Scouting the Senior Bowl: Mardy Gilyard and Tony Pike

Cincinnati WR Mardy Gilyard (6-0, 179)

Gilyard’s one of the draft’s great stories, a player who’s gone from high school marijuana troubles to flunking out at Cincinnati to becoming one of the league’s best leaders. He’s been wildly productive on the field too (2,467 yards and 22 touchdowns in the last two years) and he’s a proven dynamo as a return man, which is always an added value come draft time. He has undeniably quick hands and feet, and in a phone conversation before practice started this week NFL Network draft expert Mike Mayock said, “He sure is fun to watch on tape.”

In person in Mobile, Gilyard’s been just as fun – and occasionally not. After running a lot of slants, bubble screens and crosses in college, he’s shown he can run solid NFL routes and ESPN analyst Todd McShay wrote that he “got off the line better than any other wideout” during press coverage drills early in the week. But he’s also dropped a lot of balls and Wes Bunting of the National Football Post echoed many voices who’ve worried over Gilyard’s – as Bunting called it – “frail” frame.

“He lacks the physicality needed to consistently fight his way through physical corners, (he) hasn’t looked real explosive out of his breaks and (he) has had a tough time separating vs. man,” Bunting wrote.

Mayock had Gilyard pegged as an early second round pick. He may have some work to do come combine time to prove that’s where he stays.

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