Maple Leaf said:
James: I think you missed the point. If, "Quickness off the line" is your reason why many receivers get cut, then any test over 10 yards is meaningless. You mentioned the cone and 60 yard drill. Neither would measure a receivers ability to handle contact off the line. It is not as if collegiate ball is touch-football or semi-contact: collegiate players are tackled and roughed-up as much as they are in the pros. All of these are meaningless measures of abstraction to justify fabricated biases. There is no way -no logical explanation- why a star collegiate player cannot at least find a job as number 4 or 5 receiver in the NFL. Mike Hass is the best example of this anywhere on this site today. In Hass' case, the player went from being the best in all of college to not even being allowed to start. If you believe all of that test stuff then you have been drinking their koolaid.
The drills at the combine are not perfect but they have proven useful gauges of potential NFL success. If a team is going to spend 10 million on a wide out, they want to try and make an informed decision. There are too many stories of lousy combine numbers and great NFL success to mention. But there are even more stories of bad combine performances and failure to make a squad.
Mike Hass made a roster as a 6th round draft choice. He may have needed a year or two of seasoning on the practice squad. I'd give him at least another year in the Bears system which is hampered by poor play and instability at the quarterback position. Anyone expecting a rookie or second year wide receiver to immediately start over seasoned receivers in that team's system is thinking with their heart and not their head. I suspect Mike Hass will be a good bet to move up on the depth chart from #6 receiver next year. Hass needs to impress Darryl Drake and Ron Turner especially. If he does, he'll play. Sometimes all it takes is an injury to the guy ahead of you on the depth chart, in this case that's Mark Bradley or Bernard Berrian.
Hass could easily become the next Wes Welker, waived by San Diego and traded by Miami before becoming a star in his 4th year.