These exercises are of some importance, but in most cases they aren't exactly crucial. Until NFL games are determined by how many reps of this or that, or what the shuttle-cone or straight line speed of various players is, these are just factors that go into assessing the qualities of a player.

I know Belichick, for one, has stated that eh wishes less time was spent getting into "combine shape" and more spent getting into football shape by these draft picks. As I understand it, the workout regimen for players IN the NFL is very, very different and BB was pretty much saying that all this effort to get ready for combine testing doesn't actually help these players on the field nearly as much as a program designed to get them ready to play.

If the texans don't take him, they need to move down with someone that would.

I saw Thomas Dimitroff basically say that he would love to move up and that would be amazing for that team.