NFL Draft 2010 Player Profile: Kurt Coleman, Ohio State Safety

What the Pro Scouts Think: In general, the pro scouts seem to like everything about Coleman outside of his overall speed. Coleman is determined to prove that he can play corner back as well as safety in the NFL, making speed an even bigger concern heading into the combine.

Outside of the speed question, Coleman is extremely versatile. He has excellent football instincts, is a sure tackler, is a high character player with leadership skills, has the strength to play the run, and has a knack for making big play as evidenced by his 5 interceptions (including one returned for a touchdown against Wisconsin) and 3 forced fumbles (one of which preserved a shutout on the goal line against Toledo) during his senior season.

Why the Pro Scouts are Stupid: The infatuation with 40 times can help or hurt Coleman more than anyone I can remember in the draft. As I mentioned, there are very few negative things said about Coleman outside of the speed question, and yet he is only projected to go around the 5th round at this time.

Leaving aside the somewhat ridiculous notion that running in a perfectly straight line without pads is an accurate way to determine “game speed”, if Coleman can pop off a 4.3 40 at the combine I think there is little doubt that he would instantly move up to a late 1st round early 2nd round player.

What does it all mean? If Coleman runs a 4.5 or so (because .2 seconds without pads on is such a huge difference) and does fall past the first two rounds, I would call him a steal, and I would be extremely happy if the team I followed were able to get him that late (looking at you Browns).