To compensate for many of the injuries suffered the South squad has added three
players including offensive tackle Michael Watson of West Virginia, receiver
Airese Currie of Clemson and cornerback/safety Nick Collins of Bethune Cookman.
Collins is a mild surprise, as he is known as a terrific athlete with
outstanding size/speed numbers yet has marginal production on the field.
Khalif Barnes, the offensive tackle from Washington who's had a monster week and
really elevated his draft status told us is hand injury is, "100% healed;
just a little soreness in the joint and that takes a little longer to heal.
Sometimes I might hit it on a tender pressure point, and then the pain is like a
sharp pain that goes away. It will be fine. I can do pushups off it. I can bench
press with it. It is natural soreness that will be there for about another
month. Come April it'll be fine."
A buzz is starting to build around quarterback Adrian McPherson who has been at
practice the past two days talking with league general managers, coaches and
scouts. Many have come away impressed with the candidness of McPherson as he has
forthrightly told everyone his former transgressions at Florida State were the
mistake of a young kid and he was sorry for the trouble he caused.
Looking tall and slim, he reportedly measures just over 6-feet 3-inches and
weighs around 220-pounds. Training in Newport Beach, California, his bench press
is up around 22-repititions at 225-pounds and McPherson is running the forty in
the 4.45 range.
Former NFL-quarterback Warren Moon has been working with McPherson to improve
his passing. One problem they are incurring is foot quickness; McPherson is too
quick for his own good. Playing in the Arena league forced the pace of play and
they are now trying to slow down his set-up in the pocket. Moon has stated
McPherson has the best arm strength of any quarterback he has ever watched. Yet
at the same time playing on the confined fields of the arena league has taught
the rifled-arm thrower touch and ball placement. Much of the credit goes to his
coach at the pro level- Steve DeBerg.
McPherson realizes his draft positioning is almost totally reliant on his
throwing workout at the combine but his athleticism alone is creating a stir.
As far as team interests in players, the Jaguars spoke with Alex Smith while the
Browns again spent time with Sean Considine. The Eagles sat down and interviewed
Southern Miss linebacker Michael Boley at length. Giants coach Tom Coughlin
concentrated on offensive linemen for the fourth straight day.
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