UPDATED: Thoughts on the Combine's QB Interviews

I wrote a while back on my annoyance with idle, unconfirmable rumors against college football prospects, so it should mean something that I'm a little let down by Arkansas QB Ryan Mallett's interview at the Combine on Saturday.

To summarize, he just doesn't appear to have helped himself much with the interview. Naturally, he immediately got peppered with questions about his off-the-field issues (which seem to be zeroing in on drug abuse), and his first response was to laugh it off. Once the questions continued, he began flatly insisting that "NFL teams know what they need to" and, in response to another round of those questions, ended his interview without preamble.

That's going to make Mallett look like he has something to hide. Admittedly, the only way to avoid that look was to come out and talk about the allegations, and there could have been valid reasons not to do so right now. But he and everyone else knew that the focus of this interview would be those off-the-field flags, and the abrupt ending to the interview didn't depict a guy who felt comfortable with himself. He came across to me as simply having lost his cool. (Watch for yourself here and here.)

Jonathan Baldwin Expected to Blaze at Combine

Wes Bunting tweeted this morning:

Hearing from sources that despite being 6-5, 230-pounds #Pittsburgh WR Jon Baldwin is expected to run in the high 4.3 range, WOW!

More "source" talk, sure. But if this happens, it's the kind of development that could shake the entire first round. One of the biggest knocks on Baldwin is that he lacks elite speed. I don't put a lot of stock in 40 times, as a receiver's game hinges far more on quickness and agility in their route-running rather than straight-line speed. But you know that teams won't ignore a 4.3 time on a 6-foot-5, 224-pound receiver. That kind of combination is just ungodly - Calvin Johnson jumps to mind.

Indeed, with the awesome tools framed against some concerns about route-running, Baldwin is starting to sound a bit like Megatron coming out of college, with consistency concerns knocking him down a few pegs. Bunting does say that Baldwin "lumbers a lot" downfield, and indeed he looks a little slow in and out of his breaks. If Baldwin develops better routes, however, and if he achieves that 4.3, he becomes more than just one of those receivers who gets by thanks to mismatches against smaller defenders. He becomes a potential #1 - possibly lifting himself out of reach of Seattle at #25.

We'll see. Wide receiver remains a need for the Seahawks, keeping this guy in the mix as a potential target for John Schneider.