Two months ago if you had mentioned Dontari Poe's name I would have said, "The name sounds a little familiar. Who is he?" Today, if you mention his name, you get all sorts of 2012 NFL mock drafts talking about him as a possible 11th overall pick for the KC Chiefs.
Quite a jump. Back in December when Poe declared for the NFL draft, this is what he had to say.
''I got advice from a lot of people and they said there was a good chance I could go in the first round if I worked hard and (tested) good at the (NFL) Combine or at Pro Day,'' Poe said.
He had a very, very good NFL Combine, which sent his stock flying. Now all of a sudden we're talking about him as a potential top 10 pick. That's a theory that not everyone agrees with, including one anonymous NFL scout quoted by the Newark Star-Ledger.
"He'll be overdrafted," one personnel man said. "He did all of that at the Combine, so some team will take him way higher than he should go. I mean watch him play, just watch. He didn't do anything. And he wasn't playing at a very high level, either. All I know is he had one sack last year and it came against Austin Peay. You probably didn't even know Austin Peay had a football team."
I remember talking to GM Scott Pioli before the 2011 NFL draft and he said there really aren't risers and fallers on their board. The most important aspect of scouting a prospect is the game tape. By February or so, their board is mostly done with a few tweaks here and there based on the Combine, visits and medical information.
So if Poe truly is on the Chiefs board, he probably wasn't a riser. They've probably had him rated high for a while. On the other hand, it's also possible that the Chiefs agree with the NFL draft advisory board and view him as a second round pick.
(H/T PFT)