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College area scout Todd Brunner is back on the road for the next few weeks, attending various Pro Days of colleges in his area. Check out his first week of Pro Days!**
I came home from the Combine and basically got reacquainted with my kids and reintroduced myself to my wife last week. This week has found me back on the road with the first of my Pro Days which was Thursday at Rutgers, aka the local hot spot.
It was a big turn out as far as scouts and coaches, a lot of offensive line coaches were there, two tight end coaches and a few running back coaches.
Everyone basically is put through the same battery of tests that are done at the Combine, and then they go through a little bit of a different positional workout, based on which coaches might be at that particular workout.
The offensive line coaches mainly came out to see Cameron Stephenson and center Darnell Stapleton. Stephenson again showed that he's very athletic and strong. He opted to bench again because at the Combine he benched 34, but they took five away from him. I'm not sure if that was not locking out or because of a bounce in his lift, but he benched again and again hit 34, all clean. I think he proved he's a very strong kid.
Brian Leonard did well for the running back group. He opted to take his Combine numbers and only do the positional workout. He showed he can catch the football, good agility, change of direction, basically everything you see on tape with him, he showed at the workout.
Tight end Clark Harris had already ran his 40 at the Combine, and he stuck with that time, but took part in the positional workout and did well.
My highlight of the day was when myself and Packers scout Lee Gissendaner got to run the positional workouts for the linebackers and defensive backs. Usually the NFL coaches who come will run the skill work, but there weren't any there for the Rutgers so we stepped in. For the record, just because there weren't coaches of those positions there, it doesn't mean that these kids aren't draftable. It's just that there are typically several Pro Days taking place on the same days and you can't get everywhere.
It went very well. We won't put the name out but there was a surprise DB who ran extremely fast and worked out very well!
Thursday night I drove to Long Island to go to the Hofstra workout today (Friday). It was quite a handful of NFL scouts and a few coaches in hopes of finding the next Marques Colston.
Roughly 18-20 players there which included some Hofstra players past and present. You get that everywhere you go – guys from the previous season still trying to make it in the NFL and hoping for a workout. There were also a handful of players from other schools who grew up in Long Island. Some guys will make it, some won't, but at least they get the shot they are hoping for.
I'm racing over now to get to Princeton, which is about an hour and a half drive, so that I can catch the last half of their workout. I've got my Jimmy Buffett going because the sky is blue and the sun is out, and it's getting a little warmer out here in the East, meaning 40. So Buffett it is with the hopes of spring's arrival!
There weren't any guys from Princeton invited to the Combine, so we haven't really seen them run the 40 yet. There are a handful of guys there who could run well, and if so I'll try and set up a private workout with them in the next few weeks.
Tonight I'll enter all of my data and email it back to the office so that Scot McCloughan can keep up with what is going on.
