Coach Smith On Hand At Stephen Hill's Pro Day.....

[Ridder Me This]

Pro Days

Hill works out in front of three NFL coaches at Ga. Tech pro day

Posted: March 8th, 2012 | Gil Brandt | Tags: 2012 pro days, Atlanta Falcons, Buffalo Bills, Chicago Bears, Georgia Tech, Leslie Frazier, Lovie Smith, Mike Smith, Minnesota Vikings, Stephen Hill

Stephen Hill continued his meteoric rise up the draft boards with a fantastic workout at Georgia Tech’s pro day Thursday.

Hill (6-foot-3 3/4, 209 pounds) lit it up, as he went through drills in front of 20 teams. Falcons head coach Mike Smith was there along with Bears coach Lovie Smith and Vikings coach Leslie Frazier. Bills GM Buddy Nix was there to get a look at Hill, too. When you have three head coaches and a GM show up to a pro day, usually there’s consideration for a first-round pick. I would say Hill has gone from somebody who was not very well known to a first-round player.

Hill stood on all of his combine numbers, and caught balls from QB Eric Ward, who used to play for the University of Richmond and was brought in for the school’s pro day. It was a smart move by them to bring in Ward.

I didn’t include Hill on my first “Hot 100″ list, but he rose to No. 44 on my second list and he was No. 32 on my third. The best thing Hill did was work out with former NFL WR Terance Mathis at the IMG Academy. Mathis taught Hill how to run routes and took him from a person who was a straight-line streak WR to a guy who can really throttle down and catch the ball.

Eight players in all participated in Georgia Tech’s pro day.

Just thought I would post this as an FYI...not sure if he was there for another player not listed, but this seems interesting....

[Ridder Me This]

Link:

http://blogs.nfl.com/category/pro-days/

[jbrinson]

Hill will be a BUST if anyone is foolish enought to take him in round one. but who is that dumb? he's a workout warrior to didnt play anywhere near his 40 time on film. These fool kill me with this. a guys has three years of film where he does squat then ppl make him a 1st rounder cuz he ran a 4.3 and he's 6'4.

Demaryius Thomas was drafted from this same system and he was pretty good last year. Thomas had more yards but not much a difference. Everything Hill showed at the combine was their on film as well. Everyone knew he would run fast but not how fast. HIll is a beast

[Kennesaw77]

Thomas and Hill both played the same role in college and should play the same role in the pros as well.

[The Dirty Bird]

I wrote about this a few days ago in another thread, I'll re-post it here:

Mike Smith was at Georgia Tech WR Stephen Hill's Pro Day.

http://www.cbssports...a-techs-pro-day

I know it's a crazy concept at first to consider us taking a WR with our first pick, but if you think about it for a moment it makes some sense.

1) He could be BPA when we're OTC. Hill is 6'4, runs a 4.36, and makes the spectacular catch. Like Demaryius Thomas, GT under-utilized him as they ran a triple option. If he was a WR at Oklahoma, he'd likely be a Top 10 kind of guy with his measurables.

2) We currently do not have a 3rd legitimate WR. Harry Douglas is a free agent and he'll only be back if he's met by an exceptionally soft market. Kerry Meier is coming off an injury and is more of a possession type if he can regain his form. Roddy White is also 30 and turning 31 during this upcoming season -- his explosion is gone and this past season may be a hint that his effort will go if his natural talent starts to go (led the NFC in drops).

3) The future. Even if Roddy has one to two seasons left as a great possession #2 WR, we won't have anyone to take double teams off of Julio when he wears down or leaves. If he gets injured this upcoming season, our offense will be easy to stop with a ton of attention being paid to Julio. Tony no longer beats one on one coverage and if Turner is on the field we have no passing threat coming out of the backfield. Giving Matt Ryan two 6'2+ WRs with 4.3 speed and exceptional hands to work with for his career should do him wonders. We need two major receiving threats at the least to have an effective offense, and Tony and Roddy's time will soon be done.

When it comes down to it, how often can you get a 6'4, 215 lb WR who runs in the high 4.2s on a hand-timed clock (4.36 at notoriously slow Indy, 4.29-4.31 on scout's watches) who can catch and block. Georgia Tech was very run heavy (like ATL in recent years) and Hill was a blocker on the perimeter who did a fine job. Demaryius Thomas was a mid-1st round pick -- going before Dez Bryant -- and was a freak workout guy. Hill is an even bigger freak in all aspects -- he's taller, bigger, faster, stronger, runs better routes, and catches the ball better. He may slide to the 2nd round due to his low statistics and the plethora of WRs that have gotten a ton of positive media attention throughout the year (Justin Blackmon, Michael Floyd, Kendall Wright, Alshon Jeffery) and may be pegged as a workout warrior to be wary of.

All I know is this: if we line up a 3 WR, 1 TE set with Julio and Hill on the outside, Roddy in the slot, and Tony on the line.....someone is catching a pass for at least a 5 yard positive gain. Add in Jacquizz from out of the backfield and our offense can finally be truly dangerous. While we used our draft on a WR last year, we still didn't score any points in the playoffs against the Giants. Our offense was too predictable, Roddy couldn't separate against faster CBs, and Tony couldn't separate against their good safety duo. Having two guys who can rip the top off of defenses AND win jump balls will give us a mismatch on every passing play. If they are overly concerned with Julio, he can run a slant and Hill can run the fly and beat single coverage. If they double both outside WRs, Roddy should destroy over the middle. Look at the Giants with Nicks, Cruz, Manningham last season (Saints with Colston, Meachem, Henderson, Graham and Packers with Jennings, Nelson, Cobb/Jones, Finley). The best offenses and best teams have dynamite offenses. If we're going to make it out of the NFC and into the Superbowl we need to be able to outscore them and we can't do that with our offense as currently constructed.

Draft picks on offense, free agent $$ on defense (Mario Williams, re-signing Grimes, LaRon Landry, Red Bryant/Kendall Langford if we can't spend on Bryant). That should be the plan this year. We have a ton of money under the cap and we clearly aren't re-signing Lofton so we can use the big money elsewhere. I hope the FO stops wasting their time and builds a team that can compete with the Giants, Saints, Packers, Patriots, Steelers, Ravens, Eagles, Cowboys once they sign a CB, and soon-to-be ultra-talented-and-mature Lions. Sorry this got so long, I got rolling.

EDIT: AND we've got a Falcon-friendly player working out with him

"Hill has been working out under the watchful eye of former Falcons wide receiver Terance Mathis. "Basically it's just route-running, getting in and out of breaks, making sure I catch the ball with my eyes," he said. "Of course with my hands, but mostly with my eyes." "

[autigerfan]

I would doubt we take a wideout with first two picks having traded up for Julio and re-signed Douglas.

I could see us going after a possession guy in the fifth round or later to develop into a FInneran type role in case Meier doesn't step up.

[Smiler11]

I see Hill going late first, early 2nd. I don't think he is as good as Thomas was coming out.