The 2011 NFL Scouting Combine has come to a close and consequentially, players and team personnel will begin trickling out of Indianapolis this weekend.  Now, as Nate Dunlevy reminds us, there is nothing left to do but wait (at least until the 2011 NFL Draft.)  There was, of course, some good news for fans today in the ruling announced in the NFLPA's TV case, but we'll get into that later.  First thing's first: we need to summarize the Combine.  

As you know, Matt and I spent four days (Thursday through Sunday) covering the Combine.  Joining us were VanRam of Turf Show Times, Kevin Ewoldt of Hogs Haven and JimmyK of Bleeding Green Nation.  Matt, of course, wrote for both Stampede Blue and SB Nation Indiana, so you can all thank him on doubling up and providing some great coverage for both sites.

Matt said he was beat in his day four wrap-up, and I share that sentiment.  It was an incredible experience, but man, it was exhausting.  Lots of hurry-up-and-wait.  Seemed like we would sit for a half-hour to an hour, have a sudden flurry of activity, sprint to ask questions and get quotes and then hurry back to hammer out a story.  Rinse and repeat.  I'm not complaining at all; I enjoyed every moment I was there.  I'm just trying to convey the experience.

Another thought still sitting with me two days later is that covering the Combine was also a humbling experience.  I generally feel like a knowledgeable NFL guy.  I'm confident about my league awareness.  But, man, until you're in a room of seasoned sportswriters, you don't realize how little you know.  I mean, I felt like Matt knew ten times more than I did, so you can imagine how I felt sitting next to John Clayton on a few occasions.

I could go on and on about personal experiences, but you probably want to hear about the players, or news relevant to the Colts.  So after the jump, we'll take a look at some Combine results and identify the weekend's winners and losers.

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--Since we're still on top, talk about CB and Safety Workouts here too.

I'm back on my couch watching, and today will be very interesting to see how this great Defensive Line class does working out.

Discuss the day's proceedings.

I know I'm not alone when I say I'm beat.  The last four days I've heard the same questions over and over, ate the same sandwich for lunch over and over, and listened to draft prospects say they've met with "pretty much every team" over and over, but I wouldn't have traded the experience for anything. While I was awestruck on Thursday morning, by late Sunday afternoon, I had a pretty good appreciation for how hard these guys work to make sure we fans get all the information we crave from our favorite teams, especially when fan sites like Stampede Blue can't get this kind of access year-round.

The consensus of the guys around us was that Rick Gosselin of the Dallas Morning News was by far the hardest working guy at the Combine. He tried to talk to every single prospect that came into the media room, no matter if they were Cam Newton, or a little known receiver from Hillsdale College.  Not only did he try to talk to each one of them, he always had a pointed question to ask, referencing a notebook ridiculously thick, complete with stats and notes of each and every prospect.

Sunday's session was 2/3 full at most, as it seemed they wanted to get out of town early, and there really wasn't that big prospect coming through today, although 3 players in the top 10 did make an appearance (Nick Fairley, Patrick Peterson, Prince Amukamara).

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Since our mid-day update, we've encountered a flurry of safeties...and that's pretty much it.  It looks like Stampede Blue's run at the 2011 NFL Scouting Combine, courtesy SB Nation and Brad Wells, who pushed strongly for our presence here at Lucas Oil Stadium, will end not with a bang but a whimper.  No confetti.  No chorus line.  Just how these things go.  The national writers are all hammering out their final stories of their stay and preparing to fly back, the stream of prospects is slowing greatly and soon, the only folks left at the Luke will be players, scouts, general managers and NFL Network analysts attempting to break a six-second 40-yard dash.

We left off talking about Rahim Moore, so let's talk about about some other defensive back prospects.  Shortly after the mid-day update, safety Quinton Carter (Oklahoma) took the podium.  My immediate impression was that he was much more stout and compact than Moore, definitely a strong safety build.  Carter, measuring 6-0, 208 lbs, said he was comfortable playing in the box or in coverage.  The Sooners, he said, transitioned from predominately zone to man coverage this year to support a wider variety of blitz packages, so he said he felt comfortable with either man or zone.  Like most safeties, he compared himself to Troy Polamalu and Ed Reed, even throwing in a sprinkle of Brian Dawkins.  Those comparisons became a running theme today.

The next safety to take a podium was Deunta Williams (N. Carolina), one of several Tar Heel defensive prospects here today.  Most of these UNC prospects fielded questions about how good their team could have been had players like Marvin Austin, Robert Quinn and Greg Little not been suspended, and really, it's scary to think about how dominant that defense could have been.  UNC might have had the top defensive end, defensive tackle and safety in the draft, as well as one of the better cornerbacks, in college football.  Think they might have made a title run?

More on Williams himself and other prospects after the jump.

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As chaotic and grandiose as yesterday's Cam Newton spectacle was, today has thus far proved to be the polar opposite.

The media floor has seemed half-empty for the majority of the day.  Nobody seems to be anticipating much.  There aren't any real podium rushes to speak of and most writers seem content to hammer away at their laptop while allowing themselves cursory glances at the monitors above, all streaming NFL Network's live Combine coverage.  That's an interesting point in and of itself: writers are not allowed access to the playing surface where the drills are actually being conducted and all the glass door suite entrances are blanketed by blackout curtains...but we're surrounded by monitors offering live coverage of the exact thing we're not allowed to watch live.  Odd.  Matt's theory is that the NFL doesn't want reporters recording the proceedings.  I say the NFL doesn't want reporters noting which scouts and team personnel are shaking hands with certain players -- a sight rendered irrelevant, I figure, by the fact that every team does their due diligence on every player, so nobody could make much of a certain scout talking to a certain player anyway.

If you're wondering about actual proceedings today, the interviews here have been linebacker spillovers from yesterday and a few defensive backs so far.  Matt and I made it to the podium for both Chris Culliver (S. Carolina) and Kendric Burney (N. Carolina.)  Culliver is an athletic prospects who can play either cornerback or free safety, though he says his most natural position is cornerback.  He boasted versatility: he can cover from either corner or safety, he can return and he can play special teams.  Culliver also mentioned that he is a former wide receiver, and I'm sure Colts fans will draw immediate comparisons to Kelvin Hayden.  The name of the game for Colts' defensive back prospects this year is "special teams capable."  Culliver certainly falls in that category.

Burney also tauted his versatility, claiming he can press and drop off in zone, play special teams coverage and do a fine job as a returner.  He actually mentioned that his return skills derive from his baseball skills, which he said really taught him to make plays when he had the ball in his hands.  Going back to our Senior Bowl coverage, you'll realize that I've been lauding Burney for a while now.  He strikes me as a perfect fit for the direction the Colts are looking to take with their defense: a quick, playmaking corner who can press and contribute valuable snaps on special teams.  Burney told us that he gained a lot from that Senior Bowl experience and also from going up against current and former Tar Heel receivers like Greg Little and Hakeem Nicks in practice.  Nicks, he said, is the best receiver he has ever had to cover.

Finally, Matt and I were able to attend Rahim Moore's (UCLA) press conference.  Moore, a strong safety, certainly gave the most confident interview of the day, guaranteeing that he would be a 10-12 year starter for whichever team drafted him and that he could and would come in start from day one.  Moore is generally regarded as one of the -- if not the -- best safeties in the 2011 draft class and could very well be available when the Colts pick.  Though he certainly did come off as cocky, there was an air of sincerity about him.  He believes he will be the best and claimed he would put in more film study hours than the coaching staff (and that he sometimes did at UCLA) to ensure he reaches his goal.  Moore gushed over Ed Reed, who he models his game after, and said though he feels comfortable playing free or strong safety or even playing cornerback, he prefers playing deep coverage and keeping everything in front of him.

That pretty much covers our last morning at the Luke.  We have some things set up for the afternoon and will do our best to get them in our end-of-day wrap-up.  Until then, keep following along in the open thread and on Twitter.

I had to sleep on my thoughts last night, as I got caught up watching the Irish win me a 5 team parlay from yesterday.  As Collin said in his wrap-up, it was the Cam Newton show pretty much all day.  We got a note saying he'd definitely be in, but no sense of time, so the hype surrounding him could be felt starting at 9 am.  Some thoughts on Saturday at the Combine:

• There weren't too many people interested in the proceedings going on down on the field, which we had to watch on TVs, just like everyone else.  Maybe it was because nobody cared about OT running the 40, or the drills they were doing, but there wasn't much talk about it.
• I felt bad for Colin Kaepernick, QB from Nevada.  He had a big crowd around him, understandably as a top-tier QB, but only 3 minutes in, they announce Ryan Mallet, QB from Arkansas was available.  Thirty seconds later, I was one of maybe 10 people still left in front of Kaepernick, as everyone had to go hear how Mallet would handle the drug questions (it went very bad).

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Today could be summed up in two words: Cam Newton.

It really was the Cam Show today.  Despite the fact the day was reserved for defensive linemen and linebackers, Newton managed to steal the show, prompting the vast majority of the media floor to fill the seats and surrounding space around Podium C in the minutes leading up to the former Auburn quarterback's arrival.  How much do we care, as Colts fans?  Probably very little.  I was one of a dozen writers who remained seated, tweeting away as the crowd craned their necks and swelled in anticipation of Newton's emergence at the Baker & Daniels club lobby entrance.

Newton gave the exact speech you would expect him to give, even dropping a few third-person references here and there (I call this "Booby Miles Syndrome.")  He read from a script, attempted to charm the crowd and made it a point to reinforce his desire to work hard to justify a high draft choice.  So the story wasn't so much Newton's canned speech as it was the media's anticipation of that speech and the suffocating mass that choked Podium C.

Here's a video Matt shot of the whole ordeal:

Wrap-up continues after the jump.

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Saturday has proved surprisingly quiet so far.

It seemed, immediately, there was a palpable sense of energy on the media floor upon arrival.  Can't quite put my finger on why -- maybe it was because workouts started today -- but the environment seemed different when I first set up around 9:00 a.m.  

Since then, though, prospects have been slow to trickle in and we've only seen a couple of general managers take the podium (coaches and GMs are mostly finished with the media.)  Former Cincinnati receiver Armon Binns was the first player to arrive and we thought it might be a busy day after that.  But since then, we've only seen a handful of players: Marcell Dareus (Alabama), Cam Jordan (California), Sam Acho (Texas), Jeremy Beal (Oklahoma), Ryan Kerrigan (Purdue), Cameron Heyward (Ohio State), Marvin Austin (North Carolina) and Sione Fua (Stanford.)  There were probably a few more I can't think of off the top of my head, but those guys were the main features this morning and early afternoon.

We paid particular attention to Kerrigan and Austin.  I doubt Kerrigan is available when the Colts draft and he's a defensive end so I doubt the Colts are too enticed to look his way, but Matt and I both agree that he is as impressive a physical specimen as any prospect here.  I mean, whatever percentage of body fat that Dwight Freeney claims, I'm not sure Kerrigan doesn't claim less.  This is a guy who really has a chance to move up draft boards.

Austin, you might recall, dominated the Shrine Bowl after being suspended from the University of North Carolina for the 2010 football season.  To quickly recap the situation, Austin was given free airline tickets on four trips, two of which were trips to train with former Tar Heels Kentwan Balmer and Cam Thomas.  John Blake, former UNC head coach, was subsequently fired for a variety of transgressions...something Austin holds himself personally accountable for.  I'll say this: Austin is a kid who seems to have made a completely forgivable mistake and suffered the consequences for doing so, but I would hardly classify him as a prospect in need of red-flagging.  I don't see character concerns in regards to Austin.  I see a tremendously talented player at a position of need for the Colts, and I think Bill Polian would be incredibly stupid to cross Austin off his board.  Austin conducted himself very well in his press conference and handled hard questions with tact.  My favorite exchange in particular was Austin's response to a question (paraphrased) if he felt he would be included in the discussion with Dareus and Nick Fairley for top defensive lineman in the draft had he not been suspended.

The former Tar Hell just smirked, stared down the reporter and replied: "I feel if I was able to play, there wouldn't be a conversation."

Consider me a believer.