Vernon Davis went to the NFL scouting combine intent upon astonishing the league's talent evaluators. And the former University of Maryland tight end did just that, further enhancing his chances of being one of the top players selected in the draft in April.
"I was real happy about it," Davis said yesterday. "I should be moving up. I don't think anyone really believed I'd do that, but I did it. That has to move me up."
Davis's tight ends coach at Maryland, Ray Rychleski, had predicted that Davis would break records at the combine. Davis, a well-sculpted tight end who weighed in at 254 pounds for his stay in Indianapolis, ran the 40-yard dash in 4.38 seconds, a time more suited for a wide receiver. Longtime observers said they thought it was the fastest time ever run by a tight end at the combine.
As NFL coaches, front-office executives and scouts took notes, Davis also performed a 42-inch vertical leap and a 10-foot 8-inch broad jump, and lifted a 225-pound weight bar 33 times. Davis had said he expected to run a 4.3 40-yard dash, perform a vertical jump of at least 40 inches and do at least 30 lifts in the strength test.
Still, the performance was impressive, especially given that many top draft prospects refuse to work out at the combine — waiting instead to perform for NFL scouts at their colleges' pro-day workouts — and players regularly complain about a busy schedule in Indianapolis that can begin with a 5 a.m. wake-up call and not end before midnight.
"He did well," said Ethan Lock, Davis's agent. "He simply performed up to his ability. A lot of guys go to the combine and they don't do as well as they could or as well as they would like because the conditions aren't exactly ideal."
Davis, a D.C. native who attended Dunbar High School, had been regarded as a likely top 15 pick in April. Before the combine, his personal goal was to be a top 10 choice. Now, with his combine exploits, he said he thinks he could be creeping closer to top five status.
"I'm pretty sure I have to be getting close to that, with a guy my size running like I did and doing a 42-inch vertical," he said by telephone. "It can't get better than that. I knew I could do that, but I had to show everyone else."
His agent was more restrained. "There's no way to know," Lock said. "I could venture a guess, but it really wouldn't mean anything at this point."
Davis had 51 catches last season before deciding to bypass his senior year at Maryland to enter the draft, so he isn't just a workout wonder who lacks a football résumé. A top front-office executive from one NFL team said yesterday that Davis is showing the positive view that clubs already had of him. The executive said it would be difficult for any tight end to crack the top five on draft day, but a team with a selection between sixth and 10th would have to strongly consider Davis at a time when tight ends have become focal points in many clubs' passing games.
"You don't normally think of a tight end as being a guy that you use an early pick on," said the executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss his team's draft assessments publicly. "But this guy looks like he's one of those special guys that you'd have to consider that high if you have an offense where you're going to utilize him the right way."
