Falcons have met with Auburn RB Mario Fannin

[Statick]

Falcons have met with Auburn RB Mario Fannin

2:00 pm March 21, 2011, by D. Orlando Ledbetter

AUBURN, Ala. – Auburn running back Mario Fannin, who played at Lovejoy High, was invited to the NFL scouting combine and performed well during the school’s pro day recently.

Fannin said that he’s met with Falcons informally and has interviewed with them.

“I’ve talked them a couple of times,” said Fannin, who’s 5-11, 228 pounds.

During Auburn’s national championship run, Fannin had 61 rushes for 395 yards and scored five touchdowns. He also had 17 catches for 173 yards and two touchdowns.

He was pleased with his showing during the pro day drills.

“I felt like it went good,” Fannin said. “I think I showed the scouts that I can catch and that I can run. I improved some of the times I had at the combine.”

Fanning, like most of the draft eligible players, are keeping a close watch on the NFL’s labor situation.

“You just have to hope that they get the situation solved,” Fannin said. “I have to keep training and working hard like nothing is going on. If it happens, it happens.”

Fannin is a projected seventh round pick/free agent by NFLDraftScout.com, which ranks him as the 23rd best back in the draft. He’s hoping to improve his draft status.

“You just train and hopefully meet with some teams,” Fannin said. “You want to show that you can get on the drawing board. You want to show them that you really know football and hope that your name gets called on draft day.

“There were a lot of teams that I talked to (at the combine). I’m just working hard to impress somebody. It only takes one.”

With quarterback Cam Newton and defensive tackle Nick Fairley working out, every team in the NFL was on hand for Auburn’s pro day. That could have helped Fannin get noticed.

“Cam and Nick did a great job for us this past season,” Fannin said. “You can only thank them for what they did. It was great to have scouts and general managers come out here and watch all of us. It was great for us seniors and the juniors coming out.”

[SaintsH8]

I went to high school with him, he graduated a year before me.

[Mr. Hoopah!]

I'm an Auburn fan and I'm really not interested unless he's an undrafted FA. Dyer and McCaleb outplayed him all season. He's a better pass catcher than runner, he was an H-Back most of his career at Auburn to take advantage of his pass catching abilities and was only moved to full-time RB this past season.