The Nittany Turkey

Primarily about Penn State football, this is a tale told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

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Shuler Rocks Pro Day

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The best story emerging from PSU Pro Day centers on the performance of former Nittany Lion tight end Mickey Shuler, who has excelled in all drills. He has probably helped himself the most of any of the Penn State players participating in the event. This is particularly encouraging, in light of the talented crop of tight ends offering themselves up to the pros this year.

Shuler did 28 reps of 225 lbs in the bench press, just under 11 feet in the broad jump, and slightly less than 38 inches in vertical leap. His 40 time was 4.62. These numbers would put him in the top five in each category at the NFL Scouting Combine. As representatives from all NFL teams are present at Pro Day, surely someone will take a chance on Shuler, whose dad played in the NFL for 14 seasons.

Meanwhile, another tight end, Andrew Quarless, continues to perform impressively, although both he and Navorro Bowman were questioned by pro scouts about off-field incidents.

Anthony Morelli was present at Pro Day. Bob Flounders speculates about his future here.

Pro Day at PSU

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Wednesday will be Pro Day at Penn State. Approximately 20 former Nittany Lions will strut their stuff for NFL scouts.

The day will be tightly structured, starting with the players sitting for the Wonderlic Test at 8:30 AM. The NFL uses this test to gauge relative intelligence of player prospects.

Following the Wonderlic, players will be weighed and measured, and then will proceed to the bench press, where they demonstrate strength by pressing 225 lbs as many times as they can.

At 10:30, they will be divided up by position and will warm-up for the field drills, which are the same ones conducted at the NFL Scouting Combine.

After the drills, players will be given the opportunity to perform position specific workouts for the scouts.

As of Monday, Scout.com reported that the following players would be participating in Pro Day activities:

  • Jeremy Boone, P
  • Navorro Bowman, LB
  • Dontey Brown, LB
  • Darryl Clark, QB
  • Darien Hardy, DB
  • Jerome Hayes, LB
  • Josh Hull, LB
  • Kevin Kelly, K
  • Dennis Landolt, LB
  • Sean Lee, LB
  • Patrick Mauti, WR
  • Nerraw McCormack, OL
  • Shelton McCullough, DB
  • Jared Odrick, DL
  • Andrew Pitz, LS
  • Ako Poti, OL
  • Andrew Quarless, TE
  • Mickey Shuler, TE
  • Knowledge Timmons, DB
  • A.J. Wallace, DB

As media are excluded from Pro Day festivities, we’ll be watching the message boards for any word out of the Lasch Building about results.

LJ Lands in Landover

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As you who have been reading this Turkey’s ramblings for the past few years know, we follow the trials and tribulations of former Penn State running back Larry Johnson here. Well, LJ has a new deal. He’ll be playing for the Washington Redskins, who have signed Johnson to a three-year deal.

After having been dumped by the Kansas City Chiefs, for whom LJ played since being drafted in 2003, he was picked up by the Cincinnati Bengals for the balance of the 2009 season. ???? ???? ??? ???? The dumpage occurred in November following a gay slur by LJ, who had had no shortage of off-field incidents while in Kansas City.

Now, Washington, with its wacko owner Dan Snyder, and newly hired head coach Mike Shanahan, have signed the 30 year-old Johnson to a three-year, incentive laden deal worth a minimum of . ?????? ?? 5 million. If the incentives kick in, LJ could earn as much as $12 million.

Johnson joins another pain in the ass, Clinton Portis, in the Redskin’s backfield. ???? ???? ??????? Portis, 28, has frequently criticized team management, particularly for their summer training program.

With this newly formed tandem in mind, the Associated Press release began with the this topic sentence, “Not content with just one aging, opinionated running back, the Washington Redskins added a second one last night when they signed Larry Johnson to an incentive-laden three-year contract.”

My feelings, precisely.

UPDATE: Matt Mosley of ESPN offers his thoughts on this deal in his blog entitled “Does Larry Johnson have anything left?“