This is the 40th year that Bob McGinn has written his NFL Draft Series. Previously, it appeared in the Green Bay Press-Gazette (1985-’91), the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (1992-’17), BobMcGinn Football (2018-’19), The Athletic (2020-’21) and GoLongTD.com (2022-’24). Until 2014, many personnel people were quoted by name. The series reluctantly adopted an all-anonymous format in 2015 at the request of most scouts.
By Bob McGinn
Wide receiver Marvin Harrison and tight end Brock Bowers enter the NFL draft as the preeminent players at their positions.
Another wideout, Adonai Mitchell, was regarded by an AFC scouting director as “probably the biggest wild card of all the receivers.”
How the three prospects handled the offseason left a trail of unanswered questions and some reservations among teams with the draft a week away.
At the combine, Harrison agreed to be measured and weighed, consented to medical examinations and was interviewed by teams. At the Ohio State pro day two weeks later, his weight, arm measurement and hand measurement were taken but he decided against having the Cleveland Browns’ scouts measure his height.
Harrison declined to run routes at Indianapolis or Columbus.
“We’ll never have a 40 time,” said another AFC personnel director. “He hasn’t done any testing whatsoever. I think he’ll play fast enough. He’s not a burner by any stretch.”
Four scouts were asked to estimate Harrison’s 40 time. One said 4.45, another said “low 4.4s,” a third said 4.43 and a fourth said 4.56.
“We’ve had this discussion for three years about this,” an NFC executive said. “All skill positions will begin to decrease the measureables of the combine and the workout. It’s called modern-day athletes. It’s what they do.”
His father, Marvin, went to the combine in February 1996. He measured (6-0, 181), did the medical, was interviewed and took the 12-minute, 50-question Wonderlic test (he scored 12). He did not run a 40 or participate in on-field drills.
A few weeks later, Harrison did run the 40 at Syracuse. The Green Bay Packers arrived at a time of 4.29 after factoring in the surface (indoor track) and the fact Harrison wore spikes.
“Ted Thompson was a math wizard,” said Ron Wolf, the team’s general manager who hired the team’s future GM as a pro scout in January 1992. “He figured out how to take what we had and transform it to our speed chart.”
Not long after the pro day John Brunner, a scout for the San Francisco 49ers, said Harrison ran “like a 4.2” and had a “fabulous” workout. John Butler, an executive for the Buffalo Bills, said his team’s time was 4.27.
Like Harrison, Bowers participated in the basics at the combine but stopped short of running a 40, testing or working out. One week later, he weighed in once more at the Georgia pro day but didn’t participate because of what the Falcons’ staffer directing the event noted was an “injured right hamstring.”
On April 10, about four weeks after his injury, Bowers got on the scale at the start of a three-player workout for assembled scouts. Then he performed positional drills but again refused the 40, the jumps and the shuttles.
“I think he’s hiding,” said one personnel man. “Now the people that love him will go, ‘Oh, no, it’s OK.’ I don’t think he would have worked out well. I don’t think he can run. I think he’d run 4.8.”
His estimation was at one end of the spectrum among the six scouts that offered their educated guesses on Bowers’ time. Others said 4.65, 4.53, “low to mid 4.6s,” 4.55 and 4.64.
“They (Georgia officials) claim he’ll run in the 4.4s but it wouldn’t shock me … if he only ran 4.5,” an AFC executive said. “I think people would be a little underwhelmed even though that’s still really good for what he is. I think he’s just trying to avoid the letdown and just keep his perfect resume he’s put on tape.”
Teams are preparing to pay top draft choices millions of dollars. Their scouts have relied on workout numbers to complete their athletic profiles of prospects.
“You do the work on the tape and you have that vision and the direction what you think a player is in your mind,” said an AFC personnel man. “Then the workouts confirm or raise more questions. You want to just put that stamp on a kid and it leaves question marks.
“Unfortunately, I think that’s the direction things are going. From their standpoint, their argument is look at the tape, let that determine everything. Which is great but, from my standpoint, you want to see things compare.
“From those specific players’ standpoint, Bowers and Harrison, I don’t know too many teams that will pass on them just because they didn’t (test). I think because of that more top players may say, ‘Shoot. I had just as productive career as Harrison and Bowers. I’m not going to do anything … I’ll measure and do interviews.’”
Like Harrison and Bowers, Mitchell was a junior who spent only three seasons in college. His resume, however, wasn’t as impressive because of limited playing time and a high-ankle sprain during his two years at Georgia.
Coming off a 55-reception, 11-touchdown season at Texas, Mitchell did everything at the combine other than the short shuttle, the 3-cone and the bench press. And, after his blazing 40 of 4.35 and exceptional distances in the jumps, his decision to work at the combine appeared to be paying off.
Then Mitchell, wearing the WO19 jersey, started running the various routes in line with other wide receivers. His performance was insufficient, to say the least.
“He blew that 40 out, which didn’t surprise me,” one veteran scout said. “But then his position workout might have been the worst I’ve seen by a top receiver. He was falling over. He dropped balls. He had to keep redoing. It seemed as if he didn’t know how to run routes. He just seemed out of it.
“Generally, I don’t get alarmed by a combine. That was alarming.”
Based on television coverage, Mitchell staggered and fell during the gauntlet, dropped the first two slants, dropped an out and either messed up the route or failed to make the catch on his next three attempts. His performance was adequate after that.
“He was very linear, very straight line,” another scout said watching Mitchell at the combine. “Which surprised me, because in my limited exposure, for a fast guy, I thought he could actually bend and get in and out of his cuts.
“After running fast, the position stuff didn’t match. It wasn’t terrible. It wasn’t fatal. But it definitely raised some alerts with me. He didn’t have a great combine.”
Mitchell stood on his combine numbers and did position drills March 21 at Texas pro day, leaving the bench press and shuttles void.
Unlike last year, when the class of tight ends outshone the wide receivers, the wideouts could dominate the first round whereas Bowers might be the lone tight end drafted in the first two rounds.
“The college and high-school game has gone like our game,” an AFC executive said. “You’re putting your best athletes in position to score. Every team has three, four, five (capable) wideouts.
“Tight end has lost its luster in college football. Finding a guy that can run routes and has enough size to be called a tight end and still catch the ball well and perform some blocking … those are valuable pieces. Just not a ton of them.”
In 2023, Ohio State’s Jaxon Smith-Njigba went to Seattle at No. 20 as the first wide receiver selected. When 15 scouts were asked how many of this draft’s wideouts were better prospects than Smith-Njigba, their average response was five.
Those 15 executives plus another were asked to rank the wide receivers on a 1-2-3-4-5 basis. A first-place vote was worth 5 points, a second-place vote was worth 4 and so on.
Harrison, with 11 firsts, led with 72 points. Following, in order, were Malik Nabers (65, four), Rome Odunze (49, one), Brian Thomas (13), Xavier Worthy (12), Keon Coleman (eight), Mitchell (eight), Xavier Legette (seven), Ladd McConkey (three), Ja’Lynn Polk (two) and Roman Wilson (one).
With 15 voters at tight end voting on a 1-2-3-4 basis, the results were: Bowers (58, 14 firsts), Ja’Tavion Sanders (26), Ben Sinnott (20, one), Theo Johnson (17), Cade Stover (10), Jared Wiley (nine), Erick All (four), Tip Reiman (three), Tanner McLachlan (two) and Johnny Wilson (one).
1. MARVIN HARRISON, Ohio State (6-3, 209, no 40, Round 1): Fourth in the Heisman trophy voting as a third-year junior in 2023. “If he catches it on the run he shows unreal top-end speed,” one scout said. “If he would have (worked) at the combine he wouldn’t have won the 40 but if they had run the 100 he’d be at the top. When he catches those shallow drags you see him outrun angles and people. What you don’t see, if he’s running a curl, a comebacker or a dig and he’s not already in full-speed stride, is the ruggedness, the passion. He has the ability to be a good run-after-catch guy who, to me, was playing his last year of college football protecting himself.” Backed up in 2021 before starring in 2022-’23. “I’m going to say he’s the No. 1 player in the draft,” a second scout said. “His dad (Marvin) was a quickness-change of direction type with very skilled hands. Marvin Jr. is bigger, more of a jump-ball guy. Makes plays in the red zone and out near the sideline. He makes the field about 57, 58 yards wide (rather than 53 1/3) because he can extend for the ball on the sideline. He’s very polished. Some will argue that he’s not even the best receiver, that Nabers is. Over the next 10, 12, 15 years I think he’ll be the top guy.” Finished with 155 receptions for 2,613 yards (16.9) and 31 touchdowns. “I kind of liken him to Larry Fitzgerald,” a third scout said. “You didn’t see a ton of run after the catch with Larry Fitzgerald coming out (in 2004) but he did it in the NFL. Harrison’s going to be a great NFL player just like Larry Fitzgerald was. Calvin (Johnson) is much more gifted.” From Philadelphia.
