Updated: 5 p.m.
INDIANAPOLIS — So much for the first-round prospects blazing a new draft board with a barrage of fast 40-yard dash times Sunday at the NFL Scouting Combine.
Except for Notre Dame's Michael Floyd, the knot rated below Oklahoma State's Justin Blackmon offered glacial times and instead of resetting the draft board has pushed it into more of a gray area.
And Blackmon didn't run Sunday on the Lucas Oil Stadium Field because of a hamstring issue.
NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock was stunned with the 4.61 of Baylor's Kendall Wright and also not helping themselves were Mohamed Sanu of Rutgers (4.67) and Rueben Randle of LSU (4.55).
"Teams are going to have to go back to their boards and research them more," Mayock said.
Floyd popped a 4.47.
DOWN ON CORNER: Even though everyone in the world is predicting the Bengals are going to after a first-round cornerback in the draft, defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer isn't too sure.
But he does know what he's seeking here at the NFL Scouting Combine when the DBs take the field here Tuesday.
"Just movement really," Zimmer said this weekend as he talked about what's next for the defense. "And sometimes when I visit with them I try to see how they react under pressure with things like 'Hey, I heard you won't tackle.' Just see how they react to things."
But he's mainly looking for fluidity, not to mention an edge.
"Drills, more speed and movement, bench press," he said. "Are they going to get 10 (reps of 225 pounds) or keep fighting to get 12? You probably don't want too many guys who are going to get one. And then try to find out if they treat people (helping them at the combine) like respectable citizens or prima donnas."
ZIMMER ON REY: A written pledge from Bengals middle linebacker Rey Maualuga promising to make Zimmer proud of him on and off the field has been hanging in Zimmer's office long before last month.
That's when Maualuga was charged with assault at a downtown Cincinnati bar at closing time in an incident that Zimmer admits concerns him.
"At some point in time we all have to grow up. You know what? If I'm out at a bar and somebody challenges me, then I have to walk away," Zimmer said this weekend here at the NFL Scouting Combine as he talked about what's next for his defense.
Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis warned media on Friday that not all the facts have been made public about a case in which Maualuga has pleaded not guilty.
It turns out that Zimmer himself was faced with a situation that could have spiraled out of control in a Cincinnati parking lot and he hopes Maualuga can learn from it.
"We flip each other off," Zimmer said of a confrontation with another driver. "He gets out of the car and he's coming up. Little bitty scrawny guy … I had to make a decision. Am I going to beat the crap out of this guy and I may get fined or every other thing? Or do I swallow my pride and go on?"
While Maualuga faces possible discipline from the NFL, Zimmer is looking for more disciplined play from him. Until he suffered a severe ankle sprain that wiped out three games in mid-season and affected his play late in the year, Zimmer thought Maualuga had made an excellent transition to the middle from SAM.
Zimmer loves how conscientious and passionate Maualuga is about his craft, but consistency remains his biggest problem.
"He's got the ability to do everything he needs to do. He's football smart, he loves the game. He's competitive; he never wants to make a mistake, maybe to a fault," Zimmer said. "Sometimes he thinks about way too many things. He'll come and ask me questions that are just so … and I'll say "Just tackle the guy with the ball. That's what you do well. Do that.' He can make some unbelievable plays. We've just got to get him to be more consistent at doing those things.
"He was playing good enough," Zimmer said of the five games before he sprained the ankle in an Oct. 13 practice. "I think it bothered him when he got hurt. It definitely had an effect on him. There's no doubt in my mind about that. I can see the things he can do on a semi-consistent basis. How good he can be. If he can be more consistently good, then he'd be a really, really good football player. That's our expectations of him. Don't be great on one play and be average on the next."
JENKINS ON GREEN: Bengals wide receiver A.J. Green turned out to be the easiest answer for Northern Alabama cornerback Janoris Jenkins during his grueling 10-minutes session with the media Sunday.
The 5-10, 190-pound Jenkins figures to be available when the Bengals pick at No. 17, but his candid news conference detailed the dilemma facing teams. According to him, he has four children, three arrests and a drug test failure at Florida that spawned his transfer.
And he says he knows it is going to hurt him.
His memory of playing Green at Georgia survived the transfer. In fact, the Bengals Pro Bowl rookie has grown a couple of inches in Jenkins's eye when asked the toughest receiver he's faced.
"Six-6. 205. Fast. Great hands. Great route-runner. And he liked to compete. I gave him one ball," Jenkins said of a post. "I picked him off on the first play of the game back in 2010."
SPEED CHECK: Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III ripped off a 4.41 seconds for the third fastest 40 ever by a QB. For the official time, he didn't get past the 4.40 of Texas A&M's Reggie McNeal in 2006. McNeal was Cincinnati's sixth-round pick two months later and the Bengals switched him to wide receiver. But off-field problems helped derail his career and he never caught an NFL pass. He played in just seven games, all in '06, and he had one carry for eight yards.
