cowboyjoe
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 28,435
- Reaction score
- 757
Odrick a top-10 pick?
By GORDIE JONES
Staff Writer
Updated: 04/13/2010 09:55:15 PM EDT
Lebanon High grad Jared Odrick is one of 16 players invited to next week s NFL Draft in New York, fueling speculation that his draft stock could be on the rise.
(LEBANON DAILY NEWS FILE PHOTO
)
Jared Odrick is going places. New Orleans on Sunday. Cleveland on Monday. New York City next Thursday, for the NFL Draft.
Indications are that Odrick, a defensive lineman from Lebanon High and Penn State, might also be moving up the draft charts. It had originally been expected that he would be taken late in the first round. But the Browns, who own the seventh overall pick, had him in for a visit Monday.
Denver, which picks 11th, is also interested, according to various reports. So, too, are Atlanta (which has the No. 19 selection), New England (22), Baltimore (25), Dallas (27) and the Jets (29) - not to mention the Super Bowl-champion Saints, whose choice is 32nd (and last) in the first round. He visited with them over the weekend.
Odrick told the Daily News in a phone interview Saturday night that he had also visited with the Cowboys and Jets, and that he does not work out for the teams during these visits; he had done that at the NFL Scouting Combine in late February in Indianapolis, and at Penn State's Pro Day on March 17. Rather, he meets with coaches and upper-management types.
Another indication that he might go earlier than expected is that he is among 16 prospects who have been invited to the draft, which for the first time this year will be a three-day event in Radio City Music Hall. The first round will be held Thursday, April 22, beginning at 7:30 p.m. The second and third rounds will be staged that Friday, beginning at 6:30 p.m. And the remaining four
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Advertisement
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
rounds will be held Saturday, April 24, beginning at 10 a.m.
Odrick, while hopeful of going earlier than first thought, has no idea how things will shake out.
"Teams could trade up or down," he said. "You never know what's going to happen with the draft. I expect to go anywhere at any time. That's why I'm trying to have as much fun as I can."
The 6-foot-5, 304-pound Odrick played defensive tackle at PSU and this past season was named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year after recording 43 tackles and a career-high seven sacks. But many scouts have begun viewing him as a defensive end, particularly in the 3-4 look favored by many NFL clubs, including the Browns and Broncos.
Mike Mayock, the NFL Network's highly respected draft analyst, said in January that Odrick was "very appealing" because of his ability to slide outside. And Mayock now ranks Odrick not with the tackles, but with the ends. He lists him fourth, behind South Florida's Jason Pierre-Paul, Georgia Tech's Derrick Morgan and Michigan's Brandon Graham.
If Odrick is asked to move to end, he does not expect the transition to be a difficult one.
"Football's football," he said. "If I'm as good as I know I am, I should be able to adapt to anything."
The Browns had previously been expected to take one of the top safeties in this draft - Tennessee's Eric Berry or Texas' Earl Thomas. Both visited with the team last week, as noted in a blog Monday by the Cleveland Plain Dealer's Mary Kay Cabot.
But Cabot also wrote that the Browns are interested in Odrick, since their starting defensive ends, Robaire Smith and Kenyon Coleman, are 33 and 31, respectively. Also because tackle Shaun Rogers, whom the team has considered moving to end, was arrested on April 1 for carrying a loaded gun at Cleveland Hopkins Airport.
Finally, Cabot wrote that the Browns had Texas quarterback Colt McCoy in for a visit Tuesday and that the team is doing all the necessary legwork on the other top-flight QBs available.
As for Odrick, a personnel guy for an AFC team, speaking under condition of anonymity, told this reporter in January that the former Penn Stater is "a very hard-playing, tough guy" and "a very disruptive player."
"The things you like about him are his motor, his size, his tenacious attitude and his effort," the personnel guy said.
Odrick excelled in the practices leading up to the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala., in late January. After the last full-pad session, Tony Pauline of TFYDraft.com wrote in a blog appearing on SI.com that Odrick "looked like a man possessed and was impossible to stop."
"He was both quick and powerful," Pauline added, "defeating blocks off the snap with a great first step or powerfully moving opponents off the line with great leg drive."
A month later, Odrick ran a 5.03 40-yard-dash in the Combine - a time he disputes, saying it was actually more like 4.98. He also bench-pressed 225 pounds 26 times and had his vertical leap measured at 29 inches.
In addition, he interviewed with 24 teams.
"They ask you personal questions about your family - what kind of person you are, and stuff like that," he said.
And there were no off-the-wall questions, he said.
"Everybody was asking the same thing," he said, "so you kind of get used to it."
He lowered his 40 time to 4.90 at PSU's Pro Day - he said it was more like 4.89 - for reasons that aren't exactly clear.
"I think you can attribute it to rest, or maybe a different surface," he said. "There are so many different factors you can give credit to, or blame. I just performed better."
And since then he's been going places. Maybe next Thursday, too.
By GORDIE JONES
Staff Writer
Updated: 04/13/2010 09:55:15 PM EDT
Lebanon High grad Jared Odrick is one of 16 players invited to next week s NFL Draft in New York, fueling speculation that his draft stock could be on the rise.
(LEBANON DAILY NEWS FILE PHOTO
)
Jared Odrick is going places. New Orleans on Sunday. Cleveland on Monday. New York City next Thursday, for the NFL Draft.
Indications are that Odrick, a defensive lineman from Lebanon High and Penn State, might also be moving up the draft charts. It had originally been expected that he would be taken late in the first round. But the Browns, who own the seventh overall pick, had him in for a visit Monday.
Denver, which picks 11th, is also interested, according to various reports. So, too, are Atlanta (which has the No. 19 selection), New England (22), Baltimore (25), Dallas (27) and the Jets (29) - not to mention the Super Bowl-champion Saints, whose choice is 32nd (and last) in the first round. He visited with them over the weekend.
Odrick told the Daily News in a phone interview Saturday night that he had also visited with the Cowboys and Jets, and that he does not work out for the teams during these visits; he had done that at the NFL Scouting Combine in late February in Indianapolis, and at Penn State's Pro Day on March 17. Rather, he meets with coaches and upper-management types.
Another indication that he might go earlier than expected is that he is among 16 prospects who have been invited to the draft, which for the first time this year will be a three-day event in Radio City Music Hall. The first round will be held Thursday, April 22, beginning at 7:30 p.m. The second and third rounds will be staged that Friday, beginning at 6:30 p.m. And the remaining four
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Advertisement
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
rounds will be held Saturday, April 24, beginning at 10 a.m.
Odrick, while hopeful of going earlier than first thought, has no idea how things will shake out.
"Teams could trade up or down," he said. "You never know what's going to happen with the draft. I expect to go anywhere at any time. That's why I'm trying to have as much fun as I can."
The 6-foot-5, 304-pound Odrick played defensive tackle at PSU and this past season was named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year after recording 43 tackles and a career-high seven sacks. But many scouts have begun viewing him as a defensive end, particularly in the 3-4 look favored by many NFL clubs, including the Browns and Broncos.
Mike Mayock, the NFL Network's highly respected draft analyst, said in January that Odrick was "very appealing" because of his ability to slide outside. And Mayock now ranks Odrick not with the tackles, but with the ends. He lists him fourth, behind South Florida's Jason Pierre-Paul, Georgia Tech's Derrick Morgan and Michigan's Brandon Graham.
If Odrick is asked to move to end, he does not expect the transition to be a difficult one.
"Football's football," he said. "If I'm as good as I know I am, I should be able to adapt to anything."
The Browns had previously been expected to take one of the top safeties in this draft - Tennessee's Eric Berry or Texas' Earl Thomas. Both visited with the team last week, as noted in a blog Monday by the Cleveland Plain Dealer's Mary Kay Cabot.
But Cabot also wrote that the Browns are interested in Odrick, since their starting defensive ends, Robaire Smith and Kenyon Coleman, are 33 and 31, respectively. Also because tackle Shaun Rogers, whom the team has considered moving to end, was arrested on April 1 for carrying a loaded gun at Cleveland Hopkins Airport.
Finally, Cabot wrote that the Browns had Texas quarterback Colt McCoy in for a visit Tuesday and that the team is doing all the necessary legwork on the other top-flight QBs available.
As for Odrick, a personnel guy for an AFC team, speaking under condition of anonymity, told this reporter in January that the former Penn Stater is "a very hard-playing, tough guy" and "a very disruptive player."
"The things you like about him are his motor, his size, his tenacious attitude and his effort," the personnel guy said.
Odrick excelled in the practices leading up to the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala., in late January. After the last full-pad session, Tony Pauline of TFYDraft.com wrote in a blog appearing on SI.com that Odrick "looked like a man possessed and was impossible to stop."
"He was both quick and powerful," Pauline added, "defeating blocks off the snap with a great first step or powerfully moving opponents off the line with great leg drive."
A month later, Odrick ran a 5.03 40-yard-dash in the Combine - a time he disputes, saying it was actually more like 4.98. He also bench-pressed 225 pounds 26 times and had his vertical leap measured at 29 inches.
In addition, he interviewed with 24 teams.
"They ask you personal questions about your family - what kind of person you are, and stuff like that," he said.
And there were no off-the-wall questions, he said.
"Everybody was asking the same thing," he said, "so you kind of get used to it."
He lowered his 40 time to 4.90 at PSU's Pro Day - he said it was more like 4.89 - for reasons that aren't exactly clear.
"I think you can attribute it to rest, or maybe a different surface," he said. "There are so many different factors you can give credit to, or blame. I just performed better."
And since then he's been going places. Maybe next Thursday, too.
