UCLA star Myles Jack has yet to receive clearance to fully participate in next week’s NFL scouting combine, as Josh Weinfuss of ESPN.com writes. However, the 20-year-old will do the bench press, attend team interviews, and undergo the medical check at the combine in Indianapolis. 
Jack, who injured his knee in September, expects to be fully cleared in early March. For his part, the linebacker insists that he is only holding back in training as a precaution.
“Personally, I feel great,” Jack said. “The knee, I can do whatever I can do with the knee, running, cutting. It feels great. It feels like a new knee.”
Decision makers around the league believe Jack will go “very early” in the draft and he has been referred to as a “rare athlete,” a compliment that is not thrown around often. There are concerns about his size, but scouts are quick to point to Shaq Thompson, the Panthers first round pick in 2015, as an example of a player who was not held back by his statue. Jack, they say, is also a much better prospect than Thompson.
In an informal survey of NFL execs, Tony Pauline of DraftInsider.net found that the consensus has Jack going No. 4 overall, ahead of Ohio State’s Joey Bosa. Of course, in order to go in the top five, Jack’s knee will have to hold up to intense scrutiny from interested teams.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.