Don Carey: 'I feel like I helped myself a lot here'

Tuesday was getaway day from the NFL Scouting Combine. By early morning, only the best pro prospects for April's draft among defensive backs were still left in Indianapolis.

Norfolk State's Don Carey was one of them.

He had an interesting, but a little unexpected, morning following what he hopes was a memorable Monday - in the minds of some NFL teams, that is...

Monday afternoon

Here's a sample question from the Wonderlic test that all combine participants take: If three inches of rope costs 7 cents, how much would 2 feet of rope cost? (Pssst. Say 56 cents!) Carey has 12 minutes to answer a few dozen of such queries. Seems to me such knowledge won't necessarily help Carey, a cornerback, cover Larry Fitzgerald on an end-zone fade pattern. But hey, smarter people than me run the NFL, so...

Carey has done practice Wonderlics over and over during his combine training in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. He says he's not sure, but he thinks he did fine on the test. "I'm still trying to find out." Good luck with that. In general, sharing information isn't something the NFL does much of at the combine.

Carey does know he bench-pressed 225 pounds 18 times earlier Monday, because he counted them. Hoped to get 20 but fell short, even with that maniac strength coach - maybe you saw the guy on the NFL Network - spotting him and losing a lung screaming at Carey, as he did all the lifters, to squeeze out ONE MORE!!

(FYI, the top cornerback did 25 reps.)

Monday night

The real important stuff back at the hotel, serious individual meetings with the serious people who run NFL franchises - head coaches, general managers and other higher ups. Fifteen minutes for each meeting. A quarter-hour to dazzle with personality, intelligence, confidence, humor, football knowledge, whatever else.

In all, Carey is sought out by four teams. Carey declines, though, to name them for all to read. "I just don't feel comfortable with it right now," he says.

Carey, who met informally with scouts and position coaches a couple of days ago, does say each meeting included a general manager and the head coach. "It's one thing to talk to scouts, but to talk to the guys who make all the decisions, that's more important to me."

Carey says he was comfortable throughout each interrogation, even when teams suddenly broke out video of Carey and asked him to explain himself through particular plays. "They'd stop it and I'd have to tell them what I was doing, what my responsibilities were right there, and some other things I was doing.

"But I pretty much had to answer more questions about myself than football."

Tuesday

On the field at Lucas Oil Stadium in downtown Indy by

6:45 a.m., loosening up to run the all-important 40-yard dash. Strangely, defensive backs also run this out of a three-point stance, even though defensive backs never actually take a three-point stance during games. Hmmm...

"It's all on you," Carey says, as in the players take off when they feel like it. "The only thing they ask you to do is when you get down in your stance to hold it for three seconds, so the timers can be ready when you do start."

The group of 30 players runs in alphabetical order; Carey is eighth. He says nerves are no factor. "If anything, I was just relaxed and having fun."

He runs once, and then cycles back and runs one more 40. Times aren't announced immediately, and it's not until later that Carey learns he ran "unofficially, 4.48 and 4.49 I believe." He says he's content with those times.

Defensive-back drills follow, back-pedaling, twisting, turning to catch footballs and such. But during these drills, Carey feels a twinge in his left hamstring; not a pull, really, but enough to know he should stop. He alerts the proper people, and he is advised to shut it down and sit out the rest of the day's workouts - timed shuttle runs, and broad and vertical jumps.

"I played it smart," Carey says. "I got through the 40 and the DB drills, that's the most important part. I didn't want to hurt myself doing extra stuff. I'll do the rest at my pro day" at Norfolk State. Carey says scouts will visit Norfolk State twice to see players work out: March 20 and 27.

It's off to the airport, then - Carey departs for Ft. Lauderdale but will return to Norfolk soon - and a final, satisfied thought:

"I feel like I helped myself a lot here," he says from the airport gate. "I know a lot of guys are saying that I might not belong because I'm from Division I-AA. But my performance kind of calmed that down a little bit. I think I put that to rest."

Tom Robinson, (757) 446-2518, tom.robinson@pilotonline.com