South Carolina wide receiver Alshon Jeffery had a monster sophomore season, one where he took the country by storm. With a bunch of mid-season change happening to South Carolina in 2011 including a quarterback change and the loss of star running back Marcus Lattimore, Jeffery’s game seemed to deteriorate a bit, though he was still pretty productive and effective.
Unfortunately, it appeared as though Jeffery had led his physical conditioning go and looked out of shape in 2011. So much so that a lot of scouts consider him to be, at best, a second round draft pick.
Some descriptions that have been thrown out there say that Jeffery is looking soft and slow in his pre-draft workouts. It’s for that reason that I think Jeffery has a chance to be the Scouting Combine’s biggest loser in 2012. He could choose not to do any of the drills if he is really that badly out of shape, but everyone will get to see what Jeffery looks like in spandex when players weigh in, and we will be able to tell if he has been training adequately or not.
Even if Jeffery shows up to the Combine looking soft, it’s going to bring his draft status way down. He was thought of by my earlier this year as a top five pick, almost guaranteed. I didn’t see many holes in his game and thought he reminded me a lot of Larry Fitzgerald.
Now, it looks like Jeffery could be a second day pick, but that will be determined by how he shows up at the Combine, which we will all know very soon.