Green Bay — Maryland tackle Bruce Campbell, Idaho guard Mike Iupati and Florida center Maurkice Pouncey all posted low scores for offensive linemen on the Wonderlic Personnel Test, sending National Football League teams digging for clarity one week before the draft.
Surprisingly enough, a cross section of executives in personnel for NFL teams forecast greater learning problems ahead for Campbell even though his score was the highest of the three.
Tackle, especially players capable of playing the left side, is a loaded position this year, with four apparently headed for the top 20 and a few others having the opportunity to slip into the first round. Guard and center are weak, with frontrunners Iupati and Pouncey also in line for first-round calls.
As teams adjust draft boards one last time, general manager Thomas Dimitroff of the Atlanta Falcons said reliability was a common theme throughout the league.
"Ultimately in the first round, a lot of teams want to make sure, more than anything, that they have a sure pick, a guy they can count on," said Dimitroff. "That pick doesn't necessarily need to be a perennial Pro Bowler, but they need a guy that will be counted on year in and year out."
The top five tackles scored between 20 and 29 on the Wonderlic, a 12-minute, 50-question general intelligence exam that Cincinnati Bengals owner Paul Brown introduced to the NFL in the late 1960s. Each of them has varying degrees of physical skill, but their ability to comprehend the NFL game isn't an issue.
That certainly isn't the case for Campbell, who scored 18 (one fewer than the NFL average) at the combine in February, or Iupati, who scored 13 on campus a year ago.
However, after having interviewed Pouncey and conducting other background checks, personnel men for six teams all said Pouncey's score of 14 wasn't a concern.
"He's a real smart guy," said Eric DeCosta, the Baltimore Ravens' director of player personnel. "He's very smart football-wise."
In most offenses it is the job of the center to call out the defensive front, identify pass rushers and adjust the protection or run-blocking scheme at the line. Intelligence is valued highly at all five offensive line positions but none more so than center.
Green Bay center Scott Wells scored 30 on the Wonderlic, and his predecessor, Mike Flanagan, had 35. The six centers drafted in the first round since 1994 averaged 24.7.
"I'd be worried if I hadn't talked to Pouncey," an NFC personnel director said. "The history of centers that low is not good."
Other than quarterback, the link between the Wonderlic and successful performance might be stronger in the offensive line than at any other position.
Last year, eight men accounted for all but 34 snaps on the Packers' offensive line, and seven of those eight had test scores ranging between 21 and 30. It's not a coincidence that tackle Allen Barbre, the odd man out with a Wonderlic of 11, had played himself out of the lineup by midseason.
Over the last few weeks, the Journal Sentinel polled 21 personnel people, asking them who among the top offensive linemen had the best chance to bust. The fact that Campbell led with 12 votes (Anthony Davis had four votes and five others, including Iupati, each had one) can be attributed to a variety of reasons, but mental acuity was cited by four scouts
"It's the mental that will get him," said one personnel director who has been in interviews with Campbell. "When he's talking he's not a quick thinker. He's a slow process, a very slow process guy. Somebody will have to tell him what to do all the time."
Another evaluator said Campbell had a "neurological slowness that's extremely scary.".
At the combine, Campbell said he grew up in the "ghettos" of New Haven, Conn. After spending 2006 at Hargrave (Va.) Military Academy, he was able to enroll at Maryland.
The Terps' coaching staff took its time with Campbell, playing him in just five games in 2007 and starting him only after another player was injured in mid-2008.
Campbell's incredible workout was the talk of the combine. One scout, however, labeled that as "inconsequential" when compared to what he described as Campbell's "awful" play on tape and the 15-minute interviews he did with team after team in Indianapolis.
"He might be the most phenomenal physical specimen I've ever seen," one longtime scout said. "But he can't conceptualize."
At 14, Iupati moved from American Samoa to Anaheim, Calif., telling teams that he had to deal with the language barrier until his first year of college.
"As an interior player you want to see a guy that's pretty bright," one personnel executive said. "I just don't know if he fits that bill. Sometimes it takes those kind of guys two or three years. If you take a guy in the first round that takes two or three years, to me that's a bust."
Added another scout: "He's my favorite lineman in the draft. He can fit whatever you want to do inside. The whole question with him is just going to be how fast he learns and retains."
Aptitude probably is one reason why all of Iupati's 33 starts came at left guard and perhaps why he struggled at the Senior Bowl when tried at right guard and right tackle.
"He's got to really work at it in school," said one scout. "The opinion is he's better off just being left at one position."
A total of 19 national-based personnel men were asked to rank their favorite linemen on a 1-to-6 basis. Russell Okung led the way with 100 points (11 firsts), followed by Trent Williams (94, five), Bryan Bulaga (56), Iupati (44, one first), Davis (40) and Pouncey (37, one).
Rounding out the votes were Charles Brown (13, one), Vladimir Ducasse (seven), Rodger Saffold (four), Jon Asamoah (two) and Campbell (two).
"There's a large group of tackles," San Diego general manager A.J. Smith said. "Then there's a dropoff at guard and center."
DAL @ GB
