With the offensive players wrapping up their Combine activities over the weekend, Monday was left to the dark side—with a little something for everybody. While corners and safeties were weighed and measured, defensive linemen and linebackers went through the on-field drills. Tops on the list for most scouts was determining which players—specifically, ends and outside linebackers—would fit into their squads’ respective schemes .
“Hamstring” was the word of the day, with a pair of potential first-round selections limping off after suffering hamstring injuries. Texas end Brian Orakpo turned in an impressive workout prior to his injury, with 31 reps on the bench press (second among defensive ends), a 39.5-inch vertical (also second among his position), and a 4.70 time in the 40 (third among ends). Aside from the tweak, which didn’t appear to be serious, the only other downer to Orakpo’s workout was that he didn’t look particularly comfortable participating in linebacker-type drills. Worst-case, Orakpo positioned himself as one of the more explosive ends in the draft and should still hear his name during the first half of Round One.
USC inside linebacker Rey Maualuga suffered the other hammy tweak, aggravating an injury he said he’s suffered during workouts a couple weeks earlier. Maualuga pulled up lame at the end of his 4.82 40 and shut down for the rest of the day.
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