Scouting Combine: ex-Duck TE Lyerla

[ThoughtProcess]

Not included here is the statement he made about wanting to re-unite with Kelly in Philly. Rough upbringing. Reportedly didn't get along with the coaches in the post-Kelly Ducks staff. I wonder if they'd take a late round flyer on him? I often read that he's a first-round talent. Not advocating for/against it here. Just intrigued.

INDIANAPOLIS -- An October arrest for possession of cocaine that made national headlines is something former Oregon tight end/running back Colt Lyerla now calls "probably the best thing that's happened to me."
Lyerla, one of the freakiest athletes in Indy, fielded more than a dozen questions Thursday afternoon at the NFL Combine regarding his tumultuous year that left many wondering if the former five-star prospect would ever play football again.
Asked about the cocaine arrest, Lyerla said the incident becoming so public was definitely the lowest point he had in a series of bad turns that cost him a promising career with the Ducks. "It humbled me," Lyerla said.
“The night I spent in jail, that was huge for me. It gave me a lot of time to self-reflect and realize that's a place I don't ever want to be again."
Lyerla said after the jail stay he had to spend 10 days on a road crew as his punishment for the arrest. He added that all his legal issues have been resolved. He said he's looking forward to showing NFL folks that he's a changed man and that he's "not hanging out with the people I was hanging out with before...
"The biggest thing for me is just to be honest and to show remorse where remorse is due and just do my best to prove that I have changed, and that I've matured since I made those mistakes."
The entire 2013 season was a nightmarish one for Lyerla. He missed a September 14 game against Tennessee and didn't accompany the Ducks two weeks later to Colorado. Coach Mark Helfrich said Lyerla was suspended for a game for violating team rules. In early October, Lyerla left the team and opted to get ready for the 2014 NFL draft. This all followed a run of some dubious behavior that had scared off some college coaches in the recruiting process before he'd signed on with Oregon.
On Thursday seated at a round table surrounded by reporters, Lyerla sounded very clear in realizing how close he came to squandering his football career. “I'd say that I put myself in position where my back is against the wall to the point that if I don't do everything perfect and everything the right away, I won't be able to play football.''
The speedy 6-4 athlete who once broad-jumped an eye-popping 11-feet, 3-inches and was utilized as a running back and receiver by former coach Chip Kelly says he has shed 13 pounds--down to 242 in preparation for his workouts.
Lyerla declined to elaborate on exactly why he left the Ducks team last fall, but says he "deeply regrets it. It's something that I'll have to live with."

[musicman]

If Chip is ok with it, I am. If he is in fact a first round talent that can be had in a later rd, do it. The draft is at best a crap shoot anyway, might as well roll the dice on an amazing talent and hope he has matured. Keep Avant around as a mentor.

[Eagle60]

It sounds to me like the Patriot way will be tested again.

[andrewaters]

We are not recruiting for The Boy Scouts. If he can play...yes.

[stocknowledge]

Pass. Cocaine use and "violating team rules" are big red flags.

[j-bird]

This kid is an enigma who's future should be determined at the Combine. He's a freakish athlete (6-4, 245, runs a 4.5 fourty, great hands, hard to tackle) but has to address the "character issues" during the interview process. He served 1 day in jail, 10 days on work crews, & is on probation for 2 years, so he HAS to keep his nose clean. Sounds like he hung out with a bad crowd & has learned from that but who knows? Many comparrisons to Aaron Hernandez but Hernandez never stopped hanging out with his possy which led him to disaster. This Kid needs to distance himself from his "homies" in order to become a Pro Bowl type TE.
Chip should be very familiar with this Kid so if he wants to roll the dice in the 3rd or 4th rd, I'm ok with it. If he Lyerla does get drafted by the Birds it should spell the end of James Casey & his $4 mil salary.

[NoDakIggle]

Chip should have the inside dope (no pun intended) from the Oregon coaching staff on what went down. If he has that and puts his Eagle investigative team on this kids trail to see who he is hanging with and then decides it is okay I am okay.

[ThoughtProcess]

From the Oregonian, 2012: http://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/inde...erla_with.html

EXCERPT--

...For Lyerla, sports weren't as much about excelling as escaping.
The structure, discipline and friends sports provided offered a comforting diversion for Lyerla, who has three much older half-siblings he didn't live with.
"It was definitely an escape, for sure," Lyerla says. "It made it real easy to focus on that because I didn't want to focus on other things."
As he grew in age and size, home life became tougher. Lyerla became more difficult for his mother to control, friends say. A teenage boy with minimal supervision can find it easy to skip school and get into trouble.
Hillsboro athletic director Steve Drake, instrumental in Lyerla's life, says Tammy Lyerla asked for help from people at Hillsboro. She tried her best, Drake says, but at times her son simply wouldn't listen and she wasn't always able to handle raising him alone.
Coaches stepped in, providing rides, wake-up calls, encouragement and tough love to keep Lyerla on task.
"He was a kid that always wanted to do the right things," says Edwards, who lived a mile from Lyerla. "That's the important thing because I see a lot of kids with ability that didn't always want to do the right things and then they got themselves into trouble."
Lyerla's world became more complicated when his father disappeared.
"I didn't know where he was for about eight months," Lyerla says. "It was sort of a big question mark for a while."
Ultimately, Roger Lyerla had moved back to Hawaii where he and Tammy are from. He says he couldn't make ends meet as a construction worker in Hillsboro.
His 15-year-old son -- about to face a critical stretch of adolescence that could alter the course of his life -- missed his father, terribly.
But he pushed on....

[ThoughtProcess]

and from BGN, this...to E60's point about the Patriot way, and Stock's thumbs-down:

http://www.bleedinggreennation.com/2...=articlebottom

At the Combine, there are 22 tight end prospects, and he's only bigger than 6 of them. 6'4" is penny ante in the pros, and I guarantee that none of the others walked off their teams for vague reasons in October. Maybe he can pull himself together in the next few months, but even if he does, he'll be using up energy that he needs to adapt to the big leagues.
Beyond his underachievement is the very real risk that Lyerla and his emotional problems present to a locker room. Sure, you could gamble on Colt with a late pick, or invite him to camp as a UDFA, but he's not a scientific curiosity to be tested like a potential cancer-fighting drug, to see if it works or not. He will be part of your team, and the Richie Incognito experience should make it clear how much one messed-up player can damage the rest of your squad.
Last summer, before his most-publicized problems, a website called NEPatriotsDraft.com profiled Lyerla. They thought he would be a good all-around replacement for Aaron Hernandez. I don't think they realized how accurate their prediction would be.
Ultimately, of course, Chip will make the decision, and literally no one on earth -- besides Lyerla's position coach at Oregon -- knows the guy better. I would be very surprised if the Eagles picked him. Sure, Chip would probably know how to manage the guy best, but why devote the energy to him?

Bad players eat away at team cohesion; good ones strengthen your squad regardless of how they play. The Eagles have done very well with picking high-character guys, and it's not a coincidence that they weather storms while Miami and New England suffer from picking up hard cases on the cheap.
If Lyerla has skills that justify all of this, then Chip will obviously pick him. But I wouldn't bet any money on it.

UPDATE: Friday at the Combine, Colt Lyerla lifted 15 reps in the bench press, tied for last among tight ends. Little-known Joe Don Duncan of of Dixie State (?) made 35; Texas Tech's Jace Amaro was second with 28. A friggin' punter -- Pat O'Donnell of Miami -- lifted 23 reps (attn: Jimmy Kempski).

[andrewaters]

If we could somehow get amaro I would ply tye trigger. Kid is a beast!