DPJ 44.5” Vertical at Combine
February 27th, 2020 at 7:23 PM ^
Who are the other people that are in your mind?
February 27th, 2020 at 7:26 PM ^
How much time you got?
February 27th, 2020 at 7:26 PM ^
Rashan would have to be up there, though I’m not sure I buy the argument that scheme made him look less than elite. It seems more likely that he was a super athlete who was good, not great, at playing football.
February 27th, 2020 at 8:44 PM ^
Go read some Packers forums. They still are talking about Gary learning pass rushing moves. At some point, coaching isn’t enough.
February 27th, 2020 at 10:22 PM ^
Gentry at QB
February 27th, 2020 at 7:23 PM ^
There's belief that if you have good vertical it correlates to a good forty time. Calling he runs a 4.45
February 27th, 2020 at 7:27 PM ^
Hope he does better in the pros.
February 27th, 2020 at 7:28 PM ^
Man imagine if he had an all big-ten caliber QB while at Michigan
February 27th, 2020 at 7:29 PM ^
If DPJ runs between a 4.3 and 4.4 with that vertical I have to seriously question how he was used in his career. Although he dealt with a hamstring and didn't look full speed until halfway through the season he was almost never an option deep, it was always Collins.
February 27th, 2020 at 8:00 PM ^
I really miss the days of Grbac, Collins, Geise, Brady, Henne and even Navarre and Henson. We were three yards and a cloud of dust, but it seems like we have 3-4 huge play action passes a game and a bunch of other throws to keep the run game open. I think all of Michigan was salivating to see what a 5* QB would do with DPJ, Collins and Black (and Martin).
I'm still hopeful that Bell, Collins, Sanristril (sp?), etc. will light it up with DM/JM next year to open up huge Charbonnet/Haskins runs.
February 27th, 2020 at 7:37 PM ^
Too bad they don’t have a front flip over a chain linked fence drill at the combine. He’d own that.
February 27th, 2020 at 7:41 PM ^
Also had the best broad jump among WRs at 11ft 7in.
Good thing he was consistently put in a position to use that ELITE level athleticism...
Oh wait.
February 27th, 2020 at 7:49 PM ^
And then people sit around and bitch when high level recruits pass on Michigan. Nobody honest can look at DPJ’s career and say that an elite wr should come here.
We had an nfl center, a good OL, a senior 5 star QB, and DPJ yet still looked like ass for 2/3rds of the year.
February 27th, 2020 at 8:19 PM ^
Agreed. Tbh, if I was a rival recruiter I'd use DPJs Combine #s to negatively recruit against M.
"They had a guy that explosive and didn't feed him?"
Smh.
February 28th, 2020 at 8:19 AM ^
Urban Meyer has already done that on national television last season.
February 28th, 2020 at 9:20 AM ^
Maybe just maybe it's on DPJ for not playing more/better instead of always blaming on coaching
February 27th, 2020 at 9:21 PM ^
Then runs a 4.56 no speed in space
February 27th, 2020 at 10:00 PM ^
His second run was a 4.48.
February 27th, 2020 at 7:56 PM ^
I’ll eat my crow.. I said he was going to be middle of the pack in the combine which is still elite but damn, number 1 vertical by 2 inches is something... Now I’m just mad that we couldn’t utilize him better, smh
February 27th, 2020 at 8:14 PM ^
Still needs to catch the ball.
February 27th, 2020 at 8:16 PM ^
In other news, Nico ran a hand-timed 4.46 according to Gattis’s twitter feed. That’s really good for a guy known to be a jump-ball specialist. Braylon-like tools.
February 27th, 2020 at 8:45 PM ^
In before 51 catches and 7 TDs in 2020 for Collins.
February 28th, 2020 at 12:41 PM ^
Which is probably about a 4.6 laser timed run done by an impartial party.
February 27th, 2020 at 8:41 PM ^
What could’ve/should’ve been. Sad waste
February 27th, 2020 at 9:20 PM ^
4.56 40 .... I thought he ran a sub 4.4 at the Nike opening in high school
February 27th, 2020 at 9:32 PM ^
As a junior in high school, DPJ ran the fastest 40 at the time ever for any player st the opening.
It was a 4.3 something I believe
February 27th, 2020 at 9:31 PM ^
Man, that's amazing. What's his interest? Any CBs for Michigan? It'd be awesome to get a recruit like that here!
February 27th, 2020 at 9:33 PM ^
Yikes. My vertical is probably a negative number now.
February 28th, 2020 at 9:15 AM ^
You should see my horizontal
February 27th, 2020 at 9:38 PM ^
Nice, I was at every game of his UM career, focusing on DPJ on obvious passing downs, he just... does ...not... get ...open.
Shea was a nervous QB, Bell runs disciplined routes, makes the correct read/adjustments and gets open, so guess where the pass went.
He may end up with absolutely the best combine numbers of any WR. but NFL guys aren't fools.
Something doesn't measure up with his performance, our coaches aren't to blame, we've all seen much less talent have vastly better results.
Props to him if he makes a go of it in the league. I've seen enough in person to see that he rarely stood out on the college field.
February 27th, 2020 at 11:54 PM ^
Unfortunately his combine numbers don’t make his hands work in clutch situations.
February 28th, 2020 at 11:21 AM ^
we've all seen much less talent have vastly better results.
Please provide some examples. Shea was throwing to Bell’s position, not Bell himself. You put DPJ in that position and same thing happens. Shea almost always threw to his first read, and Bell was it.
February 27th, 2020 at 9:40 PM ^
So Michigan should have thrown some 50/50 balls his way, huh? What could had been.
DPJ will go down as the most underutilized talent in Michigan history. I hope he absolutely tears it up in the combine.
February 27th, 2020 at 10:01 PM ^
I'd say Steve Breaston was under utilized at Michigan as well and I wasn't alone. I remember Herbstreit saying the same thing. He also had a few really productive years with the Arizona Cardinals.
February 27th, 2020 at 10:45 PM ^
Breaston's best year, in 2008, was with Kurt Warner throwing him the ball. Warner is one of the most accurate passers ever, and could hit Breaston in stride where he could make plays. He was never really that effective again.
I'm not saying Breaston wasn't good--he was fantastic with the ball in his hands. However, he was not the greatest receiver in the world. He was just a great playmaker if you could get him the ball in space. Michigan never excelled at figuring out how to do that while he was here, and outside of that one year with Warner, neither did the NFL.
February 27th, 2020 at 11:25 PM ^
Why throw a 50/50 ball when you have WRs that are open? It's not an accident Bell and Nico had more targets and catches than DPJ. A lot of this falls on his inability to get open.
February 27th, 2020 at 10:04 PM ^
DJP will be a better pro compared to his stat line in college. Sure, he has things to work on but he should not be faulted for the issues we had on offense.
Good luck young man!
Go Blue!
February 27th, 2020 at 10:13 PM ^
Was never a doubt that he’d kick ass at the combine. His physicals are off the charts. But unfortunately just another reminder of what his career could’ve been here.
How many guys have come through here in the last 5-10 years that we’ve had to ask that exact same question for? If I’m ND, OSU, PSU, or anyone else looking at a top receiver that Michigan is also recruiting, I’m asking those recruits that same question.
They had a guy with that kind of talent and still couldn’t get him the ball?
February 27th, 2020 at 10:17 PM ^
Or a QB. Harbaugh really needs to show his ability to develop a QB for the modern college game. If Dylan sucks next year, I'm not sure why any decent QB would come here.
February 27th, 2020 at 10:36 PM ^
If he didn’t make Rudock better, then you must be a Monkey’s Uncle.
February 28th, 2020 at 12:56 PM ^
He did make Rudock better. I won't dispute that. But the problem is that none of Harbaugh's quarterbacks, since he got here, have been difference-makers. That has been what's he's had / developed at every stop in his career prior to coming here. Guys like Rudock, Speight, O'Korn, Peters and Patterson all had their moments (yes, even O'Korn, as he had that Purdue game), but none of them were ever a guy that you could rely on to take over a game. At least not in a game that mattered. Notice how the teams sitting at the big boy table, OSU, Alabama, Clemson, Oklahoma, and this year's LSU have all had QBs who could consistently rise to the occasion and win big time games and have had defining big time moments.
Who knows? Maybe McCaffery is finally that guy. He's certainly got the pedigree for it. But if he can't rise above the play of his predecessors, he's the next QB in line to never beat OSU.
February 27th, 2020 at 10:37 PM ^
DPJ was great on bubble passes and short routes. He had the strength to break arm tackles and run over people then the speed to take it to the house. But separation seemed to always be a problem. Was it effort, crappy route running, bad coaching? How does a tall WR with good intellect, sub 4.5 40 and incredible vertical not have multiple 1000 yard receiving seasons with a speed in space offense and capable QB and OL? He and Gary headline the WTF happened club.
February 27th, 2020 at 11:27 PM ^
It just never clicks for some guys. Freaky talent gets you lofty rankings in HS, but that doesn't always translate to the next level.
February 27th, 2020 at 11:37 PM ^
His route running and his agility isn't great. We'll see how he perform in 3 cone drill and 20 yard short shuttle run. He has some stiffness to his game.
February 27th, 2020 at 11:08 PM ^
DPJ came to Michigan with essentially no route running ability. He was ranked as high as he was based on his elite athleticism. He never became a guy that could consistently separate and run good routes. He also had some key drops in big time situations. Ronnie Bell came in as a basketball player trying to make it as a college football player and by his second year he was running much better routes. And I won’t be surprised to see his catch percentage go up this year as well. So is it coaching for Bell? Was it coaching for DPJ? It’s just crazy how some guys progress so well and others don’t. DPJ was insanely raw when he got to Michigan. He just never lived up to the 5 star rating.
February 27th, 2020 at 11:13 PM ^
A guy being able to put up great combine numbers, doesn't always translate to being a great football player on the field. DPJ didn't really perform great as a player. I'm not buying that it was all because of the QB and coaches, like some people are suggesting.
The vertical leap is somewhat overrated because good talented CBs are going to throw their body into the WR and not allow him to get the full distant on his leap.
It's actually better to just be much taller than the defensive back.
A wide receiver usually leaps up with two hands to catch a football, not one hand. The vertical leap test is judged by what a person can reach with one hand.
February 28th, 2020 at 12:13 AM ^
Last week I remembered why kiper is a clown, when he called DPJ a 4-5 rounder..
I've always seen DPJ as a Julio Jones caliber nfl talent. He will be. DPJ will end up a day 2 steal and I hope he’s the next Welker, Branch, Brown, or Edelman for Tom for a year or two before he retires. 44.5” vertical is amazing.
This also made me question why he was so under-utilized in his 3 years. It could easily be explained off due to multiple offensive schemes and injury, but those feel like excuses. I don’t think Peoples was ever turned loose. Am I wrong?
We had Black, Peoples, Collins, Bell... strong Te play ... way above average protection In the trench, and backfield maulers (Big Mason and Van Sumeren) and didn’t utilize this incredible offense to our strengths. I’m hoping year 2 under Gattis we make the leap.
February 28th, 2020 at 6:59 AM ^
I've always seen DPJ as a Julio Jones caliber nfl talent.
Don't get me wrong, DPJ is an incredible athlete. But, he is not as accomplished in college as Jones was. Jones also ran a 4.39 40 yard dash, which is more highly correlated to NFL success than the vertical jump is. DPJ is a talented athlete, but as of yet has not turned that into the on field production that Jones has been able to demonstrate. I'm not sure that's a fair comparison.
February 28th, 2020 at 5:53 PM ^
I respect that stance and it’s absolutely validated.... however, look at the caliber of talent we had at wr, and it’s fair to say every one of these guys have been underachievers except Bell, he’s been a bright spot with great potential, because he’s hungry. The top guys seemingly got complacent, and weren’t motivated, which I believe lands on coaching. We have yet to see DPJ potential, and I’ll agree, a vertical at the combine shouldn’t be used as a legitimate measuring stick, but it’s demonstrates his incredible athletic ability, and he’s got great tangibles to go with it. Many athletes didn’t excel in college, but really flourished at the next level, and I feel like DPJ will instantly contribute at the next level. You could make the comparison to dk metcalf, maybe not height, but he was injured in college and we didn’t get to see him at his best. I’m really pulling for him to find a winning team who can get his route running to elite level, and teach him how to get separation at the point of attack. GO BLUE
February 28th, 2020 at 9:26 AM ^
Maybe just maybe he's not as good at football as we expected as up till now there still been no evidence he's anything special outside of his vertical (which I have no idea correlates to wide receivers being good).
Might not have the passion for the game needed or isn't a hard worker or lacks the needed skills to be great.