2017 NFL Combine: 10 Players to watch from Big Ten
By Ryan McNeill
2. Marshon Lattimore, CB, Ohio State
Marshon Lattimore is widely considered to be a first-round lock, so the reason to watch him at the draft combine is to see how he fares during workouts and drills.
Lattimore had surgery on his hamstrings his freshman season and was limited to seven games as a sophomore due to hamstring injuries. Last season he made a lot of big plays – four picks and nine pass break-ups – and looked like an elite corner. The question for NFL teams is if they want to use a first round pick on a player with big injury concerns.
Performing well at the draft combine will help to squash some of those concerns.
Despite my concerns over Lattimore’s injury history, it appears that most NFL teams aren’t nearly as worried. A pro personnel director for AFC team raved about Lattimore for his Draft Combine profile.
"“I’ve studied the top cornerbacks coming out and he’s the best I’ve seen. He’s so athletic that he can just post up under the receiver’s chin and shadow him all over the field. And he’s tough, too. He’ll be one of the top cornerbacks pretty quickly.”"
It will be interesting to see what Lattimore’s 40-yard time at the combine is and how he does in coverage drills.
Also, if I’m an NFL team looking at drafting Lattimore, I’m having my medical staff going over his medical history closely and having the medical team look at those hamstrings closely.