Bears should draft Georgia Tech's Stephen Hill
Every once in a while, it's refreshing when a kid at the NFL Scouting Combine tells you he's going to run a sick time in the 40 and then actually does it.
If I had a nickel for every time in the past 20 years I heard someone say he hoped to "run in the 4.3s," and then ran 4.5-something, I could buy one of those fancy beverages at Starbucks.
Which is why it was a pleasant surprise to see what Georgia Tech wide receiver Stephen Hill did last week at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
"I'm thinking about running a 4.3," the 20-year-old Hill said on Saturday, "but whatever happens on Sunday happens."
What happened Sunday is that Hill, at 6-foot-4 and 215 pounds, ran an unofficial 4.30, the fastest time of anyone at the combine until Tuesday's final day, when cornerback Josh Robinson ran an unofficial 4.29.
If the Bears are serious about adding a big wide receiver with big-play ability - and they should be - they should be serious about Hill. He might remind Chicago fans of Marcus Robinson, a raw receiver out of South Carolina who was drafted in the fourth round in 1997 and had a short but sometimes spectacular career, including 84 catches for 1,400 yards and 9 touchdowns in 1999.
Hill's official time was 4.36, which tied for the fastest of all the wide receivers at Indy, and faster than Devin Hester ran at the 2006 combine. Hill also had a wide receiver-best 11-foot-1-inch broad jump to go with an NBA-like 39½-inch vertical jump.
Way too much is made of Combine performances because they don't mean nearly as much as three or four years worth of game film. But it's safe to assume Hill made himself some fat stacks last week by moving way up most draft boards.
He came in as a mid-round prospect with a lot of question marks and a three-year total of just 49 catches. But 28 of those receptions came last season and produced 820 yards, an amazing 29.3-yard average.
Hill played in an option offense at Georgia Tech that didn't throw the ball much and required the wideouts to run a limited variety of routes. But Hill still decided to declare for the draft a year early.
"I didn't have the great stats like the other wide receivers did, but (I had) my ability and my faith," Hill said. "I know I can do well in the NFL."
He was one of the stars of the NFL Scouting Combine, according to almost everyone, including NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock.
"Stephen Hill killed it," Mayock said. "I had a bunch of scouts tell me before the combine this kid might blow the roof off of it, and he did. The tough thing with coming out of that option offense, he's hard to evaluate.
"Every team in the league has a lot of homework to do. He's a hard guy to figure out, just like (Georgia Tech product) Demaryius Thomas was because you don't see real routes; all you see are verticals, crosses and play-action and jump balls. (But) he's kind of pushed himself right up in the forefront of this wide receivers class."
Thomas was the Broncos' first-round pick in 2010. He caught 32 passes for 551 yards last season after coming back from a torn Achilles tendon early in the year.
"Demaryius told me," Hill said. " 'If you're going to make this step, you need to go ahead and do it (100 percent). This is a man's game.' "
Last week at Indianapolis, Hill was THE man.
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