Anthony Brown at the NFL Combine

Most news that comes out of the NFL Combine tends to focus on just 5-10 players (usually the top college players) and old men who usually sit in front of cameras trying to run the 40 in under 10 seconds so that everybody can laugh at them. You have to do a little digging, or watch the combine non-stop, to see how other players are performing. And that brings us to Purdue's lone graduate in the combine this season: Anthony Brown.

Though the defense has struggled in Brown's 4 years at Purdue, he, like so many other Purdue defensive greats, has shined like a diamond in the rough. Brown's performance peaked this past season in the Nebraska game, when Nebraska's friendliness led to 3 interceptions for Brown in that game, giving him weekly B1G honors. It was enough to earn Brown an invite to the NFL Combine this year, where he again has been impressive. Here are some of his stats so far today:

40-yard dash: 4.35s (1st attempt: 4.37s, 2nd: 4.30s)

Bench Press: 19 reps (2nd among CBs in this year's combine)

Now, there are a few more events later on that Brown hasn't participated in, but I'd say he's off to a good start. At the time when I wrote this, his 40-yard dash was among the Top 5 in S and DBs. He currently has a draft grade of 5.38, which falls into the 5.2-5.49 of "NFL backup or special teams potential", with the next level up being "Chance to become NFL starter."

We'll keep monitoring Brown's progress in the draft, and we're hoping his progress continues so it could lead to him being drafted by a good team this spring.