FanPost

Bruce Ellington At The NFL Combine

Bruce Ellington! The second coming of Isaac Bruce? He sure looks a little like him.

Recently on my brand new iPad air mini I decided to study the combine film of all of the WR prospects I was hoping to land with the 49ers: Marqise Lee, Odell Beckman Jr, Kelvin Benjamin, Brandin Cooks, Martavis Bryant, Donte Moncrief, Mike Evans, Allen Robinson, Sammy Watkins, and Jarvis Landry, etc.

Looking at the combine video of these players, I was impressed by them all, I liked Landry's one-handed catch, Beckman Jr's crisp running/catching, Cook's speed, Evan's durable catching look, and so forth..I saw a few drops by some players, some falling to the ground trying to catch..

But Bruce Ellington? He was stealthily fluid, he was like a spinning wheel rolling on grass reeling in catches. No drops, if I missed it, sorry for the error. I went back and forth between videos to compare Ellington.

It seems that Ellington's NFL combine video was one of the best. He may not have the 4.33 speed (Sammy Watkins, the first receiver taken in the draft, was 4.43), but he was 11th of all combine players at 4.45 on the 40 yard dash, 5th with 39.5 inches on the vertical jump, seventh on the 3-cone, equalling Beckham Jr with 6.69, almost edged Beckham Jr with 3.95 with the shuttle (fifth overall), and was 14th at the bench with 15 reps, while our favorite Beckham Jr languished only pressing 7 reps.

I never heard of Ellington and certainly didn't come across his draft profile during the combine, I was too busy staring at Beckham Jr, Watkins, Evans, Lee, and Cooks. When Ellington was drafted my shoulders sagged a little but, but upon thinking of the name Isaac Bruce my shoulders re-upped back to its' normal stature, funny how names change my moods psychologically.

Since it has been a bit over a week since the draft, I didn't really bother to take much of a closer look at Ellington, but the more I looked at his profile and draft combine results, I decided to compare combine videos of most WRs and started noticing how Ellington stood out in certain ways. Ellington is not the wandering, fall-down slippery fingers like others who showed flashes of greatness. He was smooth as an eel in a pool of water - except he was in human form on a football field. He didn't wring his neck in two different directions trying to catch the football over his head. He was combine-trained and picture-perfect. He didn't slip out of bounds but ran on a straight line after the catch.

I don't know what Jerry Rice or John Taylor would have looked like on the NFL combine videos, I can only imagine the Ricecake version, probably, but..Rice ran a 4.6 in the 40, slower than Ellington, and both Rice and Ellington run fluidly.

Ellington stood out and he stands to become a very efficient WR for the 49ers.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Niners Nation's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Niners Nation's writers or editors.