Five to watch as Combine closes

02.25.2008

INDIANAPOLIS -- With the 2008 NFL Scouting Combine almost in the books, it's clear the Browns won't be able to draft the likes of Chris Long, Glenn Dorsey, Sedrick Ellis or Vernon Gholston without moving up from their current draft position, 56^th overall.

There are a lot of other good players who will be gone before 56, too, so the Browns have a lot of guessing - and studying - to do. Both Phil Savage and Romeo Crennel have made clear the team will explore all its options in upgrading the defensive front seven, including moving up in the draft if the opportunity presents itself.

That situation will be discussed again and again over the next two months. But here's a guess and a glance - strictly a guess and a glance - at five players who might potentially be available at 56 if the Browns don't move up.

Bruce Davis, LB, UCLA

If the Browns feel they can upgrade their run defense with the players already on the team and via free agency, it certainly appears they could upgrade the pass rush by drafting Davis.

Davis had 25 sacks in his final two college seasons, usually exploding off the ball from the right defensive end spot and causing headaches for quarterbacks and opposing offensive coordinators alike.

At 6-foot-3 and around 245 pounds, he'll likely need to adjust to outside linebacker in the NFL. But he played some linebacker at UCLA and also gave it a go at the Senior Bowl. He's certainly more comfortable right now going after the quarterback than he is dropping into coverage, but he'll have a chance to develop into a more complete player and certainly has a unique set of pass-rushing skills NFL teams covet.

Quentin Groves, LB, Auburn

A college defensive end, Groves said he's talked to plenty of NFL teams about playing outside linebacker. At 6-foot-3 and 259 pounds, NFL scouts have been sizing him up as a linebacker all season.

The combine and his pro day workout next month will give him a chance to show off both his pass-coverage drops and pass-rush moves, and Groves believes teams will like what they see.

"I want to be the first ‘tweener' taken," Groves said. "It's going to be hard because you've got Vernon (Gholston) up there. All respect to Vernon, it's going to be hard. But I'm willing to work and I think I'm making strides at the combine...to do that."

Trevor Laws, DL. Notre Dame

All effort, all the time.

Laws is a high-energy player who makes up for a lack of ideal size - he's 6-foot-1, 305 - with hustle and knack for finding the ball. Even during a tough season for Notre Dame last fall he impressed NFL scouts by adjusting well to end in the Irish's new 3-4 scheme; he seems a more natural fit playing inside, and he hopes a strong Senior Bowl showing helps his momentum as the draft approaches.

"I'm 305 pounds," Laws said. "Everybody tries to knock me on my size but I feel like I'm a pretty big guy. I played two-gap at the end (last fall) going against big tackles and I stonewalled them. I feel like I can hold my own inside."

Curtis Lofton, LB, Oklahoma

An early entry to this year's draft, Lofton had a chance to make a strong first impression with most NFL types at the combine. By watching his college film scouts have seen a linebacker who made plays all over the field, and now they must decide how he'll fit - and contribute - at the NFL level.

At 6-foot, 246, Lofton would fit size-wise into the Browns' 3-4 scheme. He doesn't have ideal height, but he was a tackling machine at the college level and came to Indy wanting teams to look at his film, not his measurements.

"Look at the past linebackers who measured 6-foot, I mean, they've had great success," Lofton said. "DeMeco Ryans, he's 6-foot. Ernie Sims, he's 6-foot. There's a couple guys who are having really successful careers. So I don't think it shies anyway away from me at all."

Dre Moore, DL, Maryland

He has at least some experience in a 3-4 scheme, and he spent most of Senior Bowl week flattening guards and centers that were in his way. An admitted late bloomer who played just two years of high school football, Moore was a two-year starter for a program that's produced more than its share of productive NFL defenders.

Moore (6-foot-4, 305) said he knows he needs to work on getting better with his hands, but he's an impressive physical specimen, a solid athlete and did 31 reps on the 225-pound bench press on Sunday. He seems to be a potential fit with the Browns, but will he still be on the board at 56?

"I don't even think about that," Moore said. "I just want to get a team and help that team win. I think I can contribute right away."