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College Football

NFL Combine Day 6 … Florida’s Hargreaves quiets the doubters during field work

Tom Brew

By Tom Brew

Published:

Monday was Day 6 at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis. It was a day for the defensive backs to hit the field for drills.

A lot of eyes were on the big names in the SEC, including Florida’s Vernon Hargreaves III, Alabama’s Cyrus Jones and others.

RELATED: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5

Here are Monday’s top performers in various drills:

40-yard dash

Auburn’s Jonathan Jones was first at 4.33 seconds. Texas A&M CB Brandon Williams tied for fourth at 4.37.

Bench press

Jones proved even more on the bench press, finishing tied for third with 19 reps at 225 pounds. That’s pretty impressive for a 5-foot-9, 186 pounder. A&M’s Williams was tied for ninth with 18 and Florida’s Keanu Neal tied for 13th with 17.

Vertical leap

Florida CB Vernon Hargreaves III was the top SEC performer, finishing with a leap of 39 inches. Texas A&M’s DeVonte Harris was a notch behind at 38.5 inches. UF’s Neal tied for seventh at 38 inches and LSU’s Jalen Mills tied for 12th at 37 inches.

Broad jump

UF’s Neal was the top SEC performer in this event, finishing second with a jump of 11 feet. Hargreaves was fourth at 10-feet, 10-inches. A&M’s Harris tied for 11th at 10-feet, 4-inches.

3-cone drill

Alabama’s Cyrus Jones finished third at 6.71 seconds. Harris and Williams of A&M were fifth and sixth respectively, and Mills of LSU was seventh.

20-yard shuttle

Hargreaves was fifth overall at 3.97 seconds. Mills was sixth and Harris was eighth.

60-yard shuttle

Surprisingly, Texas A&M’s Williams was the highest SEC finisher, but he was only 10th at 11.27 seconds. Mills was tied for 12th at 11.53 and Kentucky’s A.J. Stamps was 14th at 11.56 seconds. Neal was 15th at 11.58.

Monday’s workout notes

Auburn’s flying Jones: Auburn’s Jonathan Jones can run. We’ve all known that for years because he was a high school national sprint champion. But when it comes to covering premier NFL receivers on a regular basis, that’s still a great unknown.

The knock on Jones is his size. He’s only 5-foot-9, 184 pounds according to the NFL Combine measurements. That’s small considering many of the league’s premier receivers are 6-foot-3 or better these days.

But there’s no questioning his speed. Jones ran a 4.33 40-yard dash on Monday in Indianapolis. It was the fastest time among the defensive backs, the last group to work out on the field in this week-long meat market.

The knock on Jones is that his 2014 season was better than last year. That’s regression in some eyes. But he showed a lot at the combine and he’ll need to do it again next week at Auburn’s early pro day, March 7. He did well for himself in Indy, for sure.

Hargreaves eases some doubts: Florida’s Vernon Hargreaves III is also on the short side, measuring in at 5-foot-10 1/2 inches at the combine, slightly less than his 5-foot-11 listing with the Gators. The cocky UF junior doesn’t mind bragging, and he’s convinced that he’s the best cornerback in the draft.

Not everyone agrees, of course.

Some like Florida State’s Jalen Ramsey thinks he’s better and even Clemson’s Mackensie Alexander thinks he’s better, although he didn’t work out Monday and people still have plenty of questions about his big-play ability anyway.

And even though Hargreaves came out of the season looking to be a sure-fire top 10 pick, people started to doubt him a bit. His 4.50 time in the 40 wasn’t impressive, but his field work was great. He told Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times that he expects to be the first corner drafted,

NFL.com’s Mike Mayock loves him. “If there is a plug-and-play corner in this draft and say, ‘this is your side of the field,’ (Hargreaves) is the kid,” Mayock said. “He’s quick, he’s fast and he’s got ball skills. He has the best feet of any corner I’ve seen in years.”

Hargreaves made a point of benefiting others during his workouts. He pledged to raise money for injured soldiers with his vertical leap. It was a nice gesture.

Surprising effort from Cyrus Jones:  Alabama CB Cyrus Jones is sure to excite many NFL teams with his special teams prowess, but he showed a lot on the field, too, proving that he also might be ready to step in right away in someone’s secondary.

He was one of the big winners on Monday, according to NFL.com draft analyst Bucky Brooks. Brooks said Jones “checked all of the boxes (speed, footwork, movement skills and hands) during the workout, exhibiting the agility and technical skills that coaches covet in nickel corners.”  Scouts love the way he moves and think he’s perfect as a nickel corner. And he’s going to be a special teams star right from the get-go.

Tom Brew

Tom Brew is an award-winning journalist and author who is covering SEC football for Saturday Down South.

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