From nfl.com:
This pre-draft season has been very revealing when it comes to certain players, and if I were in a draft room this week, there are a few players I would jump up for and defend off the things I have learned about them over the past four months.
The first question on my mind is always: Would I want this guy on my team? Is there any rare athletic ability that gives him the tools to succeed? Is there a humility about the player that convinces me he will stay hungry? And is he bright enough to survive in the world of professional football? You might enjoy what I learned about the following players:
1) Manny Lawson, LB, N.C. State: Here’s a college defensive end rising up the draft boards for good reason. He’s 6-foot-5, 241 pounds and runs a 4.4 40-yard dash. His 17 sacks in the past two seasons tells a little of his story about the kind of athlete he is, but a conversation I had with him recently told me a lot more. Lawson was offered a basketball scholarship to Davidson College coming out of high school, which tells me he will not struggle in space dropping back in pass coverage in a 3-4 defense. As a high school track-and-field athlete, he triple jumped close to 50 feet and long jumped just under 25 feet, making him one of the best jumpers in the country. As a college defensive end, he was a member of N.C. State’s 4×100-meter relay team. Imagine a 6-5 defensive lineman on a sprint relay team — that is rare! He finished up our conversation telling me his post-football career plans involve his other love, architecture.
9) Mario Williams, DE, N.C. State: The top defensive end in the draft is a kid from a good family with good values and a sense of humor. I asked Williams how often the opposing offenses slide the protection to him and he chuckled and said close to 90 percent of the time. He laughed because he knew former teammates Manny Lawson and John McCargo wouldn’t agree. By the way, when I told them what Williams said, they laughed too. Williams will be the top graded player on a number of draft boards — ahead of Reggie Bush — and when I told him that might be the case, he was so quick to say that’s nice but really doesn’t mean a thing if he doesn’t play well when he gets to the NFL. By the way, that rare score of 85 which I mentioned when I discussed Vernon Davis, well, Williams also had an 85. I mentioned to him how rare that score was, and instead of thanking me, he mentioned where he thought there was room for improvement!
