Biggest risers and fallers from the 2023 NFL Combine
Over 300 prospects from this year's draft class showcased their athleticism this past week in Indianapolis, and as is the case every year, some of them helped themselves with their performances while others didn't so much.
I decided to outline one player I expect to rise up draft boards and another who's probably falling at each position, based on their performances.
Therefore, I labeled the players based on what they're largely projected to play at the next level across draft media (even if different from NFL.com), and if there were other noteworthy names for these categories, I added a few words on them.
(You can also listen to me recap the combine here.)
Interior defensive line
Riser: Bryan Bresee, Clemson
Considering he’s been seemingly falling in the predraft process without any further information – other than people connected to NFL front offices saying he’s not as highly touted as some may think – I’m happy to show Clemson’s Bryan Bresee some love after a very challenging year off, and to some degree, on the field as well.
Bresee weighed in just two pounds shy of the 300-mark, yet he still ran a 4.86 in the 40, which was fourth among the IDL group. And he was between 7 and 17 pounds heavier than all of those three guys ahead of him. Plus, his 1.71 10-yard split was tied for second. Other than that, he only did the vertical jump and bench press, where he was to eight in both.
But it was his on-field workout that really impressed me. He looked very light on his feet, with no wasted movement going through the bag drills, turning a tight corner as he synced his hands and hips together. His hands were quick and forceful.
Plus, towards the end, when asked to string together multiple moves in a D-line gauntlet, he stayed tight to the bags, even on a compact spin move, which isn’t necessarily a portion that favors bigger guys, where somebody like Bresee, at 6-foot-5½, had to reduce his frame.
I’d be remiss not to bring up Pittsburgh’s Calijah Kancey basically showing the exact same athletic profile as another former Panther and three-time Defensive Player of the Year Aaron Donald (outside of arm length), with a 4.67 in the 40 and a 1.64 split, but he didn’t do anything else.
And a 4.85 with a 1.72 split is a great time for West Virginia’s Dante Stills at 286 pounds. After murdering people at the East-West Shrine Bowl, he continued to look explosive in his movement and in the way he plants off his foot to change direction and navigate through the bags without losing his balance at any point. And his ability to dip that shoulder and effortlessly execute the figure-eight on the “run the hoop” drill was also very impressive for his height.
Faller: P.J. Mustipher, Penn State
Former Nittany Lion P.J. Mustipher had the worst 40 time of any defensive player at a 5.41, despite three of the four guys directly in front of him having about 15 pounds on his 320. And the 1.88 10-yard split might have been even worse, as it was tied for the slowest mark with Baylor’s fridge-like Siaki Ika.
Mustipher was tied for third-worst vertical jump, and he had the shortest broad jump, hitting just 8 feet. And I don’t even know who advised him to do the agility drills, since he was dead last in both as well, going over the eight- and five-second marks respectively for the three-cone and short-shuttle drills.
Along with that, Mustipher was high in his movement on the field during the wave drill and others. He looked rather sloppy in his transitions, sort of pausing at times almost as if he didn’t want to slip later on. For a guy who I think was a pretty integral piece to a great Penn State defense the last few years but had very little production – not reaching more than 1 sack in any of his 4 seasons as a starter – this really isn’t good.
Texas’ Keondre Coburn looked like a big body who you can put in the middle of your defense for a couple of downs maybe, but there’s nothing athletically that excites at all. He showed tightness in his ankles and didn’t lift his feet off the ground or plant off them very well. He is what he is – a space eater.