NFL Combine 2013: Winners and Losers From The Weekend

The NFL Combine workouts are about half over, with most of the offensive positions already done and heading home, I thought it would be a god time to take a look at which players helped and which hurt their draft stock with their performances this weekend.

Winner: Geno Smith

The West Virginia QB put up some impressive numbers in all the athletic drills, eliminating any idea that he’s just a pocket passer.

Loser Luke Joeckel

The potential #1 overall was extremely unimpressive in the athletic drills, which led Mike Maylock and others to focus on his deficiencies and the mistakes he made over the course of the season. It will be much tougher not for the Chiefs to sell Joeckel to their fans if he is the number 1 pick.

Winner: Eric Fisher

The Central Michigan offensive tackle came into the combine as the consensus #2 OT in the draft. While Joeckel was disappointing, Fisher looked incredibly athletic and may have impressed his way above Joeckel on some draft boards.

Winner: Many wide receivers

This might be the fastest class of wide receivers since the inception of the NFL Scouting Combine. The 40 times this year were very low.

Loser: Keenan Allen

Before the combine, he was the likely first WR off the board. He might still be, but he certainly didn’t help himself by not participating in any of the drills. While the rest of the position group was putting up some eye-popping numbers, Allen was a complete afterthought.

Loser: Mike Wallace and Dwayne Bowe

There’s simply no way that most teams are going to pay top dollar for this pair of WRs when the draft class is so good and deep at the position.

Winner: Justin Hunter

The Tennessee WR was slowed by a knee injury for most of 2012, but looked healthy and dynamic in drills. His performance will force teams to reexamine his 2011 tape from before his injury which was more impressive, and should lead to Hunter climbing on draft boards.

Loser: Cordarrelle Patterson

Hunter’s Tennessee teammate was the #1 or #2 WR on most draft boards before showing up in Indy. Not only is he 2 inches shorter than he was listed in college, his 4.42 time in the 40 was slower than expected.

Winner: Tyler Eifert

There’s a 2 way fight for the top spot on the TE rankings between Notre Dame’s Eifert and Stanford’s Zach Ertz. Eifert bested Ertz in a number of drills, including the 40, vertical jump, broad jump, 3 cone, and both shuttle drills.