silverbear;2738506 said:
A nice list, DC, though I'm skeptical that Byrd has the speed needed to play in the NFL... I'm keeping an open mind, maybe he was hurt when he ran for the scouts...
It's hard to believe how far and how fast Toler has risen the draft boards, isn't it??
He's got size and speed.
Most NFL teams would rather go after a small school kid who has the potential to get much better than a big school kid who has already plateaued.
Once a team sees that he has on field numbers to go with his measurables than he's going to get some workouts.
Dennis Thurman liked him and that's good enough for me...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/03/AR2009040301830.html
Dennis Thurman, the defensive backs coach for the New York Jets, had neither a highlight DVD nor an extensive scouting report on Greg Toler, the player he was about to see at Wilson High School on Monday. Thurman had heard only that he was fast.
"I was talking to another scout at the combine, and he told me about this defensive back from a tiny D-II school that ran a 4.37 40," Thurman said before he met Toler, who played college football at Division II Saint Paul's in Lawrenceville, Va. "I'd never seen the kid play, not even on tape."
When Toler walked into the Wilson athletic director's office, where Thurman and Ravens defensive assistant Roy Anderson were waiting, he politely introduced himself and sat down for a brief interview. Thurman asked most of the questions because Anderson already knew Toler.
Then came the workout.
"I know you're fast," Thurman said, "but I want to see if you can play."
Toler backpedaled quickly on the Wilson field and began a series of agility drills. The scouts wanted to see how Toler opened his hips going to the left and then to the right. They wanted to see how quickly he changed direction and how he came up on the ball to defend against the run.
After running Toler through a workout that lasted roughly 30 minutes, Thurman seemed pleased.
"The kid's good, but he's raw," he said. "He tracks the ball really well and has some good ball skills. The little technique skills that he doesn't have yet can be picked up."
No scout wants to overlook a potential contributor in his team's own region, and the Commanders apparently did their research before just about anyone.
"We went down and saw him play in the fall," Scott Campbell, Washington's director of player personnel, said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. "If a region scout is doing their job, they'll find a kid like that, especially if he's in your own backyard."
Campbell declined to comment when asked what the Commanders liked about Toler. But he did say: "He's got the measurables. The biggest question on him will be how he is able to go from being a big fish in a small pond to being a fish in a pond where everyone's as big and fast as he is."
Prior to his workout at Wilson, Thurman asked Toler if he was comfortable working out alone -- an environment sure to emphasize any misstep. After stocking department store shelves four years ago, the relatively unknown prospect wasn't about to complain.
"Nah, coach, I'm used to it," Toler said with a slight smile. "Every workout I've been on I've been alone. I'm a cornerback. I enjoy being on an island, and being from a small school I'm used to having to work harder to stand out."
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That's the atttitude a CB has to have. He's on an island and he knows that he has to work harder to show up because he's from a small school.
You told them how to express their ire w/out getting negative mod attention, now you are dropping example after example. I doubt it will sink in.
