NFL Combine News???

Does it seem strange to anyone else that Pitta's "unofficial (4.62)" times were scrapped just like Collie's last year when nearly everyone else's "unofficial" forty times hold up? Everyone is raving about guys like Dickson and Dickerson's times yet the same clock that "unofficially" timed them timed Pitta too but apparently there was a malfunction when he ran. I mean no white BYU TE could run faster than the amazing Gresham, right? Scrub his time.

In Sports Illustrated's "Players on the Rise" section they had this to say:



Dennis Pitta/TE/BYU: The combine is about expectations more than anything else, and Pitta exceeded them. He's a known commodity catching the football, but his 27 reps on the bench and 40 times (below 4.7) were a pleasant surprise.

gmj81 wrote:
Does it seem strange to anyone else that Pitta's "unofficial (4.62)" times were scrapped just like Collie's last year when nearly everyone else's "unofficial" forty times hold up?

I watched both his 40 runs (4.63 and 4.66 unofficially) but sure enough he isn't a "Top Performer". Do they ever tell you why the official time is different?



I've got a theory for Cannon on why Pitta's 40 time got scrubbed. The combine is in Indy, right. Maybe Pollian pulled some strings to get the time scrubbed to keep competition for Pitta down. You can't exactly scrub the bench reps or the guantlet, but call in a favor and the 40 time disappears. Maybe that is how he got Collie in the 4th round.

ESPN's Todd McShay added this:

• BYU TE Dennis Pitta had an outstanding day. Pitta was more athletic than we anticipated, clocking a 4.62 in the 40 and showing more burst and better change-of-direction skills than we thought he had. He showed good strength with 27 reps on the bench and we are also impressed by his hands, which might be the best in the tight end class.

Of course he says this after he says this about Oklahoma's Gresham:

• Oklahoma TE Jermaine Gresham looks like the knee injury that cost him the entire 2009 season is completely behind him. Gresham ran routes well and his 4.76 in the 40 confirmed that he has not lost his ability to stretch the middle of the field.



He still catches the ball naturally and effortlessly, and despite some inconsistency when turning and coming back to the quarterback, Gresham appeared close to his old form and is locking down the No. 1 spot on our tight end board.

So according to the numbers Pitta had a better 40 time, more reps on the bench and has better hands, so what is the conclusion? Gresham "is locking down the No. 1 spot on our TE board."

Isola wrote:
ESPN's Todd McShay added this:

• BYU TE Dennis Pitta had an outstanding day. Pitta was more athletic than we anticipated, clocking a 4.62 in the 40 and showing more burst and better change-of-direction skills than we thought he had. He showed good strength with 27 reps on the bench and we are also impressed by his hands, which might be the best in the tight end class.

Of course he says this after he says this about Oklahoma's Gresham:

• Oklahoma TE Jermaine Gresham looks like the knee injury that cost him the entire 2009 season is completely behind him. Gresham ran routes well and his 4.76 in the 40 confirmed that he has not lost his ability to stretch the middle of the field.



He still catches the ball naturally and effortlessly, and despite some inconsistency when turning and coming back to the quarterback, Gresham appeared close to his old form and is locking down the No. 1 spot on our tight end board.

So according to the numbers Pitta had a better 40 time, more reps on the bench and has better hands, so what is the conclusion? Gresham "is locking down the No. 1 spot on our TE board."

Well DUH!!!! He did play for OU!!!!!

Apparently Max Hall is the most unathletic quarter back at the combine. He took last in every drill his group did.

Wickchad84087 wrote:
Apparently Max Hall is the most unathletic quarter back at the combine. He took last in every drill his group did.

?????



He is listed as a top performer in the 40 yard dash, three-cone drill, and vertical jump. I guess you maybe saw him on the bottom of the top performers lists and assumed that it was a comprehensive list. It's not. There are 19 quarterbacks at the combine.



Having said that, the disappointment has been with his accuracy. No one expected him to be the most athletic guy, so the fact that he has shown to be average is good, but his passing hasn't been very good, which could be the death-knell for a quarterback whose saving grace was supposed to be short- and medium-range accuracy.

snoscythe wrote:

Apparently Max Hall is the most unathletic quarter back at the combine. He took last in every drill his group did.

?????



He is listed as a top performer in the 40 yard dash, three-cone drill, and vertical jump. I guess you maybe saw him on the bottom of the top performers lists and assumed that it was a comprehensive list. It's not. There are 19 quarterbacks at the combine.



Having said that, the disappointment has been with his accuracy. No one expected him to be the most athletic guy, so the fact that he has shown to be average is good, but his passing hasn't been very good, which could be the death-knell for a quarterback whose saving grace was supposed to be short- and medium-range accuracy.

Saw him as #8 in every category they were showing on the NFL network. I guess it is not as bad if that is based on all 19 quarterbacks at the combine. It still would have been nice to see him near the top in at least one category. I didn't see him throw. Does anyone know how he looked throwing compared to the other quarterbacks?

snoscythe wrote:

Apparently Max Hall is the most unathletic quarter back at the combine. He took last in every drill his group did.

?????



He is listed as a top performer in the 40 yard dash, three-cone drill, and vertical jump. I guess you maybe saw him on the bottom of the top performers lists and assumed that it was a comprehensive list. It's not. There are 19 quarterbacks at the combine.



Having said that, the disappointment has been with his accuracy. No one expected him to be the most athletic guy, so the fact that he has shown to be average is good, but his passing hasn't been very good, which could be the death-knell for a quarterback whose saving grace was supposed to be short- and medium-range accuracy.

Ouch!!! Not good news. I'm pulling for Max all the way!!! Wishing him the best!!

:crazy:

Isola wrote:

Does it seem strange to anyone else that Pitta's "unofficial (4.62)" times were scrapped just like Collie's last year when nearly everyone else's "unofficial" forty times hold up?

I watched both his 40 runs (4.63 and 4.66 unofficially) but sure enough he isn't a "Top Performer". Do they ever tell you why the official time is different?



I've got a theory for Cannon on why Pitta's 40 time got scrubbed. The combine is in Indy, right. Maybe Pollian pulled some strings to get the time scrubbed to keep competition for Pitta down. You can't exactly scrub the bench reps or the guantlet, but call in a favor and the 40 time disappears. Maybe that is how he got Collie in the 4th round.

That is an interesting theory and I like it. Pollian is probably looking to make BYU his farm school since they run they same type of offense, especially in the tight end department. I honestly do think Pitta would be a great fit in Indy though and they would be smart to get him.



Anybody know the last time the Indianapolis Colts did not have a BYU player on their roster? 1991 :) :) :)

I love DVR's. I have the NFL network and recorded the combine and was very impressed by Pitta and how impressed the analysts were. I like Maycock better than McShay and Kiper. He did mention that Pitta would move up his board but I haven't heard what his new TE rankings are. Honestly I was most impressed with Pitta and Moeaki from Iowa who is also a member of the church. Both were athletic and had probably the best hands, IMO. I wasn't actually very impressed with Gresham. I think he's going to drop. Dickerson was very fast but didn't run great routes and didn't have great hands.

The reason Gresham gets all the press is because he is from a BCS school. Guys like pitta have to be head and shoulders better then everyone just to be on the radar with the media. The NFL scouts know what they are looking for though. I expect pitta to be a "surprise" on draft day. You don't break all the NCAA tight end records and not have some talent.

I think Pitta will have Collie-like success in the NFL. One of the analysts even said that Pitta will benefit from Collie's success because a lot of people thought that BYU's WR's/TE's couldn't make it in the NFL. I understood what he meant but BYU's TE's have done well, but not the WR's. Regardless, Collie's success will benefit Pitta. I'm sure Pitta is going to be loving life when he finally gets single covered.

frdbtr wrote:
The reason Gresham gets all the press is because he is from a BCS school. Guys like pitta have to be head and shoulders better then everyone just to be on the radar with the media. The NFL scouts know what they are looking for though. I expect pitta to be a "surprise" on draft day. You don't break all the NCAA tight end records and not have some talent.

I thought the most interesting part of the combine was when they interviewed the Vikings GM (?) about their recruiting process. The Vikings guy said this: before we come to the combine, we watch film and we break down every player, and set up our board. Then we come to the combine and let our psychologists get ahold of the players and we talk to them to get a feel for character issues, leadership, honesty etc. After all of that, he finally talked about the events--he said "If we are looking at a guy, and we think on film that he runs a 4.6, and then we come here and he runs a 4.3, we take note of it. It won't move him up from a 5th round to a 2nd round but we take note of it, but it doesn't change the fact that on film, on the field, we feel like he is a 4.6 guy.



In other words, the combine is more hype than substance. Teams come to talk to the players they have already scouted. ESPN and NFL Network come to try and put something watchable on their channel/website.

Isola wrote:
ESPN's Todd McShay added this:

• BYU TE Dennis Pitta had an outstanding day. Pitta was more athletic than we anticipated, clocking a 4.62 in the 40 and showing more burst and better change-of-direction skills than we thought he had. He showed good strength with 27 reps on the bench and we are also impressed by his hands, which might be the best in the tight end class.

Of course he says this after he says this about Oklahoma's Gresham:

• Oklahoma TE Jermaine Gresham looks like the knee injury that cost him the entire 2009 season is completely behind him. Gresham ran routes well and his 4.76 in the 40 confirmed that he has not lost his ability to stretch the middle of the field.



He still catches the ball naturally and effortlessly, and despite some inconsistency when turning and coming back to the quarterback, Gresham appeared close to his old form and is locking down the No. 1 spot on our tight end board.

So according to the numbers Pitta had a better 40 time, more reps on the bench and has better hands, so what is the conclusion? Gresham "is locking down the No. 1 spot on our TE board."

That is seriously awesome. Tools.

snoscythe wrote:

The reason Gresham gets all the press is because he is from a BCS school. Guys like pitta have to be head and shoulders better then everyone just to be on the radar with the media. The NFL scouts know what they are looking for though. I expect pitta to be a "surprise" on draft day. You don't break all the NCAA tight end records and not have some talent.

I thought the most interesting part of the combine was when they interviewed the Vikings GM (?) about their recruiting process. The Vikings guy said this: before we come to the combine, we watch film and we break down every player, and set up our board. Then we come to the combine and let our psychologists get ahold of the players and we talk to them to get a feel for character issues, leadership, honesty etc. After all of that, he finally talked about the events--he said "If we are looking at a guy, and we think on film that he runs a 4.6, and then we come here and he runs a 4.3, we take note of it. It won't move him up from a 5th round to a 2nd round but we take note of it, but it doesn't change the fact that on film, on the field, we feel like he is a 4.6 guy.



In other words, the combine is more hype than substance. Teams come to talk to the players they have already scouted. ESPN and NFL Network come to try and put something watchable on their channel/website.

That is seriously revealing stuff. They form their own independent opinions - and the combine is used as kind of a "confirmation" process - but not THE tipping point. Interesting.

" Former BYU tight end Dennis Pitta boosted his draft status after an impressive performance at the NFL combine... in Indianapolis, Pitta ran a 4.63 in the 40-yard dash, a time that put him No. 3 among the 20 tight ends in attendance... During the combine, Pitta also finished No. 1 among tight ends in the 3-cone drill, 20-yard shuttle and 60-yard shuttle. He was No. 2 in bench press (27 reps) and No. 8 in vertical jump (34.0 inches). That bodes well for his draft stock...



Pitta's former BYU teammates, quarterback Max Hall and fullback Manase Tonga, also had some bright moments during the combine. Hall was among the top quarterback performers in the 40-yard dash, vertical jump, 3-cone drill and 20-yard shuttle. He ran a 4.87 in the 40, which was No. 8 among the 19 quarterbacks at the combine... Tonga was No. 9 among running backs in the bench press with 19 reps. "



http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700013233/Pitta-impressive-at-NFL-Combine.html?s_cid=rss-28