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San Francisco 49ers Head Coach Mike Singletrary (Michael Conroy/AP Photo)
A quick glance around the NFL Scouting Combine from Thursday, February 25 . . .
INDIANAPOLIS -- Life at the NFL Scouting Combine is a bit different for Scott Pioli these days.
First off, longtime New England Patriots vice president of personnel now is in his second season as the general manager of the Kansas City Chiefs. That means preparing for a Top 5 selection in the NFL Draft rather than one of the bottom picks of the first round.
It means something else, too.
He's a lot more popular walking around Indianapolis.
“This is the first time in I don't know how many years that I can walk down the street in Indy and not be cursed at by Colts fans, so obviously I'm making progress here,” Pioli said at the combine on Thursday afternoon. . . .
Elsewhere around the Combine:
* Pioli on whether there will be trades in the Top Five of the NFL Draft: “I haven't gotten into enough of the strategy part yet of seeing who is going to move or who is trying to move. I think right now, a lot of that starts when you get closer to the draft. I don't know this for certain but it appears to me that there have been fewer trades over the last several years at the top end of the draft. There have still been some trades but there has been fewer.”
*Pioli on evaluating offensive players: “I think offensive players in general are becoming more difficult to evaluate than what I remember from a couple years ago. It is a by-product of the type of offenses that are being run in college. They are asking quarterbacks to do different things that what we ask or to run a different style of offense which means the running backs are running differently, the offensive line is different, the splits are different and there are a lot of things that are very different.”
*Pittsburgh Steelers Director of Football Operations Kevin Colbert on the health and availability of safety Troy Polamalu: “We’re not concerned about that. Troy is a give-it-all type player. Injuries can happen. He is on the road to recovery from his knee injuries. That’s going to happen. We’re not going to sit there and worry about troy being available because it can happen to anyone.
*Colbert on selecting late in the draft: “You realize, even if you're picking 32, there are 32 players who can improve our team and it’s up to us to find that guy. There are 32 players in every draft who can help any team.”
*San Francisco 49ers General Manager Scot McCloughan on the offensive line class in the 2010 NFL Draft: “I think every draft takes on an identity. I’m not saying this is a real deep year on the offensive line but there are good football players out there. The one thing about the offensive line nowadays is the game’s changed a lot in college with the spread offense. The big power guys, the guys that come off (the line) and drive block and all that – you don’t see that any more in college. You see more finesse, more pass protection.”
*McCloughan on Florida QB Tim Tebow: “You can’t lose sight of the intangibles he brings with him. There’s no reason why he can’t be successful in the NFL. You look at Philip Rivers and his release, and everybody will make fun of that and say things about that, but it doesn’t matter. All that counts is what he does on the field and does he win games – that’s what you get measured by. And that’s all he’s done.”
*San Francisco 49ers Head Coach Mike Singletary on the combine: “I think the combine is more for the fan, to me, than anything else. When we sit down as coaches, I know when I sit down, I’m looking at the film. I think a huge part of what this is all about is being able to look and say, the guy is 6-10, he’s 400, he’s all of these things, he can run like the wind. But if you put on the film and he’s not hitting people and he’s not getting it done, then I have to look somewhere else. Because I want football players.”
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