Floyd, Jenkins are stellar NFL draft prospects

Former Georgia standouts Leonard Floyd and Jordan Jenkins are set to have their combine workouts at Lucas Oil Stadium on Sunday.

Both have made it through the medical exams and have interviewed with teams.

Floyd, once considered a top-10 prospect, must impress teams to move back into the first-round discussion. Jenkins solidified his status as a solid third- or fourth-round pick with a strong showing at the Senior Bowl.

Both players can help themselves immensely at the combine.

Floyd, who was listed at 231 pounds, has bulked up and weighed in at 244.9 pounds.

“The weight is important for pass rushers in the NFL,” ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper said.

Also, Floyd’s play at Georgia was not impressive at times.

“Week to week he was too quiet in games,” Kiper said. “He was handled by some tackles that should not be able to get the best of him.”

With several NFL teams looking for pass-rushing help, Floyd could slip into the second round.

“Leonard Floyd is a polarizing figure from Georgia,” NFL draft analyst Mike Mayock said. “Some people think he’s a top-10 pick. Some of them think he’s going to be Barkevious Mingo, meaning a great-looking, fast but underpowered player who ultimately won’t live up to what he should.”

Mingo played at LSU and was the sixth pick in the 2013 draft. His career with the Browns is off to a slow start.

Floyd doesn’t believe his low production is a problem.

“I’ll say on some of the plays, some I could have made and some plays I set it up for my teammates to make,” Floyd said. “I was happy all-in-all.”

Floyd knows that he still has room to develop.

“A big strength of my game would be my speed,” Floyd said. “A weakness would probably be me (not) having more than one pass-rush move. I can work on it and come up with a new move that I can go to rather than just using speed.”

Floyd said some teams are looking at him as an inside linebacker.

“I talked to multiple teams that see me as a pass rusher,” Floyd said. “Some teams also see me playing inside linebacker as well.”

Floyd has talked to multiple teams, including the Bills. He believes that he can hold up against the run and play on third downs as a rusher. “We talked a little bit about that, me playing inside, then on third down going to an outside linebacker role and rushing the passer,” Floyd said.

Most NFL teams want to see how fluid Floyd is when he drops into pass coverage. He believes that’s a strength of his game.

“It came from (former Georgia assistant) coach (Jeremy) Pruitt helping me learn the different coverages and learning how to set myself up in the right position to make plays on receivers,” Floyd said.

Jenkins, who’s considered a strongside linebacker by NFL scouts, has interviewed with the Falcons.

“I met with the Falcons for a little bit,” Jenkins said. “I met with the Dolphins for a little bit. I think I met with about six or seven teams.”

The Falcons had Jenkins diagnose some plays.

“(Linebackers coach Jeff Ulbrich) wanted to see if I could understand the defense and make some of the checks and stuff like,” Jenkins said.

Jenkins has followed the Falcons closely. He knows they have to improve their run defense, which allowed 20 rushing touchdowns, tied for the most in the league.

“A lot of my friends from west Georgia are Falcons fans,” Jenkins said. “I naturally had to watch a lot of them. I didn’t have a preference growing up because I moved around a lot as a military brat. I always heard a lot about the Falcons, and I watched a lot of them with my friends and family.”