[DJ's left nut]

I'd caution against tossing the 'combine warrior' tag on Gay for one reason only - in this case I think the combine did what it is supposed to do - send teams back to the tape.

Very few guys really explode up real team's draft boards because of the combine anymore. Oh sure, media guys fall in love with them, but that means precisely dick. I know how much you read about this shit and you know as well as I do, the overwhelming majority of teams use the combine to give them a chance to re-consider a guy's tape. Even if they crush the combine, a team's just gonna go back to the tape because of that and if the guy can't play, the combine performance won't do anything other than turn them into a 3rd day flyer when they may have otherwise gone undrafted. It rarely moves you into day 2.

Gay - admittedly for reasons of his own making - just didn't have that much tape. He had less of an opportunity to show out on film and that made him a little more prone to falling under some radars. Then when he went out there and torched the combine, teams went back and made a concerted effort to see what he put on tape.

And yes, he showed those wasted steps, occasional over-aggressiveness and tendency towards being a little raw in his reads. But man, he also showed fantastic coverage tools. Not just on a stopwatch but on a football field. He showed a downhill, hitters mentality. When you made a point to watch him, sure you noticed some flaws, but you also noticed some MAJOR strengths.

I don't think the Chiefs drafted him in the 2nd because of his combine. I think they drafted him because his combine got them to give his tape a 2nd (and 3rd, and probably 4th) look.

I think time will tell us that the Chiefs used the combine exactly as it SHOULD be used in honing in on Gay.