR that could raise his stock depending on the Combine is Kenny Britt from Rutgers. He has good size at 6-4 and 215 lbs but needs to show better speed to get announced in round one