some benign, others meaningful. There are periods of the day when the scouts and reporters are on the fields to talk to players, and that is what is getting noted in many of these reports. Many teams will schedule visits with players at this time as well. It is good to see reports of team interest corroborated (not copy pasted), and my source at the Senior Bowl indicated that Denver was talking extensively with Jacoby, though he didn’t notice them talking to Dodge.

Jacoby gets called a deep threat, but this doesn’t begin to exhaust what he is capable of: he has returned kicks and punts, he is a precise route runner, he does good work in the middle of the field, and he can even play QB. When he goes to the combine, take note of his bench reps, since we want to see indications of upperbody strength. He does a decent job against press coverage, but he will need to do better at the NFL level. Where he may do better than a guy like Royal is in having defenders respect his speed (look for him to be in the top 2-3 performers in the 40 at the combine). He projects more to the slot than Royal does, which adds a significant layer to the roster build dynamic of his selection.

Going into this season I had issues with his routerunning (wasn’t asked to be very dynamic early in his career), his physicality (it showed, but I wanted to know that it was going to be consistent—it usually isn’t in track stars), and his hands (he let too many passes get into his body, dropping more than a few). His route running was improved this season, and it was obvious that he was buying into the coaching, his physicality was excellent,making him an anomaly among track-stars-turned-football-players(though it makes sense, since he did track to help him get better at football. Usually track stars are recruited to play football, and the transition never happens). I am hearing that he is catching everything thrown his way, and is setting many minds at ease in regard to his hands, though it is mostly when talking about outside the frame catches. That was never his problem. It is the easy pas in stride on a slant, the comeback that is right on thenumbers…when facing down an “easy” pass, he seems to get ahead of himself, and from what I am hearing, there isn’t anything definitive on his progress there yet.

There is an inside shot at getting a good deal on him due to some injury related issues, including a broken ankle and a very recent hamstring injury that he took a little while to heal from. But if he keeps performing, everyone will be able to overlook that, and his value will go back up.

All in all he is a likable guy. You can see several examples of his character in interviews around the web.

my wife has our daughters name on her ankle — that seems legitimate. having another dudes name on your ankle isnt unless he pulled you out of the line of fire or took a bullet for you

I should just walk away for the day, before I say something inappropriate…