Let’s have a look at some notes from around the league on this relatively slow news day:
- Greg Gabriel of the National Football Post takes a look at some of the most significant pro day workouts from this past week. LSU and Penn State were the major programs to host pro days, but smaller schools McNeese State and Bloomsburg also boast several draftable prospects.
- LSU WR Jarvis Landry will be an intriguing player to watch at next month’s draft. He carried a first-round grade into the combine, but performed poorly there, and though he showed improvement at his pro day this week, it won’t be enough to get him back in the first round. Gabriel expects him to be taken in the third or fourth round, but does note that Landry’s game tape is phenomenal and there are plenty of other top-flight receivers who have had mediocre workout numbers.
- BYU linebacker Kyle Van Noy has had a number of official visits already, and he recently met with the Ravens, according to Aaron Wilson of the Baltimore Sun. Van Noy has received first- and second-round grades from draft analysts.
- In a separate piece, Wilson writes that the felony and misdemeanor drug charges that Ravens WR Deonte Thompson was facing have been dropped by Florida prosecutors. Thompson may be crowded out of the Ravens roster this year, as the team added to its receiving corps this offseason and expects to add at least one more receiver in the draft, but at least he no longer has legal troubles hanging over his head.
- Mike Reiss of ESPN.com, noting that the Patriots have a penchant for drafting highly-talented players whose stock has taken a hit for medical reasons, wonders if Clemson guard Brandon Thomas, who carried a second-round grade before tearing his ACL in a pre-draft workout last week, might be a target in the middle to late rounds of this year’s draft.
- The Patriots are still in the mix for free agent OLB/DE Will Smith, according to Christopher Price of WEEI.com.
- John McClain of the Houston Chronicle gives an excellent description of the dilemma the Texans, picking first overall for the third time in their young history, face in the 2014 draft.