Offensive Notes from the NFL Combine

The NFL Combine tested some of the best athletes in the world over the past several days. The young college football athletes hoping to turn pro in this year's draft came to strut their stuff in Indianapolis, IN where they were poked, prodded, and poked some more by NFL scouts and various other talent evaluators.

The offensive side of the ball had some very trendy names that have become very sexy picks as we get closer and closer to the NFL Draft in April. So which ones shined and which ones declined?

Here's a recap of some of the best and worst from the offensive performances in this year's NFL combine.

Joe Flacco, the quarterback from Delaware definitely saw his stock rise. He proved once again that he has the strongest arm by making every throw they asked him to make during his drill session. Coming from a 1-AA school, not many people have heard of Flacco, but any team who faced him in college certainly was aware of his pocket passing ability. Yet, he still managed to impress scouts with his 5.0 40-yard dash at the size of 6'6" and 232 pounds.

Andre Woodson, on the other hand, does not impress anyone as of late. The 6'4", 234-pound, quarterback from Kentucky has been going the wrong direction. He has all of the prototypical qualities you want in a quarterback with his size, awareness, and arm strength. However, when you can't put those qualities on display in the Combine you always look less competitive than the other quarterbacks out there. And because Woodson has a hamstring issue, he wasn't able to partake in the Combine throwing and running tests. He has probably fallen to the 5^th overall quarterback in the draft because of this, so he had better have a good pro day at Kentucky if he wants up his stock at all.

The player that everybody deemed the best player in the draft going into the combine are saying the same thing about him exiting the combine. Darren McFadden, the running back from Arkansas, delivered on all accounts at the NFL combine. He ran an unofficial 4.27 and an official 4.33 40-yard dash at the combine. That speed eliminated any notion that maybe he wasn't as fast as he looked on the field, because evidently, he is. He also had a broad jump of 10'8", which is further than the explosive Mr. Adrian Peterson had last year.

Rashard Mendenhall from Illinois was not bad at all either. He ran an impressive 4.37 at the combine and proved that he is more than just a power back. Nevertheless, he also proved that he is more than capable of overpowering defenders when he put up 26 bench press reps as well. He also showed great explosiveness with a 33.5-inch vertical jump. All of this solidified Mendenhall as a first round pick in this year's draft.

After an injury riddled season, Limas Sweed is taking his game to the NFL. He had to show that he had overcome the injury to his wrist, and he did just that, impressing many scouts with his route running ability and good hands. He ran a 4.45 40-yard dash, which at 6'4", 220-pounds is just about as impressive as it gets (after a Calvin Johnson type performance anyway). He also had a 35-inch vertical jump, which will make him a great red zone target in the NFL.

Mario Manningham on the other hand did not have a great day at the combine. He ran 4.5 40-yard dash, which is not what everyone was expecting from a 6'0", 180-pound wide receiver. He was not very impressive in the vertical jump either. However, Manningham's performance on Saturdays will probably outshine his less than stellar combine performance.