Saquon Barkley wouldn’t mind playing for the Browns, and 4 more takeaways from Day 2 at the NFL Combine

INDIANAPOLIS — Running backs and offensive linemen took center stage at the NFL Scouting Combine Thursday. Here are five interesting things we learned.

Penn State running back Saquon Barkley is among the three best players in the entire draft, and it sounds like he wouldn’t mind playing for the woefully bad Cleveland Browns.

“If you go to a team like that, obviously, they’ve had some rough years, but I think they’re just a couple of pieces away,” Barkley said Thursday. “They do have a lot of young talent. ... You want to be a part of something like that — something that’s bigger than yourself, something that will leave a legacy being a part of something special.”

Barkley was also tied with Georgia’s Nick Chubb for the most bench press repetitions among running backs with 29.

While Barkley was generating the largest media throng on Thursday, LSU’s Derrius Guice was delivering the day’s best quote at the same time.

When asked what he was telling teams during meetings, Guice was to the point.

“If you don’t draft me, I’m going to give your defense hell,” Guice said.

Bench press repetitions for offensive linemen took place on Thursday. Much of what was expected took place.

Unfortunately, Ohio State center Billy Price potentially tore a pectoral muscle, according to Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated. That could be costly for Price. He was a fringe first-round player who may need surgery and probably won’t be able to work out before the draft.

Price is in competition with Iowa’s James Daniels to be the draft’s first center picked. That competition may be over.

Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer will not hesitate to burn the dead. All three of his quarterbacks — Sam Bradford, Teddy Bridgewater, and Case Keenum — are unrestricted free agents this offseason. No one knows if any of them will be back, but Zimmer sure had a way with words with Keenum, the quarterback who was 11-3 for the Vikings last season.

But wait, there was more.

Quarterbacks weren’t the only ones who were roasted by Zimmer. Wide receiver Laquon Treadwell was put on blast as well.

“I think the big thing is Laquon needs to get out of his own way,” Zimmer said. “He’s a guy that works extremely hard, probably doesn’t do things the right way all the time. We’ll be in training camp and he’ll run the stadium steps at night, which is not helping for practice the next day. But he thinks he’s trying to get better; he’s trying to get better. He’s just going about it the wrong way. He needs to get out of his own way and let this thing play out.”

Oh, you don’t think Zimmer was done, do you? Nope! He spoke out about denying quarterbacks coach Kevin Stefanski the opportunity to interview for the offensive coordinator position with the New York Giants.

“I get criticized for blocking guys and stuff like that, but loyalty, to me, is a big thing, right? So I come in here four years ago and the offense is 29, 27th, 26th. But I keep them. So the first time our offense is pretty good, then I’m supposed to let all my coaches leave? I don’t think that’s right. If I’m going to be loyal to them and not fire them after they don’t have good years, then I don’t think they should not be loyal to me.”

No team finished last regular season hotter than the San Francisco 49ers. That feeling left head coach Kyle Shanahan feeling a little optimistic.

“I’ve said this to a number of people,” Shanahan said, “I learned the way to get people to feel good about 6-10 is just to start 0-9. Glad we didn’t do it the other way around.”