Jenkins, mentioned as a possible selection of the Browns at No. 5, ran unofficial times of between 4.53 and 4.58 at Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium. He also dropped some passes in the ball drills, prompting Deion Sanders of the NFL Network to proclaim that Jenkins and a couple of the other DBs were “killing themselves.”

“His value will be affected by his time, like it or not,” said Mayock. “But there’s a lot of good tape on him and a lot of Cover 2 teams are going to love him at corner.”
Or perhaps at another position.

“Some people think day one he’s a Pro Bowl free safety,” said Mayock. “He’s got the size and the strength and the physicality to play the position.”

Most of the analysts were more concerned about Jenkins’ shaky performance in the ball drills.
“He kind of followed up [the 40 time] with an average at best — and probably not even average — performance for his skill-set,” said Mayock.

I watched the combine yesterday on the NFL Network and Jenkins’ performance was as bad as the article suggests. He’s a good player and he had a tremendous collegiate career at Ohio State. The combine doesn’t mean everything, but it’s hard to shake off a bad 40-time when you’re a corner – especially when you’re projected to go in the top 10. Most safeties run n the mid 4.5’s, so this isn’t good for Jenkins’ draft stock.

What’s interesting about Jenkins being labeled a Cover 2 corner by Mayock is that some say that’s a knock. But the fact of the matter is that most defenses run a variety of coverages (Cover 2, man to man, Cover 4, etc.) and outside of Denver’s Champ Baliey and Oakland’s Nnamdi Asomugha, there aren’t any true cover corners left in the NFL anymore. So Jenkins being labeled as a Cover 2 corner isn’t a bad thing and chances are he’ll still be a top 15 pick.

Illinois’ Vontae Davis ran a 4.49 at the combine and is a physical marvel. The knock on him is that he freelances too much in coverage, but he might have done enough at the combine to leapfrog Jenkins as the top corner selected in April.

Teams in need of a quarterback this offseason might not want to pass on what’s available on the free agent market because the QB class at the NFL scouting combine had a rough weekend.

Georgia’s Matthew Stafford might have been on to something when he didn’t workout this weekend at the combine, because his quarterback brethren didn’t fair too well according to the NFL Network’s Mike Mayock and Paul Burmeister. In fact, the quarterback who impressed the most during drills was West Virginia’s Pat White, who might not even project as a QB in the NFL. White apparently showed the best arm strength of any QB on out routes and also looked very comfortable on a whole.

Scouts said that Mark Sanchez’s (USC) throws were strong and powerful, although his release looked elongated. I had the chance to watch the combine on the NFL Network and I would say his accuracy wasn’t up to snuff, either (or at least not for a quarterback prospect expected to be selected in the first round).

Among the quarterback prospects that really struggled were Alabama’s John Parker Wilson, Texas Tech’s Graham Harrell and Kansas State’s Josh Freeman. Wilson and Harrell were going to be late round projects no matter how they fared at the combine, but Freeman was supposed to have the best physical tools of any QB in the draft. Apparently his first round projection in some mocks was way off.

Stafford’s gamble to not workout might have paid off. Sanchez was the only guy that could have unseated Stafford as the top quarterback prospect and while he was okay in drills, he was far from spectacular.

Teams might be better off waiting for Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford and Texas’s Colt McCoy to come out next year because outside of Stafford and maybe Sanchez, most of the quarterbacks in this year’s class are developmental projects at best.

Rotoworld.com explains:

Outland trophy winner Alabama T Andre Smith was missing at the NFL Scouting Combine Saturday morning.

There are conflicting reports from Smith and his agent about where he was, and why he didn’t show on Saturday. He has recently been located. Either way, this is the story dominating talk in Indy after Smith also admitted that he was out of shape Friday. Smith has a stellar on-field resume, but the Combine couldn’t be going worse. This will hurt his chances of being a top-two tackle in the draft.

Smith’s week is like watching a bad movie. You want to turn away, but you just have to see the ending at this point. Heading into the Sugar Bowl, he was regarded as the top offensive tackle in the draft. Then he got suspended for the game, checked into the combine overweight (he flat out admitted to being out of shape) and then doesn’t show up on one of the workout days. Now he’ll be lucky to be selected in the top 15.

What a weird, weird story.

If you remember correctly, Smith was the player that Nick Saban had to suspend for this year’s Sugar Bowl because he violated a team rule. As it turns out, Smith was actually suspended because of improper dealings with his agent, according to ESPN.com. Now it appears that Smith might not even work out at the combine because he indicated that he’s out of shape.

This isn’t a bad player we’re talking about here. Smith won the Outland Trophy this season and was a huge part of Alabama’s offensive success. He’s an outstanding run blocker and could be the type of mauler that a pro team would love to have at the tackle position. But his weight continues to be an issue and even worse, his work ethic has often been questioned throughout his collegiate career.

Considering the plethora of offensive line prospects in this year’s draft, it’s not advantageous to be known as an unmotivated prospect. Virginia’s Eugene Monroe, Baylor’s Jason Smith and Ole Miss’s Michael Oher are the other top tackle prospects in the draft and anyone of them could be taken ahead of Smith. Instead of being selected in the top five, Smith could easily fall into the middle of the first round because of his weight issues and lack of motivation.

At this point, it looks like Smith’s draft stock is plummeting. It’ll be interesting to see if he skips the combine workouts this week and drops his stock even further.

- The Love of Sports compiles the top six Cinderella candidates for the 2009 March Madness tournament.

- SPORTSbyBROOKS.com has the story of A-Rod’s loyal cousin (the one who injected Rodriguez with steroids), who apparently is named Yuri Sucart and is living in Miami.

- Deadspin.com has the unusual story of Giants’ minor league shortstop Brain Bocock, a weird hand injury and lots of Viagra.

- With Leather breaks the news that draft prospects at the 2009 NFL Scouting Combine get goody bags. Awesome.