Spartans Doing Well at NFL Scouting Combines

So far so good at the NFL scouting combines.  The Spartans are killing it.  Here's a list of items:

- Kirk Cousins may be performing his way into the late first round.  Both the Sporting News and SI listed Cousins as rising.

- BJ Cunningham has also impressed.  He ran the 40 in 4.59 seconds and his vertical jump was 31.5 inches.  According to NFL.com, his combine grade is a 73.5, which is good enough to make him a 2nd or 3rd round pick.

- Keyshawn Martin has also impressed.  He ran the 40 in 4.45 seconds and his vertical was 39.5 inches.  According to NFL.com, his combine grade is 69.7, which is just on the cusp of making him a 2nd or 3rd round pick.  SI's Tony Pauline listed Martin as rising and was impressed with his route running.

- Edwin Baker has been less impressive.  He ran the 40 in 4.53 seconds and his vertical was 35 inches.  His combine grade was 49, which just puts him out of "draftable" status.

- Jerel Worthy's combine results are in and they don't look so good.  He officially ran the 40 in 5.08.  His combine grade, according to NFL.com, is 79.5, which is supposedly good enough to make him a second round pick but not a first round pick.  Russ Lande at Sporting News seems to corroborate that score.  He thinks Worthy performed poorly and may have dropped all the way to a third round pick.  I watched Worthy's performance and I felt that he was not particularly impressive but he also didn't do much to hurt himself.  He was definitely surpassed by Memphis' Dontari Poe, but nobody else really looked any better.

- Trenton Robinson's results are in.  He ran the 40 in 4.52 seconds, which appears to be the best time among safeties.  That's a solid result but probably disappointing for Robinson, who before the combine was hoping to run the 40 in the 4.3s.  He was also the top performer in the broad jump, with an excellent 10.5 feet jump.  It's hard to know how his overall performance will affect his draft stock.  SI's Tony Pauline was impressed and said "he was quick-footed in every direction and showed a terrific burst to the ball in every direction."  On the other hand, NFL.com's grade of 68.2 makes him likely to go in the 4th-7th rounds.  Robinson's biggest problem is simply his size.  He is slightly less than 5'10", and that's relatively small for a safety.

- Brian Linthicum was not invited to the combine, so info is limited on him.  Still, there is some good news for him.  ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr. considers Linthicum the 5th best tight end in the draft.

At this point it's safe to say that the Spartans should do well in the NFL draft.  At least 6 our guys look set to be drafted, including Cousins, Worthy, Martin, Cunningham, Robinson, and Linthicum.  There's also a small chance that Baker could get drafted, and an even smaller chance that Joel Foreman could get drafted.  We'll have to wait to see how these latter 2 guys do in various other combines (e.g., MSU's pro-day and regional combines).

I will be trying to update this post as frequently as possible, instead of creating a new post every time new info rolls in.