Two days of a continuous flow of coaches and general managers at the podium at the NFL Scouting Combine came to an end on Thursday afternoon at Lucas Oil Stadium and the focus now is solely on the college prospects.
Before they wrapped things up, a few AFC North general managers were among those that spoke about various topics related to the Combine and the NFL Draft.
The Cleveland Browns had no further comment on the status of quarterback Johnny Manziel, but when asked about quarterback visits Executive VP of Football Operations Sashi Brown had the following to say.
"Our scouts will be the lead dog in terms of all personnel evaluations but Hue (Jackson) will have a big say in that," said Brown. "He obviously has a tremendous amount of experience about what it takes physically and mentally to play the position and we've had a lot of conversations so far and we'll have a lot more over the next 60-plus days."
- Every team has a different priority at the Combine, and for Cincinnati Bengals Director of Player Personnel Duke Tobin health evaluations are the No. 1 thing.
"The single most important thing we get is the medical assessment on these guys to see where they are and if they have some concerns we can follow up on those," said Tobin. "That would be the single biggest thing. In terms of the interviews, those are valuable, we like to get to know the guys. We don't get them long enough to really get to know them but you get a quick glimpse at what makes them tick. That's valuable to us. Obviously the measureables are valuable. Bigger, faster, stronger, we are all looking for the same things. It's good to get verified measureables on these guys, too. We take value on almost every element."
- Jaguars Coach Gus Bradley weighed in on if he thinks there is good depth as far as pass rushers are concerned this year.
"I think there is," said Bradley. "I think going into the draft class there was some unknowns there but I think that as we looked at more and more guys I think there are some guys that have the traits that we're looking for."
- And finally, Houston Texans Coach Bill O'Brien shared his take on the crop of quarterbacks available in this year's draft.
"I'm not all the way through watching all of these guys, but there seems to be a good list of guys, guys that have had successful college careers, guys that have won a lot of games, played different systems," said O'Brien. "I'm enjoying watching these guys and I think we have a long way to go. It's a long process. I say this every year, it's a process that lasts a long time and there are different stages to the process. You have the Senior Bowl, then the Combine here, so it takes a while to really gather all the information and make decisions. There seems to be a good list of guys here."
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