The annual NFL Scouting Combine is mercifully done. Four days of workouts and interviews in Indy have left the prospects, not to mention the NFL teams, exhausted and ready to move on. After two days there in person, I was more than ready to head home, too.

Here are the rules of thumb on what happened in Indy…

Thumbs Up

To Jalen Ramsey--the only question remaining on the Florida State defensive back is which position is his best NFL fit. He’s got the elite athletic measurements to play either corner or safety at an extremely high level. His Combine performance is one of the most impressive all-around showings for any player in recent times.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Official Combine numbers for DB Jalen Ramsey. Killed it (as expected).<br>4.42 40-yard dash<br>41.5&quot; Vertical<br>11&#39;3&quot; Broad jump</p>&mdash; Dane Brugler (@dpbrugler) <a href="https://twitter.com/dpbrugler/status/704374861309702144">February 29, 2016</a></blockquote>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

It’s doubtful he winds up going No. 1 overall,  but it’s just as doubtful Ramsey, who I view as a better safety prospect, falls out of the top 4 in the draft. His Combine numbers prove that the magic we saw on the college field has the ability to translate to the next level.

To William Jackson--the Houston dynamo was already the top cornerback on my board, but after his Monday workout more people might lean my way. Jackson was the only defensive player taller than 6’ to break the 4.4 barrier in the 40-yard dash, and his 1.52 10-yard split was best in show. He moves fluidly in space and exploded out of breaks in the position drills. Don’t be surprised when Jackson cracks the top 20 overall in April with his outstanding measurements and 23 PDs in 2016, which is more than Vernon Hargreaves, Mack Alexander and Eli Apple combined.

To Jason Spriggs and Jack Conklin--Big Ten tackles tend to get dogged by national pundits for being plodding products of the system. Never mind that Michigan’s Taylor Lewan posted one of the greatest Combine workouts ever two years ago. This year it was Spriggs and Conklin disproving that antiquated notion.

Spriggs, from Indiana, ran a 4.92 40 at 6’6” and 301 pounds with long arms and excellent agility scores. He’s a better athlete than football player at this point, but that doesn’t mean Spriggs isn’t ready to contribute right away at left tackle. He compares to Nate Solder as a prospect, and all Solder has done is start on Tom Brady’s blind side for years.

Conklin, a Michigan State product, performed even better than Spriggs. This is fantastic for the Spartan, as his game is more polished and also based more on winning with power than athleticism. The former walk-on still projects--like Lewan--at right tackle but he solidified his presence in the middle of the first round with his Combine workout.

Other big winners:

  • Cal RB Daniel Lasco, the biggest winner of the RB group
  • Ohio State LB Darron Lee, showing rare speed and movement skills
  • Ohio State WR Michael Thomas, who should be strongly considered as the first wideout to be drafted. Bigger, more agile and stronger than the more heralded Laquon Treadwell, who opted not to run and potentially embarrass himself
  • Ohio State DE Joey Bosa, if you’re focusing on his blah 40 time, you’re overlooking the fact he was well above-average on every other drill. His 6.89 3-cone drill and 120” broad jump are both indicative of an athlete with elite explosiveness at that weight
  • South Carolina TE Jerell Adams, the best athlete for his size in a humdrum tight end class. There might not be a tight end selected before the third round, and even that would be too early for my liking
  • Northwestern FB Dan Vitale, proving his role as “Superback” for the Wildcats translates to the NFL as a fullback/h-back/tight end

Thumbs Down

To Vernon Butler--less than 12 hours before his workout, Butler compared himself to Gerald McCoy and Muhammad Wilkerson as an athletic, attacking defensive lineman. After his poor workout performance, which included the slowest 40 time (5.34) and second-worst 10-yard split (1.85) of any defensive player, it’s hard to classify the Louisiana Tech tackle as “athletic”. His agility and explosion drills were also at or near the bottom. For a player with uneven tape, not having the perceived physical upside puts a definite ceiling on his draft stock. I still like Butler but he’s not a justifiable first-round talent anymore.

To Shawn Oakman--for years the book on Oakman has been he’s a physical freak who just needs to develop the football side of his game. Well, now the book is out and it should completely close any prospect of the Baylor defensive end being considered a draftable commodity. Other than his shredded abs, Oakman is a pedestrian performer in drills…at best. The killer for me was the 32” vertical on top of the 4.96 40 time, worse than almost all the defensive tackles. Nothing on his Baylor tape says NFL at all, and now that the myth of his athleticism is debunked, it’s time for everyone to move on. There is ZERO reason to consider drafting Oakman.

To Kelvin Taylor--his game is not speed-based and we knew that already about the Florida RB, but he failed to hit the minimum benchmarks most teams look for at the running back spot. Short arms, tiny (8.25”) hands, poor explosion scores, it all adds up to a rough weekend for Jaguars legend Fred Taylor’s son.

Others who did not help themselves in Indy include:

  • Arkansas RB Alex Collins, running stiffly and completely devoid of explosion. He also looked terrible in the receiving drill
  • LSU OG Vadal Alexander, painfully slow in both a straight line and in changing directions
  • Alabama DT A’Shawn Robinson, not nearly the plus-level athlete he’s often hyped to be
  • SE Louisiana CB Harlan Miller, looking skinny and running one of the slowest times of any DB

Special mention to Under Armour for providing ill-fitting workout wear to many performers. Compression gear should not be loose-fitting, and it certainly shouldn’t tear like it did to Mississippi State DT Chris Jones.

Thumbs Twiddling

To Darian Thompson--the Boise State safety is one of my favorite players in this draft. I love his range, his bullet-like closing burst and his headiness in coverage for the Broncos. He verified it all during a strong Senior Bowl week.

Yet his Combine performance was underwhelming, to say the least.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I need to rewatch Darian Thompson now. The only negative I really had on him was angles, but he made up for them with speed. Didn&#39;t see 4.7.</p>&mdash; Justis Mosqueda (@JuMosq) <a href="https://twitter.com/JuMosq/status/704361035155664896">February 29, 2016</a></blockquote>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

There are reports, including one from trusted draft insider Tony Pauline, that Thompson was ill over the weekend and not fully healthy for Monday’s workout. The workout doesn’t jibe at all with what I saw in watching several Boise games over the last two years. I’m going to trust what I’ve seen but it gives me pause to not have the validation of the workout. Thompson’s pro day (March 31st) is now critically important.

To Emmanuel Ogbah--Oklahoma State’s defensive end is the opposite of Thompson for me. Nothing I saw on tape suggested the impressive display Ogbah put on in Indy. Most astonishing was his outstanding numbers in the agility and explosion drills, because he only sporadically displayed those traits for the Cowboys. I had Ogbah pegged as a late-second/early third-round talent, but now I need to go back and reevaluate to see if I was missing something.

Thumb Sucking

To Jaylon Smith--normally I give this pejorative space to players who wildly disappoint or fail a drug test or something of that nature. This time, the “sucking” is what has happened to Smith, the Notre Dame linebacker who was destined to be a top-10 overall pick. He tore up his knee in the Fiesta Bowl against Ohio State, suffering the exact same injury as South Carolina RB Marcus Lattimore a couple years ago.

While there had been talk of Smith recovering quickly enough to make it back by midseason, the Combine quashed the optimism. He is going to miss all of 2016, and that’s the best-case scenario. There is a chance he will never play again, as he did suffer some nerve damage as well as tearing both his ACL and LCL. Lattimore never made it back, and the odds are not in Smith’s favor to ever get back to 100% of his old self.

I do believe Smith does get drafted, but I’ll be surprised if it’s anywhere before the fourth round. Several teams have already removed him completely from consideration. It’s just a horrible situation playing out for one of the most athletic linebacker prospects in years. While I was lower on him than most, he was still a top 20 overall talent with my skeptical eyes. This is the part of covering football that can be so depressing.