Hawks in the Draft Update

I am going to update the status of each players draft status following the combine. Some of my readers have asked me to shorten these posts a little so I am going to update each player individually. I will start with Shonn Greene today and move on to Mitch King, Bradley Fletcher, Seth Olsen, and finally Rob Bruggeman. Sorry it has taken me so long to update but I have had a hard time finding hard numbers for the combine and reviewing the combine film.

Moving on Shonn Greene had a fairly pedestrian combine performance. He ran a 4.63 40 (including a 2.63 20 split time and a 1.63 10 split time) which was right in the range he was expected to run. He benched 225 19 times, posted a 37" vertical leap and a 10' 1" broad jump. His 3 cone time was 7.10 seconds (All #s from fftoolbox.com). This was the first year at the new stadium and these were some of the slowest times ever for all of the players, not just Greene. Some analysts are saying that the track was slow but we really won't know until next season. I think that the vertical jump and the broad jump are both fairly impressive and show some explosiveness and were among the best for the position. They are especially impressive given his size. Greene can probably be most easily compared to Chris "Beanie" Wells in this draft as they have similar builds, played similar competition, and are both viewed as more power type of backs (although Wells is viewed to have more upside and top end speed). Greene had a very similar day to Wells in almost every way.

What I don't know is who he interviewed with and how he did which is really probably more important than anything he did on the field. The combine is really just a big job interview. The physical part is to make sure that you don't have any glaring weaknesses when you are a well known prospect and I would say Greene passed that aspect with flying colors. The rest of the weekend is spent talking to GMs and other team officials and being checked over by teams' medical staff. I don't believe there are any medical issues for Shonn to be worried about.

The last part of this update is concerning Free Agency. This will impact which teams will be looking to draft a running back. Jacksonville released Fred Taylor, who promptly signed with New Enlgand. I would say Jacksonville makes a ton of sense for Shonn as a compliment to Maurice Jones-Drew. Denver has signed three free agents including former Cornhusker Correl Buckhalter. Scratch the Broncos from the list. Edgerrin James is asking the Cardinals for his release and J.J. Arrington is another of the free agents the Broncos signed. Another ideal spot for Shonn to land and his only shot of landing in the first round(there will be a post on this in the week prior to the draft). So far the top back up to Jamal Lewis in Cleveland remains unsigned, Dominic Rhoades of the Colts is still unsigned, the LaDanian Tomlinson saga continues, and Kansas City could unload Larry Johnson.

Ultimately I still see Shonn going in the second round and I personally see him going to Cleveland( I hope not for his sake). I see a couple of scenarios for him going into the first round and I could actually see him falling into the third, also. The next big date for Shonn that I know of is Iowa's pro day on March 23. As far as I know he has no individual work outs planned for teams.