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Charlottesville, VA A total of 11 seniors from Virginia’s 2007 football team and two former Cavaliers ran through a number of workouts for 49 personnel from the National Football League today at UVa’s annual Pro Timing Day. There were representatives from 29 of the 32 NFL squads in attendance, including St. Louis Rams head coach Scott Linehan and general managers Vinny Cerrato of the Washington Redskins and Mike Tannenbaum of the New York Jets.
The NFL Network was on hand to chronicle the event and conduct interviews with head coach Al Groh, Chris Long and Branden Albert.
While the focus was on the three Cavaliers who attended the NFL Combine in late February DE Chris Long, OG Branden Albert and TE Tom Santi there were plenty of opportunities for UVa’s other seniors to perform. Safety Nate Lyles created quite a buzz by bench pressing 225 pounds 22 times, recording a vertical leap of 36 inches and running two sub 4.5-second 40-yard dashes.
Long, under the direction of Virginia head coach Al Groh, ran through a series of linebacker drills. He did not repeat any of the performance tests he did at the Combine. Albert also limited his participation to individual offensive lineman drills.
The other Cavalier players who took part in Pro Timing Day included nose tackle Allen Billy, offensive guard Ian-Yates Cunningham, linebacker Jermaine Dias, kicker Chris Gould, tight end Jonathan Stupar, punter Ryan Weigand and fullback Josh Zidenberg. Former Cavaliers Ryan Best and Kai Parham also went through the drills.
Players were measured for height and weight, had their hand and arm length measured, took part in a broad jump, vertical jump, 225-pound bench press, ran 40-yard dashes and a series of other shuttle and individual drills.
“The most significant thing in a player’s evaluation by any team is the body of work from when he played,” Groh said. “What any workout provides is the opportunity for the personnel people a chance to see with their own eyes those things they saw on tape.”
Groh worked with Long for several weeks in preparation for today’s linebacker drill which took about 15 minutes.
“This is the workout I did when going to schools to work linebackers out many times,” Groh explained. “I don’t think there is going to be any great revelation as to his skills. His skills have been so apparent for quite some time now. They will show up in these drills as they did others.”
Long is projected to be a player who could fit into a team with either a 3-4 or 4-3 defense where he could play as an end or outside linebacker.
“I’ve always known I could do it,” Long said about playing linebacker. “I didn’t think about the pros last year. I really wasn’t thinking about them this year. As the bowl practices came along people started talking and saying You could play linebacker in the league.’ So I said let’s work on it a little bit. Coach Groh and I had about five sessions to practice. It has been pretty easy stuff to pick up. But, when it is football, and the bullets are flying, it will be another thing.”
Groh said he felt Long’s size, around 270 pounds, might make it hard for him to play defensive end in a 3-4 defense over the long course of an NFL season.
“On a play-to-play basis could he take on those guys just like he has in college? Clearly he can.” Groh said.
With Boston College’s Matt Ryan taking part in the Eagles’ Pro Timing Day on the same date, Long was asked about the talk he might be the top pick in this year’s draft.
“All I can control is showing up and working hard and playing good football,” the UVa All-American said. “If I played myself into a position where I am talked about as a particular pick in the draft, that is surreal for me. That stuff, I don’t really think about it much. I just go about my business.”
Long was asked if Groh’s relationship with Miami Dolphins’ head of football operations Bill Parcells might impact his status.
“No. A lot of things people think matter just don’t matter,” Long said. “This is a business. This is people’s jobs and lives on the line essentially. They are not going to consider somebody based on one relationship. I think it gets blown out of proportion a little bit. I know they are tight. I feel like their systems are similar, so that is an advantage for me. I don’t think he will be, Well coach Groh likes him, I like him too.’
Since opting to pass up his final year of college to move on the to NFL, Albert’s stock has soared on NFL team’s draft boards. His ability to play both guard and tackle, and outstanding athletic ability for a big player, makes him very attractive and a likely first-round selection.
“Right now I’m a guard, wherever a team wants to play me, I can play both” Albert said. “I think a lot of people like the fact I can play both positions. If someone goes down, I can replace another guy. I think that’s helped my stock go up.
“I felt like it was a good decision (to come out early) when I made the decision. It was a decision I made for myself. Now I’m doing good on the draft board and moving up, so I feel even better about it.”
The 2008 NFL Draft will take place April 26-27 in New York City.
“It was great for players like Chris and Branden, but it was also great for these other kids too who put so much into it,” Groh said. “Their presence gave some of our other players an opportunity to show what they can do. Clearly they all trained hard and did very nicely.”