Philip Merling Article

[SouperMeister]

Originally Posted by PSUSkinsFan21

This is so typical of the NFL these days. The guy's stock is almost certainly going to drop because teams don't have the "all important" 40 time and cone drills and such to work off of. The guy put together a great career playing in the SEC......either he can play or he can't play, and you don't find that out with a stopwatch, you find it out by looking at past performance. The more I see and hear about Merling, the more I think he'd be a great pick for us at 21. I personally could care less what his workout numbers would have looked like. Particularly for defensive guys, what good is a 4.40 40 if you take a full second longer than a guy that runs a 4.60 40 to diagnose a play and react? And what good does it do you to be 3 inches taller and 30 lbs heavier if you don't have an arsenal of decent moves to get by the tackle and get to the QB? I'm not saying workout numbers don't serve any purpose, but the weight they are given is just ridiculous.

AMEN. Every year there's a Mike Mamula in the draft, a workout warrior who jumps into the first round based on great combine numbers. Then there are those like Emmitt Smith, Jerry Rice, and Cris Carter who slide due to slower than expected 40 times. My take: look at the film, trust the film. Film doesn't lie.