It was a "Who's Who" among NFL and media faces.
WR Coach Terry Robiskie and another Dolphins scout who I didn't recognize were there representing us. I didn't personally see Randy Mueller or Cam Cameron, but one of my co-workers from the LSU athletic department told me he, in fact, did see Randy Mueller.
Other faces who were in attendence: Sean Payton, Brad Childress, Mike Tomlin, Lane Kiffin, NFL Network's Mike Mayock, ESPN's Todd McShay, Jason Cole, and several other scouts from various NFL teams.
There was a Jets scout standing right by me when LaRon Landry was running his cone drill, and he was taking notes. I was extremely tempted to jack the notes and run. But I'm afraid I would have been kicked out.
I talked to Terry Robiskie and told him he is going to love working with Chris Chambers because Chambers takes pride in everything he does. Robiskie joked, "I love Chris. But he might have a problem working with me."
Robiskie didn't really have a lot of time to chit-chat, but I overheard him talking with someone else who was asking him about the Dolphins.
He said something along the lines of, "Our defense is great. Cam is an offensive guy so we'll probably go for the best offensive guy there."
Take that for what it's worth. He may have just been B.S.ing the other guy, but that's what he said.
I approached Jason Cole after the drills were over and asked him what he thought the Dolphins were there to look at.
He said he really didn't think about it and that I caught him off guard (because he was there to mainly look at JaMarcus Russell for a Yahoo.com story).
But he did acknowledge my suggestion of looking at speed at wide receiver (that's why Terry Robiskie was there). He agreed.
On field stuff:
The absolute nano-second JaMarcus Russell is drafted he will automatically have the strongest arm in the NFL. Bar none.
But, when he was throwing the route tree to Dwayne Bowe and Craig Davis, he had some accuracy issues. I'm almost 100% positive it was a machanics issue. On the throws where he delivered the ball overhead, the passes were dead on and a thing of beauty.
But during some throws, he tried to show off his arm strength and began to "sling" it. That caused some passes to go a little high or behind the receiver. But overall, watching him throw a football is a thing to behold. I have never seen a ball just absolutely jump out of someone's hands like a rocket. BTW, he lost about 10 pounds since the combine at Indy.
Dwayne Bowe has the body of an absolute addonis. He is a 6'4" receiver, but not frail at all. He will have no problem whatsoever going over the middle and catching balls. He did that great at LSU anyway.
However, on some of the throws that JaMarcus sailed or put behind him, he did not catch them. He even dropped a 9 route (bomb) down the sideline. Aside from a few drops though, Bowe looked extremely fluid and fast.
LaRon Landry is an absolute animal. He is probably one of the top 10 athletes in LSU history.
His cone drills were excellent. (didn't get the official times though.) He did great on the read and react drill that tests instincts. And, of course, he is very fast. Landry could elevate the Dolphins defense even more so by bringing an absolute force in the middle of the secondary.
Craig "Buster" Davis looked very fast today. He is not a small receiver himself, (he's 6'2") but Dwayne Bowe still looked much, much bigger. But Davis really helped himself by the 40 he ran, and I can really see him getting picked at the top of the second round. If we go another direction at pick 9, we would be blessed to have Davis available at pick 40. He would address the speed need at WR.
I didn't get to look at the official 40 times (Boomer posted them in another thread) but I did get a few sample ones from people timing around me.
Dwayne Bowe's 1st 40: 4.47
Dwayne Bowe's 2nd 40: 4.44
Buster Davis' 1st 40: 4.44
Buster Davis' 2nd 40: 4.40 (Now, Buster himself said he saw one clock that had him at 4.34 after his second run. I don't know how accurate that is, but he looked blazing fast regardless of what the time was.)
JaMarcus Russell's only 40: 4.7
On a side note, my boy Sammy Joseph, who I played high school football with in New Orleans, ran a 4.4 today. He is a little-known or talked about cornerback, but he may have raised a few eyebrows today with that time.
Very proud of him.
WR Coach Terry Robiskie and another Dolphins scout who I didn't recognize were there representing us. I didn't personally see Randy Mueller or Cam Cameron, but one of my co-workers from the LSU athletic department told me he, in fact, did see Randy Mueller.
Other faces who were in attendence: Sean Payton, Brad Childress, Mike Tomlin, Lane Kiffin, NFL Network's Mike Mayock, ESPN's Todd McShay, Jason Cole, and several other scouts from various NFL teams.
There was a Jets scout standing right by me when LaRon Landry was running his cone drill, and he was taking notes. I was extremely tempted to jack the notes and run. But I'm afraid I would have been kicked out.
I talked to Terry Robiskie and told him he is going to love working with Chris Chambers because Chambers takes pride in everything he does. Robiskie joked, "I love Chris. But he might have a problem working with me."
Robiskie didn't really have a lot of time to chit-chat, but I overheard him talking with someone else who was asking him about the Dolphins.
He said something along the lines of, "Our defense is great. Cam is an offensive guy so we'll probably go for the best offensive guy there."
Take that for what it's worth. He may have just been B.S.ing the other guy, but that's what he said.
I approached Jason Cole after the drills were over and asked him what he thought the Dolphins were there to look at.
He said he really didn't think about it and that I caught him off guard (because he was there to mainly look at JaMarcus Russell for a Yahoo.com story).
But he did acknowledge my suggestion of looking at speed at wide receiver (that's why Terry Robiskie was there). He agreed.
On field stuff:
The absolute nano-second JaMarcus Russell is drafted he will automatically have the strongest arm in the NFL. Bar none.
But, when he was throwing the route tree to Dwayne Bowe and Craig Davis, he had some accuracy issues. I'm almost 100% positive it was a machanics issue. On the throws where he delivered the ball overhead, the passes were dead on and a thing of beauty.
But during some throws, he tried to show off his arm strength and began to "sling" it. That caused some passes to go a little high or behind the receiver. But overall, watching him throw a football is a thing to behold. I have never seen a ball just absolutely jump out of someone's hands like a rocket. BTW, he lost about 10 pounds since the combine at Indy.
Dwayne Bowe has the body of an absolute addonis. He is a 6'4" receiver, but not frail at all. He will have no problem whatsoever going over the middle and catching balls. He did that great at LSU anyway.
However, on some of the throws that JaMarcus sailed or put behind him, he did not catch them. He even dropped a 9 route (bomb) down the sideline. Aside from a few drops though, Bowe looked extremely fluid and fast.
LaRon Landry is an absolute animal. He is probably one of the top 10 athletes in LSU history.
His cone drills were excellent. (didn't get the official times though.) He did great on the read and react drill that tests instincts. And, of course, he is very fast. Landry could elevate the Dolphins defense even more so by bringing an absolute force in the middle of the secondary.
Craig "Buster" Davis looked very fast today. He is not a small receiver himself, (he's 6'2") but Dwayne Bowe still looked much, much bigger. But Davis really helped himself by the 40 he ran, and I can really see him getting picked at the top of the second round. If we go another direction at pick 9, we would be blessed to have Davis available at pick 40. He would address the speed need at WR.
I didn't get to look at the official 40 times (Boomer posted them in another thread) but I did get a few sample ones from people timing around me.
Dwayne Bowe's 1st 40: 4.47
Dwayne Bowe's 2nd 40: 4.44
Buster Davis' 1st 40: 4.44
Buster Davis' 2nd 40: 4.40 (Now, Buster himself said he saw one clock that had him at 4.34 after his second run. I don't know how accurate that is, but he looked blazing fast regardless of what the time was.)
JaMarcus Russell's only 40: 4.7
On a side note, my boy Sammy Joseph, who I played high school football with in New Orleans, ran a 4.4 today. He is a little-known or talked about cornerback, but he may have raised a few eyebrows today with that time.
Very proud of him.
