Former South Carolina running back Mike Davis has breezed through the NFL pre-draft process.
After turning in a respectable showing at the school’s Pro Day on Wednesday, now all that is left before the NFL draft is a visit with the Falcons on Tuesday and a few other private visits and workouts for NFL teams. The draft is set for April 30-May 2 in Chicago.
Davis, the younger brother of former Clemson and NFL running back James Davis, received some good advice entering the pre-draft grind of interviews and workouts.
“I talked to my brother a lot,” Davis said. “He went through the process, so I knew what to expect. He told me what not to do. He’s helped out a lot.”
James Davis, who went to Douglass High, played briefly in the NFL with Cleveland and Washington in 2010.
Mike Davis, who played at Stephenson High, hopes that his brother’s advice will pay off.
Davis reportedly ran the 40-yard dash in 4.38 seconds and 4.45 seconds, but those times were not official and were improbable given that he ran a 4.61 at the NFL scouting combine.
Whatever his 40-yard time, Davis was productive over his career at South Carolina.
Davis was slowed by injuries last season, but managed 982 yards on 199 carries. He was 18 yards short of joining the great George Rogers as the only players in school history to have multiple 1,000-yard rushing seasons.
“I want to play like Marshawn Lynch,” Davis said. “He’s a great back. He runs angry. He’s a violent runner. That’s one thing that I like to do on the field.”
The draft is considered to be deep at running back.
“I watch all of the NFL teams,” Davis said. “I think I can fit in any system.”
During the position drills, Davis didn’t drop a pass while running routes out of the backfield. He appeared to move fluidly and made a nice catch on a deep pass from quarterback Dylan Thompson.
“I feel that I have great hands, and that’s one of the things that can separate someone being my size and being an every-down back basically,” Davis said. “Pass (protection), with coach (Steve) Spurrier in this system, if you can’t block you won’t play.”
Davis, who entered the draft after his junior year and could have return to play for the Gamecocks for another season, believes that he’s ready to make the leap to the NFL.
“I would say running here in this system, you have to be able to catch the ball,” Davis said. “You have a lot of routes that are deep down the field and wheel routes or you’re one-on-one with guys and you have to beat them to the left or right.”
South Carolina tight end Rory “Busta” Anderson, who played at McEachern High, suffered a hamstring injury Monday and did not participate in the drills.
Anderson was on the Mackey Award watch list and had 22 catches for 260 yards and a touchdown over 10 games last season. He has had a series of triceps injuries.
“I met with some teams today,” Anderson said. “I was just everybody getting some information on me and what’s going on with my situation.”
He pulled the injury while working the passing script with Thompson.
“I opened it up a little bit and I just tweaked my hamstring,” said Anderson, who was recovering from December triceps surgery and had just recently been cleared to work out.
“This was a big day for me,” Anderson said. “But I’m trying to set up another workout for myself here in the next few weeks and hopefully, I’ll be healthy enough to do that here.”
Anderson hopes that he’s healthy enough to perform in two weeks. He’s been working on improving his time in the 40-yard dash.
“There were a lot of guys running 40s up at the combine, and I thought that was something that would give me a boost,” Anderson said.
Former South Carolina offensive lineman A.J. Cann is considered the school’s top NFL prospect. He projects to go in the second round, according to nfldraftscout.com.
He benched pressed 225 pounds, 30 times for the NFL scouts.
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