Oliver's workout

[zarakotas5]

Your prediction may well ring true, but it may well have if he had posted Deion Sanders' numbers, too. The supp. is a funny game often populated by the same odd-balls (for various reasons) as those "1st-rounders" who drop to the late 2nd/3rd/4th rounds of the amateur draft for inexplicable reasons (often tied to character, low-level of competition, etc).

For me (an Oliver proponent), the downer is the vertical leap. That's a "twitchy" stat that should maintain for an athlete, even if you're relatively out of shape. 33+ ain't bad, but it sure isn't good, where top performers get over 40 and the elite talents get to 36-38.

Being down 0.1 of a second in any drill is easily attributable to rust on the athlete and the scouts, and even the "off-season" staff who may calibrate the machines.

If you watched the kid play, he can play. At the college level, as good as anybody. Teams drafting for next year have already scouted him for last year (where the Pats may come in or why they were noticably absent).

5-10.5 isn't ridiculously below 6.

PS: The academic deal remains mystifying. By all accounts, he is an intelligent, good, and proper leader on the team.

 

[BelichickFan]

FWIW, I grabbed this off a Browns' subscription site. They're generally pretty good but no information people are right all the time :

"However, most front office personnel we’ve spoken with around the league don’t expect him (Oliver) to last beyond the third round of the July 12 supplemental draft, and some are still of the belief that he will be taken in the second round."

 

[DaBruinz]

Well looks like my prediction of no higher than a 4th round bid on Oliver is looking more and more likely with the reports of his workout results.
Oliver's stock has got to be pretty low now.
I mean how many teams salivate over the prospect of a 5'10 corner that runs the 40 between 4.55 and 4.6 seconds and posts a 7.3 second 3 cone?
He sounded a lot better when we thought he was 6' and rumors floated that he possibly could run with the likes of Calvin Johnson.
However now it turns out that CJ's lack of success was probably more due to his QB being on his back all game long rather than Oliver's stifling presence.
And Oliver turned out to be nowhere near 6' as his school bio reported.

I'd agree with above poster's valuation of a 5th or 6th rounder.
With that low of an investment it might be worth taking a flyer.

The guy might just not measure out well in tests.
But mediocre measurements, slow agility times, combined with the academic issues don't make for a very attractive package at this point.
You'd have thought that Oliver would have been motivated to prepare himself to put on a more impressive workout.
If he had run a 4.3 40 and had a 6.9 3 cone I don't think anybody would have cared as much that he only turned out to be 5'10.

The fact that Oliver is 5'10 doesn't mean a damn thing. Look at most of the GOOD CBs in the league and they are between 5'10 and 6'0. And most are in the 185-195 lbs range. So that also doesn't mean anything.

What would raise a flag for me is, as you pointed out, the agility times. The 7.3 is a bigger concern. I'd also like to find out what he ran the "L" drill and the 20 yard shuttle in.

One of the things that needs to be taken into consideration when looking at these numbers is that Oliver didn't have the benefit of working out with specialized trainers and such the way some of these kids did. And, considering that he was intending to stay in school, there's a good chance that he was putting a ton of time into his academics to try and get his grades up instead of training for testing.

What is interesting is the reports that the Patriots did NOT have anyone there at his workout. They could still bring him in for a private workout, but if they do, we likely won't hear about it.

I think that the OT from Nebraska is a much more likely prospect if the Pats decide that Hillard's showing at mini-camp is worthy of a dismissal or if they feel Kaczur really needs a change of scenery.

 

[Box_O_Rocks]

I think that the OT from Nebraska is a much more likely prospect if the Pats decide that Hillard's showing at mini-camp is worthy of a dismissal or if they feel Kaczur really needs a change of scenery.

I'm not too worried about Hilliard at this point, he's had two monthes in the off-season program to get himself back on track physically and has another month where he can do further work to be ready. Breer's blog entry on the end of the Off-season program http://www.bostonherald.com/blogs/patriots/?p=1269 makes no mention of rookies being protected from the coaches by the NFLPA so Hilliard appears to have the opportunity to work with Woicik/Nash/Davis and Scarnecchia to undo his error.

Regarding patrick, I had LT on my draft shopping list, even if the Pats did draft two OTs whom I'd overlooked - which takes us back to Hilliard whom I see more as an OG/RT - so I'd be very happy to get another LT candidate into camp.

 

[bresna]

Well if I'm reading it right, Oilver's choice of agent may have just taken him off the Patriots radar. According the Herald (http://patriots.bostonherald.com/patriots/view.bg?articleid=1007397), he's being represented by Jason Chayut. Ugh.

 

[zippo59]

Well if I'm reading it right, Oilver's choice of agent may have just taken him off the Patriots radar. According the Herald (http://patriots.bostonherald.com/patriots/view.bg?articleid=1007397), he's being represented by Jason Chayut. Ugh.

They should pick him and try to sign him to a five year deal.

:singing: