Another year, another crop of fresh-faced hopefuls and another NFL Combine is now in the books. But before we turn the page and look forward to the next off-season happenings, let's examine how the final group of defensive backs performed yesterday.
Last year this position group was an area of much interest for the Saints and their fans. While it may not be as much of a priority this off-season, the Saints just might be in the market for another game-changing safety if Darren Sharper really does leave New Orleans next season.
Make the jump for my brief, amateurish analysis of the 2010 Combine performances of this years cornerbacks and safeties.
Cornerbacks
Probably the single most impressive performance of the day among the cornerbacks was the 11'0" Broad Jump of Virginia's Chris Cook. I'm not talking about the American Idol winner. He also finished an incredibly close second in the 40-yard Dash with a time of 4.46, just one one-hundreth of a second behind Brandon Ghee out of Wake Forest.
A.J. Jefferson from Fresno State appears to have had the most productive all-around performance among cornerbacks, finishing as a top performer in five workouts. This includes a Combine best 44.0 in the Vertical Jump. Also showing up regularly as on the top performer list were Devin McCourty from Rutgers and Kevin Thomas out of USC.
Safeties
It's hard to believe that USC's Taylor Mays wasn't the only player going through workouts yesterday because he's all anyone talked about. Like Peyton Manning or something. Officially, Mays posted the best 40-yard Dash time among all DB's with a 4.43. Unofficially, he posted a 4.24 and is not from our planet. At the end of the day, Mays finished as a top performer in four drills.
It was all about the safeties yesterday and the other cause celebre behind Mays was Eric Berry from Tennessee. Todd McShay was glowing over this guy on NFL Live last night; take that for what it's worth. Berry finished as a top performer in four events, earning the best results among safeties in the Vertical Jump and the Broad Jump.