Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Reshard Langford's draft status on the rise — while D.J. Moore drops


Who cares if former Vanderbilt safety Reshard Langford didn't get invited to the combine? The man's gonna be playing in the NFL.

On Vanderbilt's pro day on Friday, Langford and D.J. Moore each ran the 40 in 4.55 seconds. Great for Langford, lousy for D.J.

Reshard is a big, strong, imposing-looking safety who I think could wind up at linebacker. D.J.'s a cornerback, and for the past two years everybody's been saying that, sure, he's small but he's really, really fast.

Anyway, Reshard, who was a borderline pick, may have climbed into the fourth round while D.J., who was a possible Top 15 pick, may have fallen into the second round. The man can still play football, of course, but it's funny how fast a player's strengths can become his weaknesses. You know, taking two punts last year all the way down the field to the one-yard line seemed mighty impressive. You've got to be fast. But why didn't he take it all the way to the house? Hmmm. Must not be fast.

So which is it?

It'll be nice when these guys get to an NFL camp and you can throw all these stats out the window.

Oh, both Sean Walker and one of D.J.'s many backups, Jared Fagan, posted 4.4 times. But you won't see them in the NFL. And Chris Nickson looked mighty athletic, even with an injury, which makes you wonder where he'd be if he'd gone to one of those bigger schools that wanted him to play defensive back. Of course, Jay Cutler was in the same boat coming out of high school. Illinois and Purdue wanted him as a safety and Vanderbilt was the only school willing to promise him a chance behind center. And we know how that turned out. Well, at least his college career.

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