2012 NFL Scouting Combine - Day Three Recap

The media room at the 2012 NFL Combine was a bit sparser today than it had been for the first two days, but I remember that happening from last year. It doesn't help that the best players, especially at the top of the draft, are much better than the Defensive players, so the guys who are going around interviewing every player just need their stories, and are done Friday afternoon.

For those of us who cover the Colts, however, the Defensive Line and Linebackers day was quite busy. In total Stew and I got audio from 20 different players, including a couple of the Wide Receivers that didn't show up yesterday (Mohamed Sanu, Nick Toon, Marvin McNutt). Thankfully it was pretty steady throughout the day, with only a handful of times where Stew and I had to coordinate on which guy to go listen to.

There were a couple of guys that I got almost one-on-one interviews with. Demario Davis, OLB from Arkansas State was an extremely nice guy as we chatted about the Senior Bowl, how he ended up at Arkansas State, and where he thinks he best fits into an NFL defense. The other guy was DE Billy Winn from Boise State, who said that he ran the 100 meters in high school at 260 pounds, and ran a personal best 11.4 seconds. That's flying, especially at that size. I expect him to run a good time in the 40. His teammate Shea McClellin was also here, and he said he could play a whole host of positions along the defensive front, or as a rush LB.

Sadly, one of our buddies from the Combine seemingly disappeared today. For the first two days, one of the red-coated Stadium Ushers would come by our seats near the doors that get you into the stands, and verify that they were locked. On Thursday he did this check 19 times, and that's not exaggerating at all. After the third or fourth time I started to keep track. Yesterday he came probably 8 or 9 times, but I was gone from my computer much more yesterday than I was Thursday, so it's entirely possible he checked it that often then too.

Today, however, we only saw him one time, which seems a little backwards to me. They actually had things going on in the Stadium today, yet they were OCD about making sure us rabble-rousing media members would break into the stands. Just seems funny to me.

Another sad moment happened when a USC player (who I'll keep nameless) got up to a podium and had to wait close to 5 minutes before anyone came to talk to him. If it wasn't a guy from USC I'd feel bad for him, but I naturally hate anyone that wears Cardinal and Gold, so he got no sympathy from me.

I did see Bill Polian here again for the third straight day doing Sirius/XM NFL Radio, and he looked almost comatose as he was watching the Combine coverage on the monitors. They won't even let him in to watch! (Actually, I don't know if that is absolutely true, but he was watching on TV). We also had less Coaches/GMs/NFL Network guys come and talk, mainly because they were in watching the workouts.

Tomorrow looks to be another full day for us here interviewing players, and the Defensive Backs will be making their way here, as well as any leftovers from DL/LB. We're still waiting on a couple of the big NTs (Ta'amu and Thompson), so we hope we see them Sunday. I'll also give you an update on any NFL celebrities we see out on the town tonight.

We'll see if it tops seeing Dan Snyder drinking Coors Light at Hooters.