*(Unofficial) S10 DSFL Draft Combine

[evryday]

Welcome to the Season 10 DSFL Combine. This year we have added a few drills to allow these players to showcase more of their skills. We have added quarterback accuracy and distance challenges, a gauntlet pitting three offensive players against three defensive players, a catching challenge, and a defensive tackle drill.

First, let’s take a look at the combine results.

As we did last season, we’ll take a look at the results by group. We’ll start with our quarterback class, and while this draft does not have the numbers that last season did they make up for it in quality.



We don’t have the raw athletes like we did last year with Christ but these guys should prove to be studs in the DSFL next season. Slick gets the nod across the board here and his wonderlic score of 34 proves he’s got the game smarts required to jump into a starting spot right away.

Now, we’ll look at running backs. And if you thought the quarterback class was small, wait until you see this. We have one, yeah, you read that right, one running back entering the DSFL this year. But what a talent he is. He actually played a few games for the Portland Pythons this past season but will be entering the draft this season.



Yes, a Wonderlic score of 0. You’d probably think he just didn’t take it, but he did, and still received a zero. Last year we saw Poopsie score low but perform well in the DSFL, I expect this to be the same situation here. While he was on the roster last year for the Pythons, he did not get a single rushing attempt, he should be on full display wherever he ends up this year though.

And now we move on to wide receivers. This is the biggest group in this draft class. We don’t have any Oles but we’ve got some very talented wide outs that I think will take the DSFL by storm next year.



The fastest of the bunch is Berrell Trister with a 4.46 40-yard dash, he’s also tied for the fastest player at the combine. Aside from that, these aren’t numbers that will necessarily jump off the page but they can be dangerous, for sure. Josh Parker’s 19 bench reps puts him at the top of the standings for his position, I wonder if that will allow him to jump up and come down with those catches in traffic. Only time will tell but he looks more like a tight end out there than a receiver at this point.

Speaking of tight ends, we have two in this draft. They’ve both got the hands, as you’ll see in the catching challenge, but do they have rest of the tools to be a good tight end in this league? Take a look at their combine numbers and you be the judge.



Steven Moore’s 25 bench reps puts him right in the thick of things for the best performance in the combine but aside from that, these numbers don’t really scream superstar. That being said, Pitcher scored a touchdown for the Pythons this past season despite only seeing action in 2 games. He also tacked on four pancakes in those two games proving you don’t need to have great combine results to make an impact in this league.

Now we move to the other side of the ball. We’ll start with defensive ends. These guys are some of the best athletes we have in this draft class.



These guys are pushing 300 pounds and still put up 40 times that rival those of wide receivers. Mbanefo put up 39 bench reps, the highest out of anybody in this combine while still putting up comparable numbers in the other events.

And we’ll move inside to defensive tackles. Now this group really intrigued me. It seems we’re moving to a quick interior d-line in the DSFL this year.



These guys put up good numbers across the board, here. Their 40 times, again, rival those of our wide receivers and their bench press numbers are solid. But as you can see, we’re seeing a movement from the big strong DTs of old to leaner, quicker interior linemen.

Let’s take a look at linebackers now. We have three this year, all of them very solid defenders.



Tana Keita’s 4.59 second 40 time is the best in our group of linebackers and if you look at this group’s bench press numbers, you can see they’re right up there with our defensive tackles, who you’d expect to run away with this event. I foresee this class of linebackers making many pro bowls in the NSFL in a couple years.
Now onto the cornerbacks. This is probably the most intriguing position in this draft.



You’d expect these guys to have some of the best 40 times in the draft class but unfortunately for them, they don’t. They put up solid Wonderlic scores and their agility drills are some of the best in the combine but it will be interesting to see how these three work out.

And now, safeties. This is where we’ll find the other player who ran a 4.46 40. This is also one of our most athletic groups. I have said that a lot this combine but I think this is a defense heavy draft, as far as talent goes, anyway.



Lennox Garnett runs a 4.46 second 40-yard dash and he should be one of the first guys to come off the board at the DSFL draft. Combine results aside, he comes from a great pedigree and should live up to those expectations.

Last, but certainly not least, kickers and punters. Unfortunately we only have one, pulling double duty as both kicker and punter.



We don’t really expect these guys to impress at the combine but a 21 Wonderlic score is solid and well, that’s really all I can say about that.

Leaders:


That does it for the combine but now we’re on to the Skills Challenge. As with the combine, we’ll start off with quarterbacks. For the distance challenge, we gave each quarterback three attempts to throw as far as they could while keeping the ball within the hash marks.

First up was Jamal Slick. Starting at a few yards shy of the goal line, he winds up, and chucks it as hard as he can. The official measurement of his first throw is 52 yards. He goes through the same set up for attempt number two; this time it measures 55 yards. For his third and final attempts, he winds up again, as he throws it, you can immediately see it start to drift. It lands outside the hash marks making his official best 55 yards.

Reese now knows exactly what he needs to do to win this challenge. First throw, he throws a tight spiral, 63 yards. Reese will already win this challenge but let’s see if he can beat that with throw number two. He winds up again and throws, but the ball slips from his grip a little bit on the release, the wobbly throw lands at 54 yards. And his final attempt, he winds up, again, a perfect spiral sends the ball 70 yards and Reese wins this one easily.



For the accuracy challenge, we gave them 20 targets with varying hole sizes, each one smaller than the last. They have three strikes before they’re out in this challenge. The first seven attempts go off without a hitch. Attempt 8, on the other hand, proves to be a little too tough for Slick and he misses his first attempt. Attempt 9, though, takes down Reese and they’re tied at one strike each through 9 targets. They both hit the next two before Slick misses attempts 13 and 14 while Reese hits both of his crowning him the winner of the accuracy challenge.



Now we’ll see what everyone can do at the catching challenge. This will put running backs, receivers, tight ends, and defensive backs to the test. Each player will have 15 catch attempts.

First up will be WR Yulic Nagasawa. He puts everyone on notice catching the first seven balls before missing two in a row. Balls 10, 11, and 12 find themselves in his mitts before he misses 13 and 14 but closes this challenge with a catch on the final ball. He caught a total of 11 balls out of the 15.

Next is Harvey Kindle, another receiver. He struggles in the beginning, dropping the first two balls before going on to put together a couple catch streaks. He ends up with 9 catches which means Nagasawa is in the lead after two.

Next up, our first defensive back in Marc Spector. He, too, starts off with a drop and he’ll unfortunately never really get going finishing with just seven catches. The same goes for wide receiver, Josh Park, who did put together four catches in a row but only caught three outside of that for seven total catches. Thjalfi Halvorsen and Antonio Summer, receiver and running back, respectively, put up nine and eight each, not enough to dethrone the first competitor, Nagasawa.

Sunnycursed struggled all day with this challenge, putting up the worst numbers of the day with just six receptions. However, he had one of the highlights of the day when he bobbled a catch and was caught out of position for the next catch. He just stuck his hand out behind his back and snagged ball 14 with one hand, much to the pleasure of the fans in attendance.

Then we get to our two tight ends, Adrian Pitcher and Steven Moore, as well as Lennox Garnett. All three of these guys posted 11 catches to tie Nagasawa. Pitcher and Moore both performed better than almost all of the receivers in this class so I’m excited to see how they perform in game situations. Garnett gave the fans a highlight reel catch himself when an errant ball was sent well out of range of him, or so people thought, on the last ball of the day for him, he made a spectacular diving catch, knowing he wouldn’t have to recover to catch the next one.

Bobson Dugnutt and Berrell Trister were up next. They each had their bright spots, going on four and five catch stretches but fell short with eight and nine catches each.

Finally, we had Dan Schneider, one of our safeties, ready to go. Schneider looked like a man on a mission despite missing the first catch. After that, he caught five consecutive balls, missed one, caught two, missed another, then caught the last five for a total of 12 catches and the crown in the catching challenge.



Up next we have the Gauntlet. For the first round, we have defensive end, Kwame Abayomi Mbanefo, linebacker Tana Keita, and safety Lennox Garnett up against a bot offensive lineman, fullback Achilles Hondo, and running back Antonio Summer. Yeah, we didn’t have enough offensive players to fill this one out so you’ll see a few familiar names in this drill. Basically, the point of the drill is to have the linemen line up against each other, behind them we have the linebacker and the fullback, then the safety and the running back on their respective sides of the ball. The running back starts at the 10 yard line and is trying to score a touchdown, staying between the hatch marks. In the first drill Mbanefo makes quick work of the offensive lineman but Summer is able to just squeeze by while staying within the boundaries. Hondo ties up Keita just enough for Summer to go one on one against Garnett who gets absolutely trucked as Summer rumbles into the endzone.

The next heat we see Danny Methane, K.J. Becker, and Dan Schneider up against Juan Atatyme and Rick Flores. This time, things end up very differently for the running back. Methane slips the o-lineman as Becker evades the fullback. Schneider has an open shot at Flores and they all gang tackle Flores very quickly.

Heat 3 has Mbanefo at DE again with Alex Selich and Dan Schneider while we see Seer Zephyrous and Devo Cansino on offense. This time, Mbanefo knocks the offensive lineman backwards into Cansino and this one is over before it starts, Cansino stumbles and is pushed out of bounds by Selich. Heat over.

Finally, in the fourth and final heat, Methan, Becker, and Garnett team up against Zephyrous and Summer. This time, Methane spins around the offensive lineman but Summer reads it appropriately and cuts the other way. Zephyrous blows up Becker leaving Summer, again, one on one against Garnett. This time, however, Garnett gets the better of Summer with a clean wrap up tackle stopping him in his tracks.

The final drill of the day is the defensive tackle drill, we’ll see Football Sackerman, Curtis Saul, and Franklin Townsend all go up against an offensive lineman in seven heats a piece. The players face each other in a three point stance straddling a wooden plank, the aim of the drill is to push the opposing lineman back and past the end of the plank for the victory.

First up is Sackerman who uses every bit of his 300 pound frame to win six of the seven heats in dominating fashion. Saul struggles a bit with consistency but gets the better of the o-lineman in heat four when he just demolishes him, knocking him square on his backside, one of just three wins on the day. Townsend, too, finishes with six wins and in heat six, he embarasses the offensive lineman making quick work of him on his way to tying Sackerman for the victory in this drill.



Disclaimer: I wrote this up before some of the newer guys created so there’s no writing about them but their results will show up in the leaderboards, if appropriate. That’s why you’ll see Gordon Ramsey, Jr. in the leaderboards for a few events but he’s not mentioned elsewhere.