Dontari Poe's athleticism transfers to the football field. (AP)

If anybody tells you that any other player did more to increase his stock at the 2012 scouting combine than Memphis defensive tackle Dontari Poe, you know that person wasn't watching Monday's drills for defensive linemen and linebackers. After putting up a combine-best 44 reps in the 225-pound bench press, Poe went out to the track at Indianapolis' Lucas Oil Stadium and ran an unofficial 4.87 40-yard dash ... at 6-foot-4, and 346 pounds. His official best time was 4.98, which is still ridiculous when you consider that Ndamukong Suh ran an official 5.03 at his combine, and he was 40 pounds lighter than Poe.

And those in the know aren't entirely surprised by the big man's speed -- per NFLDraftScout.com, Poe ran school-timed 40s under five seconds on at least two occasions.

[Related: Robert Griffin III runs a breathtaking 40 at combine]

Even more interesting was the fact that at the combine, Poe had an unofficial 1.70 10-yard split, which absolutely speaks to his ability to explode off the snap and do really bad things to offensive linemen. Getting the numbers for that initial burst is very important -- far more important than the whole 40 -- when looking at linemen and linebackers who can explode off the snap. To put Poe's split in perspective, future endbackers like Nick Perry and Shea McClellin had 10-yard splits in the 1.57 to 1.59 range -- and Poe outweighs McClellin by about 100 pounds. Yikes.

After the run, Mike Mayock of the NFL Network raved about Poe's movement skills, opining that Poe looks a lot like Haloti Ngata of the Baltimore Ravens at the line, and especially in zone drops. Ngata has a rare ability to "get skinny" through blockers at 350 pounds, and there's tape of Poe doing the same sort of stuff.

Not bad for the fourth-heaviest defensive lineman to weigh in at the combine since 2000. At 346 pounds, Poe is bested only by Alabama's Terrence Cody (354 in 2010), Washington's Alameda Ta'amu (348 this year) and Texas Frank Okam (347 in 2008). A few more numbers: Ta'amu's 40 was about a half-second slower unofficially (he didn't run his second after suffering a hamstring injury), Okam shook the ground at 5.32, and Cody ran an official 5.71 at his combine.

[Related: Andrew Luck matches Cam Newton step for step at combine]

Again, yikes.

(AP)

Well, this wouldn't be the best start to Romeo Crennel's return to the NFL head coaching ranks. The longtime defensive coordinator and onetime Cleveland Browns head coach took Todd Haley's headset after Haley was fired, but apparently, the microphone Crennel used at the NFL scouting combine last week didn't come with a specific set of instructions. To wit: If you're asked about players still under terms with other teams, decline comment politely and move on.

During his media session, Crennel was asked about the Chiefs' possible interest in Peyton Manning, the ostensible soon-to-be free agent Indianapolis Colts quarterback.

"I'm not supposed to talk about anyone else's players and he's still a player with Indianapolis," Crennel said. "But with a talent like that, I would be crazy not to consider it if he were available. I'll leave it at that."

Crennel also spilled a bit too much when asked about Miami Dolphins quarterback Chad Henne, who's a potential free agent and has played for current Chiefs offensive coordinator Brian Daboli.

"You have to look at all of it and see how it all plays out. You have to juggle some balls and see what happens. Because of his relationship with Daboll, I think that would be a consideration but to say right now that's the case, I'm not ready to do that."

Both comments would seem to run afoul of the NFL's policy on tampering. Last year, the Chiefs actually won a tampering case against the Detroit Lions regarding safety Jarrad Page. As a result, the two teams were ordered to swap fifth-round picks, and the Chiefs moved up 14 spots.

Here's the official policy:

Any public or private statement of interest, qualified or unqualified, in another club's player to that player's agent or representative, or to a member of the news media, is a violation of this Anti-Tampering Policy. (Example of a prohibited comment: "He's an excellent player, and we'd very much like to have him if he were available, but another club holds his rights.")

This year marks my sixth scouting combine, and I'm fairly amazed at the number of reporters who ask coaches and GMs about players who are still under contract with other teams. Until and unless the NFL puts the combine after the start of the league year, it will continue to happen, and those asked will continue to "no comment" their way out of such questions, or suffer the consequences.

Years ago, I remember one reporter asking Green Bay Packers GM Ted Thompson about his potential interest in Randy Moss, who was still under contract with the Oakland Raiders at that time. Moss' comments that he would love to play with Brett Favre notwithstanding, it was a question from someone who should have known better, and the eye-roll Thompson gave the reporter was almost audible.

Mohamed Sanu isn't flashy, but he could be a quality #2 NFL receiver. (AP)

(From inside Lucas Oil Stadium, during Sunday's quarterback/receiver drills...)

Sanu measured at 6-2, 215. He's a long-looking athlete with a muscular upper body and slightly skinny legs. He took a while to get up to speed on the 40 (would like to see his 10-yard splits), but showed decent glide when he got there.

On the 13-yard comeback, he had good stride and reached out to grab the ball with his hands, keeping him in bounds. However, he misjudged the 25-yard seam route and came up short. He had great form in the gauntlet -- one of the most impressive receivers on the day. Caught every ball with his hands on the first one (again, good technique -- not a body catcher), kept his body straight on the line, and threw the balls away with ease.

He was even better on the second gauntlet, adjusting to high and low throws. No drops in either drill, and straight-line all the way. He rounded off his route slightly on the short cut slant, but caught the ball. He had a better cut on the 10-yard

Kendall Wright saw his potential hidden by a slightly iffy combine. (AP)

(From inside Lucas Oil Stadium, during Sunday's quarterback/receiver drills...)

For a speed receiver, Wright looked bigger than he should have -- too thick around the trunk especially. His unofficial 4.61 40 was matched by the fact that he looked much slower on the field at Lucas Oil Stadium than he ever did on Baylor tape. He came out of the blocks all over the place on his 40 -- he didn't look quite as slow as his time represented, but his overall performance was a disappointment. On tape, he looks a bit like Victor Cruz -- a potential speed slot receiver able to really open things up in three-receiver sets.

Wright stutter-stopped on his cut in the 13-yard comeback out route, though he did do a good job of staying on bounds to make the catch. His best catch of the say was the long seam route, which shouldn't be a surprise, since that's the route he killed everyone with in college. He did have nice hand catches in both gauntlets, but he was very wavy on the line; he couldn't keep

Andrew Luck gets vertical. (AP)INDIANAPOLIS — Andrew Luck's athleticism is without question the most underrated aspect of his game. It's why I find him easy to compare to Steve Young and Rich Gannon in their primes. With all the talk about Luck's intelligence, leadership and accuracy (all of which are true), even a cursory look at his game tape shows a mobility out of the pocket that rivals any "traditional" quarterback in recent memory.

Well, the cat should be out of the bag now. Luck didn't throw at the scouting combine during the quarterback drills, but he did put up several times that rivaled those put up by Cam Newton in 2011.

Luck had an official 4.67 40-yard dash time, but his unofficial 4.59 matched, to the millisecond, what Newton did at last year's combine. Luck's 36-inch vertical jump and his 10-foot-4 broad jump (the best among quarterbacks this year), also closely matched what Newton did. Actually, Luck jumped an inch higher than Newton, despite being an inch shorter. Luck beat Robert Griffin III in the vertical by three inches, though Griffin got his own back by going three inches more in the broad jump.

"I'm not going to throw at the combine," Luck said from the podium this week. "I'll participate in all the other drills, the running, the jumping, the 'L,' the 5-10-5. I was told earlier that there's something out there that teams had advised me not to throw and that was not the case. I made the decision by myself. I bounced it off my agent and my father and felt like it was in my best interest to wait until pro day so we'll go from there."

And as it is for RGIII (who blew up the day with his own combine performance), Luck's decision not to throw won't affect his draft stock.

Kirk Cousins has enjoyed a rather impressive 2012. (AP)

INDIANAPOLIS -- The logjam of quarterbacks below Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III, and Ryan Tannehill just got a little lighter, as Michigan State quarterback Kirk Cousins took offseason work with QB guru Chris Weinke and turned it into a very impressive set of throwing drills on Sunday morning. Cousins showed great touch and release -- for a guy with a supposed  smaller arm, he really zipped the ball, and had no notable issues with deeper routes.

On the five-yard in routes, Cousins displayed a minimum of mechanical extras -- you can tell that he's been working on making everything as efficient as possible. On the longer sideline routes, his throws didn't sail, receivers didn't have to slow down to catch them, and he appeared to have a very good understanding of timing it up with guys he'd never thrown to before. After a very solid Senior Bowl performance, Cousins is slowly but surely putting his reputation as a player who makes too many mistakes behind him -- at least, for now.

Cousins has a third-round grade per NFLDraftScout.com, but that may have changed. With so many NFL teams needing quarterbacks who can at least spot-start, and may be able to run an offense on a more permanent basis, what Cousins has done since the new year flipped over can only help his cause.

"It's a challenge, but it's understood when you sign up for an all-star game like that," Cousins said this week of his Senior Bowl experience. "From both the players and the coaches, it's understood that you're not going to be perfect, and it's hard to develop a chemistry between your center and receivers. Having to share time in practice with the reps makes it difficult. Because it's understood, you go into it with an open mind. All things considered, it was a great week."

That unfamiliarity with his targets, and the fact that Cousins adjusted to the process, lends weight to the notion that he's one of the smarter quarterbacks coming out of this draft class.

"When I look at the quarterbacks who have success year in and year out [in the NFL], I see quarterbacks who are great leaders, very accurate and are great decision-makers. I think those things are my three greatest strengths. I think across the board, those are the things that make a quarterback successful in the NFL over a long period of time."

However, there have been questions about Cousins' decision-making and consistency at the collegiate level. He threw four interceptions in a three-game stretch early in the 2011 season, and some experts believe that his tendency to play over his skill set can lead to some "interesting results." However, the offseason work and the results put forth should have the NFL taking a very hard second look at Kirk Cousins.

Andrew Luck's #1 position may be cinched, but RGIII's stock is seriously rising. (AP)

INDIANAPOLIS -- We can only assume that Robert Griffin III's mega-impressive performance at the podium during the scouting combine was repeated when the Baylor quarterback interviewed with NFL teams this week. And if that's the case, teams would then go back and watch tape of a player who completed over 72 percent of his passes and led the nation in yards per pass in 2011. Given those speculations, it's no surprise that the drumbeat is getting louder every day from teams looking to package a huge purse of draft picks together and move up to the #2 spot -- currently owned by the St. Louis Rams -- for the services of the quarterback everybody believes will be the pick right after Andrew Luck.

According to Mike Freeman of CBS Sports, at least three teams -- the Washington Redskins, Miami Dolphins, and Seattle Seahawks -- are seriously considering moving up to pluck RGIII out of the draft pool in late April.

The Redskins' interest was made public by defensive coordinator Jim Haslett, who spilled the beans to a fan, who then posted the news on the excellent Redskins blog, Hogs Haven. If you were somehow able to combine the skills of Rex Grossman and John Beck, the resulting Frankenstein quarterback would still not match the talents of Griffin. The need is set.

The Dolphins could still be looking very seriously at Green Bay's Matt Flynn -- Flynn is about to hit the open market and new head coach Joe Philbin was on Green Bay's staff for a good, long time -- and they could also be in the hunt for Peyton Manning if the future Hall-of-Famer can play after a series of neck surgeries and the recovery of the nerve impingements in his right arm. But a team that has built a lot of the pieces around a quarterback could do a lot worse than trade up for Griffin.

[ Related: Robert Griffin III blows away combine with 40 time ]

That's also the case for the Seahawks. General manager John Schneider said this week that he's far more interested in quarterbacks who have been athletic through their careers, and the guys who go to all the passing camps make him a little nervous. Since Manning actually runs his own passing academy, and Schneider also said that he's wary of throwing a lot of guaranteed money at a quarterback who makes you unsure, we'll assume that the Seahawks aren't in the hunt for #18. The Seahawks put their future in the hands of Tarvaris Jackson in 2011, and though Jackson performed reasonably well in the face of a rebuilding offense and his own injuries, Griffin's quite a few floors up in terms of talent, skill set, and potential.

Factor in the Cleveland Browns as well. All of these teams mentioned have first picks in the top 12, but the Browns sit at number 4 with a team president (Mike Holmgren with Seneca Wallace) and offensive coordinator (Brad Childress with Tarvaris Jackson) who have serious experience transitioning super-fast quarterbacks able to operate roll-right versions of the West Coast offense.

Guys like Clay Matthews don't grow on trees -- especially at his position. (Getty Images)

INDIANAPOLIS -- With more NFL teams running base 3-4 or 5-2 defensive fronts in recent years, and given the success of pass-rushing outside linebackers (we'll call them "endbackers" for short), in those schemes, you might be surprised to learn that those same teams generally have a difficult time scouting and finding the next James Harrison, Tamba Hali, or Clay Matthews among the defensive ends and outside linebackers in the college ranks. Because so few college programs play 3-4 defense as a base concept, and many are just now catching up to the concept of hybrid defenses, it's a guessing game when projecting for success at that position -- especially when looking at high-round prospects.

During the media portion of the 2012 scouting combine, Shutdown Corner asked several different personnel executives about transitioning players to that position, and the difficulties involved.

Houston Texans general manager Rick Smith, who oversaw an amazing defensive transformation as his defense switched from 4-3 to 3-4 in 2011, took Arizona's Brooks Reed in the second round, based on the notion espoused by new defensive coordinator Wade Phillips that Reed could play the role of edge rusher in Phillips' trademark 5-2 concepts. The undersized college end responded by racking up six sacks after Mario Williams' season-ending injury.

"In the sense of a transition from a 4-3 to a 3-4, it started actually a couple weeks ago a year ago, when we hired Wade. Meeting with our scouts, sitting down with Wade and talking to him and getting a real idea of what he was looking for; watching a ton of tape with him and the defensive coaches and gaining some insight as to what type of player fit into the defense. Then, going to the Senior Bowl and corralling the scouts and talking to them. Making sure that everybody understood what we were looking for. And then just going through the process and again, staying true to the value that we placed on players."

The Texans looked at more than the hair when betting that Brooks Reed could be their Clay Matthews. (Getty Images)

What did Smith and his coaches see in Reed, and what is he generally looking for when transitioning a player to that endbacker role? "I think the first thing is pass rush. Is there some sort of natural pass-rush ability, is what you look for. Then you look at the athleticism. Then you look at what type of football instincts and all the other things that kind of come on. One of the things we put a premium on is pass rush. And you mentioned the projection; when we made this transition last year, we did not have one linebacker on our team, whether you talk about a Brooks Reed or any other player, or Mario -- any of them that had played in that position.

"They were all projections. We were fortunate. Even projecting [former middle linebacker Brian] Cushing inside was a projection. It worked out for us. I think have to say that in that context of our defense and the way that they performed, in light of how we handled adversity and injury through the year, I cannot say how effective a job our coaching staff did. I mean, it was impressive to watch those guys week-in and week-out get the team ready regardless of who was going on the field and had them out there executing on a high level.

Trent Baalke's San Francisco 49ers played more four-man fronts in 2011, but Baalke and his coaches had to look at Aldon Smith and  see that specific kind of sub-package pass rusher in him. As he said this week, it's a bit of a crapshoot -- no matter how talented the player may be. "They're all projections, right? They don't play it in college. You don't get a chance outside of maybe a few opportunities to see it on film, dropping and doing the things you're going to ask him to do as a 3-4 'backer. And then you get the pro day workout or the combine workout or a combination of the two to judge whether they can or can't do it. But that's really not the most important thing for that position. They're getting paid to be pass-rushers. That's No. 1. Then, they're going to set edges and play the run and do those kinds of things. And what they give you in the drop [pass coverage] game has to be just good enough."

Pittsburgh Steelers GM Kevin Colbert has specific challenges in finding those endbackers -- not only do the Steelers run a 3-4 base defense, but Dick LeBeau's defensive concepts will have those players playing just about anywhere and doing just about anything. When projecting players like the highly-drafted LaMarr Woodley, and the bargain-bin wonder James Harrison, one has to stick to one's system, and identify the characteristics common to the best players at that position. Not only do those edge rushers have to get to the quarterback, but they also have to drop into coverage -- a skill that Woodley, in particular, displays at a high level on a frequent basis.

LaMarr Woodley's versatility made him a sure bet. (Getty Images)

"Usually, you're not seeing those outside linebackers playing a position you can project them to," Colbert said. So, there's a lot of guesswork involved with how they'll be able to cover, just because that's something you don't get to see a lot of the 4-3 defensive ends do in college football. You'll see some of that evidence when they do zone drops in their schemes. A lot of it will be dependent on their individual pro day workouts, and you kind of fill it out with that."

Arizona Cardinals GM Rod Graves moved his own defense to a very aggressive, Steelers-style scheme in 2011, and the results were immediate. With defensive coordinator Ray Horton pulling off one of the more impressive coaching jobs of the 2011 season, the Cards were able to feature unheralded pass rushers like O'Brien Schofield and Daryl Washington to great effect.