Inside The Bills

3 big school pro days

Three big programs will be holding their pro days today (Tuesday).

Texas, UCLA and Utah will all be hosting NFL scouts and personnel executives as their draft prospects work out. Here’s a rundown of some of the more notable prospects at each of the schools.

Texas – OLB Sam Acho, CB Curtis Brown, CB Chykie Brown, CB Aaron Williams
UCLA - OLB Akeem Ayers, S Rahim Moore, K Kai Forbath
Utah – CB Brandon Burton

Nix on Bowers pro day

Clemson DE Da’Quan Bowers will have his much anticipated pro day this Friday (April 1st). Bills GM Buddy Nix will be in attendance and admits it’s going to carry a lot of weight for the top flight pass rusher.

“I think it’s big for him,” said Nix. ”I’m not sure that you would write him off if he’s not completely healthy Friday, but it’s time for him to show he either is healthy or that he needs more work or more time.”

There have been reports in some national publications that Bowers failed a pair of physicals by NFL clubs at the combine last month. At the combine Bowers declared himself fully healthy.

“I am 100 percent,” he said. ”It was a small meniscus tear. It hampered me from my first three weeks of training, which is why I was not doing anything at the combine because I feel that I want the same amount of time that everybody else had to train and fully prepare for the combine. I am going to do all my workouts on pro day.”

Bowers was initially going to perform with his college teammates at Clemson’s pro day March 10th, but set his personal pro day back a few weeks to April 1st, which has led to a ton of speculation about his knee.

Boise St. WR shaves down 40

WR Titus Young had one last shot to prove he was faster than the disappointing 4.53 40-time he ran at the NFL combine last month. At Boise State’s pro day he did not disappoint.

Young, who has been training with former Olympic sprinter Maurice Greene in California, ran a 4.41 and a 4.42 at the pro day. That according to the Idaho Statesman. That would’ve been the fourth fastest 40 time at the combine. Young is seen as a late second or early third round pick. His teammate and fellow receiver, Austin Pettis just ran positional drills after doing everything at the combine.

Broncos RB Jeremy Avery, who wasn’t invited to the combine ran a 4.45 40 time, got 20 reps on the bench, had a broad jump of 10’5″ and a 38-inch vertical.

Last chance for Titus Young

Boise State WR Titus Young predicted he’d run a 40 time in the 4.2s at the NFL combine. Unfortunately for him he didn’t. Instead he clocked in at an unexpected 4.53. His last chance to make good comes today (Thursday) at Boise State’s pro day.

Young along with fellow Broncos receiver Austin Pettis, Jeron Johnson, Brandyn Thompson and Ryan Winterswyk will perform for pro scouts today.

Other notable pro days with draftable prospects include the following.

Fort Hayes State: WR O.J. Murdock

San Diego State: WR Vincent Brown, WR DeMarco Sampson

South Florida: DT Terrell McClain

Slate of pro days

A handful of pro days for some of the notable college programs today (Wednesday).

Here’s the run down of schools and top prospects.

Boston College – OT Anthony Castonzo, LB Mark Herzlich
Central Florida – OT Jah Reid
UCONN –  RB Jordan Todman, OLB Lawrence Wilson, G Zach Hurd
East Carolina -  WR Dwayne Harris, OT Willie Smith
Iowa State – SS David Sims
North Carolina State – ILB Nate Irving, WR Owen Spencer
Tennessee-Chattanooga – CB Buster Skrine

Kaepernick pro day results

Nevada QB Colin Kaepernick stood on his numbers for the combine and just did positional drills at his pro day Tuesday in Reno. A total of 26 NFL clubs were represented, including the Bills.

According to ProFootballTalk, Kaepernick completed 36 of 38 passes in his workout. Kaepernick, who is viewed by draft analysts as a project QB, has been working on his deep ball accuracy, shortening his wind up and making his drops quicker. Some now think he could be a second-round prospect.

According to the Reno Gazette Journal, Kapernick had a private workout with 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh last week. He also has 10 private workouts/pre-draft visits set up with NFL clubs according to his agent.

Good day for Georgia’s OLB

Georgia held their pro day today (Tuesday) in Athens and OLB Justin Houston reportedly improved on his 40 time at the NFL combine last month.

According to Yahoo Sports, Houston was clocked at 4.57 at his pro day on campus. That’s a shade faster than his official 4.62 at the combine where he also put up an impressive 30 reps with a 36 1/2 inch vertical and 10’5″ broad jump. At 6’3″ 270 pounds, Houston’s showing today could lock him in as a late first-round pick.

He finished the 2010 season with 10 sacks, second only to Nick Fairley in the SEC. He has private workouts set up with the Giants and Falcons according to reports.

Houston will reportedly conduct pre-draft visits with Buffalo, Minnesota and Kansas City.

Kentucky, Maryland pro days

Here are some of the results of the Kentucky and Maryland pro days where receivers were the top talents.

NFL.com’s Gil Brandt provides his take on how receiver talents like Torrey Smith and Randall Cobb fared at their campus workouts in addition to some other hidden talents leading up to the draft.

At Buffalobills.com we begin our draft position previews featuring the top five players at each position, which will run every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the next three weeks. The series begins today (Monday) with safeties in the media center.

Wilkerson pumped for pro day

Temple DL prospect Muhammad Wilkerson is pretty excited about his pro day.

Here is his series of tweets to that effect.

Impactmo9 BIG FRIDAY!!!!!!!

Impactmo9 Pro Day today leeegoooo

Impactmo9 Lets eat, it’s money to be made today
 
Wilkerson is forecast as a mid to late first-round pick. He had 9.5 sacks in his last season at Temple and is seen as an end in a 3-4 defense. He was initially thought to be a possible option for the Bills at the top of round 2, but he’s not expected to get out of the first round and a solid pro day today would eliminate that completely.

Nix at Gabbert pro day

With virtually the entire league at Blaine Gabbert’s pro day Thursday, it’s no surprise to see the reports that Bills GM Buddy Nix was there as well.

NFL.com’s Gil Brandt reported that Nix was in attendance along with a handful of NFL head coaches from other clubs. Brandt, who said after Cam Newton’s workout that he should be the number one pick, now admits he’s not so sure after witnessing Gabbert’s pro day performance.

He considered just one of Gabbert’s 49 passes uncatchable.

DE/OLB Aldon Smith also solidifed himself as a mid-first round pick with his workout.

Accurate day for Gabbert

Missouri QB Blaine Gabbert was very accurate at his highly anticipated pro day Thursday as he completed 44 of 49 passes according to reports.

The Columbia Daily Tribune reported that three of the five incompletions were catchable balls. The figures are impressive when one considers that he didn’t have his Missouri receivers available.

Bills dine with Gabbert

The Bills had dinner with Cam Newton the evening before his pro day at Auburn. They’ve now gone and done the same with Blaine Gabbert whose pro day is today (Thursday).

That according to NFL.com’s Gil Brandt, who said Bills GM Buddy Nix along with a few other Bills reps had dinner with the Missouri signal caller last night. He also provided a laundry list of high ranking NFL coaches and executives that are already in Columbia, Missouri for Gabbert’s pro day workout.

When Nix took the GM job with the Bills on Dec. 31st 2009 he said he’s a scout at heart and he believes in getting up close to prospects to “smell their breath.” Looks like he takes that expression literally, though we can’t say how close Buffalo’s GM was sitting to Gabbert.

Illini stand on combine numbers

The top three draft prospects out of the University of Illinois are standing on their workout numbers from the NFL combine. DT Corey Liuget, ILB Martez Wilson and RB Mikel LeShoure only did position drill work for NFL clubs on hand at their pro day according to FightingIllini.com.

FightingIllini.com is reporting that 30 NFL clubs were represented including the Bills. Only Tampa Bay and Arizona were not in attendance and they even provided photographic evidence of what teams attended with a lineup of the scouts business cards who were on hand.

Below that is also a shot of Wilson going through an agility drill courtesy of the Illini website. Wilson had one of the more impressive combine workouts with a 4.49 40-time, 20 reps on the bench, 36-inch vertical and 10’4″ broad jump in Indy at almost 6’4″ and 250 pounds.

Sharp day for Ponder

Florida State QB Christian Ponder has been steadily building momentum for his draft stock since his solid performance in the Senior Bowl, and his pro day on Wednesday did nothing to slow it down.

Ponder, who threw to Florida State teammates and retired NFL wideout Isaac Bruce, tossed about 60 passes according to the Orlando Sentinel and was sharp on the whole. NFL scouts on hand requested to see some deep balls to better gauge Ponder’s arm strength coming off his injury-plagued senior season. Ponder said they had downfield passes already scripted in anticipation of that request.

“I think they just really wanted to see how the ball was coming out today, and especially on the deep balls,” Ponder told the Orlando Sentinel. “And that’s what they specifically asked to see before I ever threw a ball – they wanted to see if we were going to throw some deep balls. And I thought I threw them pretty well.”

He said he has nine or 10 private workouts scheduled with NFL clubs between now and the draft, but refused to mention any by name.

Ponder is no doubt hoping his experience in a pro-style offense, his natural leadership skills and on field intelligence will convince NFL decision makers to look past the injuries he sustained in 2010. He’s been forecast as high as an early second-round pick.

LSU pro day

Monday may as well be LSU day as far as NFL scouts and personnel executives are concerned. It’s the only major program on the pro day slate today (Monday).

Patrick Peterson, Terrance Toliver, Drake Nevis, Kelvin Sheppard and others will be participating in Baton Rouge. Peterson, largely projected as a top five pick has wowed scouts to this point. It’ll be interesting to see if he works out fully or picks and chooses among the test drills. Nevis meanwhile is an interesting DT prospect that could be a second to third round consideration.

More big school pro days

There are a handful of more big program pro days on tap Friday.

Ohio State (Cam Heyward), Oregon State (Stephen Paea), Purdue (Ryan Kerrigan), TCU (Andy Dalton, Marcus Cannon) and Tennessee (Luke Stocker) will all be taking place today.

Paea however, is not expected to test at Oregon State. He suffered a torn lateral meniscus in his knee on the third play of practice at the Senior Bowl and won’t be ready to run until the end of March.

Tough break for UB DB

UB’s pro day is being held at One Bills Drive today (Thursday) in the Bills Fieldhouse and unfortunately one of the top prospects could not finish his workout.

UB safety Davonte Shannon pulled his left hamstring running his second 40 time and limped across the end line. Shannon had been having a solid day with 18 reps on the bench, a 41 1/2 inch vertical and 10’6″ broad jump. His first 40 time was 4.57. He’s projected as a late round pick.

Fellow DB Josh Thomas, who also was invited to the NFL combine slightly improved his 4.46 40 time in Indy with a 4.44 today. He also improved his broad jump with a 10’8″ today and his vertical reaching 40 inches. Thomas is also seen as a late round prospect.

LB Miller improves 40 time

Texas A&M LB Von Miller had already impressed with a very good combine workout. On Wednesday he took it up another notch besting his 4.53 40 time in Indy.

According to NFL.com’s Gil Brandt, the Aggies gifted pass rusher clocked a 4.49 40 time. Miller is widely forecast as a top 10 pick in this year’s draft.

More big pro days

The pro day circuit is in full swing now with major programs going again today.

Alabama, with top flight prospects Marcell Dareus, who is featured on the home page today, and Julio Jones, though Jones following foot surgery won’t be doing anything today. Other programs with first-round prospects with pro days today include Cal (Cameron Jordan), Mississippi State (Derrick Sherrod) and Wisconsin (J.J. Watt, Gabe Carimi).

Big pro days Tuesday

Three major Division I programs will be holding their pro days today (Tuesday).

Arkansas, Auburn and Oklahoma will all be holding their on campus pro days with a full contingent of NFL scouts, coaches and front office executives expected to be on hand. Here’s a rundown of some of the NFL prospects participating at those three schools here on Tuesday.

Arkansas: Ray Dominguez, DeMarcus Love, Ryan Mallett, D.J. Williams

Auburn:  Darvin Adams, Nick Fairley, Mario Fannin, Cam Newton, Daniel Ziemba

Oklahoma: Jeremy Beal, Quinton Carter, DeMarco Murray, Adrian Taylor