While the excitement of Signing Day is still lingering, eight Notre Dame seniors received a very important invitation yesterday that will play a huge factor in their professional careers. The NFL’s annual scouting combine in Indianapolis released their official invite list and it was filled with Irish players.
Here are the following players who will be in Indianapolis for the annual cattle call.
Braxston Cave, C
Tyler Eifert, TE
Kapron Lewis-Moore, DE
Zeke Motta, DB
Theo Riddick, RB
Jamoris Slaughter, DB
Manti Te’o, LB
Cierre Wood, RB
It’s a really interesting list and just about every player invited has something to specifically prove. For Cave, it’ll be improving on his Senior Bowl performance, where the former Irish center struggled athletically when matched up with some elite prospects. There’s no doubt Cave will impress when it comes time to bench press or meet with individual teams, but he’ll need to show he can handle the demands of the position at the next level.
For Eifert, a solid combine performance could solidify his spot in the first round. Of the 19 tight ends invited to Indianapolis, Eifert is likely battling Stanford’s Zach Ertz’s for the top spot at the position. A solid performance athletically -- not to mention an elite 40 time -- would go along way towards locking down an early draft spot. It’ll be interesting to see those two match up physically, as they are basically mirror images on paper, with both measuring 6-foot-6 in the program, and Ertz having one pound on Eifert at 252.
For Lewis-Moore, who is less than a month into his recovery after knee surgery, it’ll be an opportunity for teams’ medical staffs to poke and prod the versatile defensive lineman. With an invitation validation his solid senior season, Lewis-Moore’s character and size will likely be enough for a team to take a flier on him.
Zeke Motta will likely need to shake the final game of his career, where he made 16 tackles, but missed a half-dozen more that led to big Alabama plays. But Motta is a physical specimen, a guy that should put up impressive numbers in this type of setting, and needs to show coverage skills and speed to match the physicality he played with this season. One game doesn’t define a career, but it’s something he’ll need to address and build on.
The big thing to watch for Theo Riddick is his forty-time. If he can get into the 4.5 range, he’ll likely have some team take a shot at him, if only for his versatility. While Riddick was a challenge to tackle in space, I’ve always been skeptical of his top-end speed, if only because he’s been chased down by defensive backs from Navy and BYU in the past. Riddick may have been the bell cow of the Irish offense in 2012, but to stick in the NFL, he’ll need to take advantage of the versatility he displayed during his four seasons in South Bend.
Perhaps the most interesting invite of the group belongs to Jamoris Slaughter. While he’s still appealing the NCAA for a sixth year, Slaughter’s name on the list shows the regard for him as a player, even while he’s making the recovery from a season-ending Achilles tendon injury. Slaughter’s measureables will be interesting -- he’s just not as physically big and fast as he played in the Irish secondary. It doesn’t appear that Slaughter is back and ready to run and jump for potential employers, but the fact that he’s on the list means he’s on teams radar.
In what will be NFL team’s first opportunity to talk with Manti Te’o, expect a media circus as we get one more opportunity to rehash the post-script to Te’o’s heralded football career. Any team looking at Te’o will likely want to spend some time discussing the catfishing hoax, but they’ll also want to dig deeper into a future rock for an NFL defense. There’s little worry that Te’o will be able to ease any teams’ fear off the field. But he’ll need to show the size, speed and athleticism he displayed throughout the season, and make teams forget about the egg he laid against Alabama.
An invite to the combine was an important first step for Cierre Wood. Now he’s got to put up numbers that make a team believe he’s capable of being a feature back in the league. Skipping out on his final year of eligibility, Wood lost the chance to showcase his skillset for one final season as the featured back in an Irish offense that’ll be more explosive next season. So he’ll need to show the top-end speed many think he possesses and better than expected size and strength.