Brock Christopher had a deal in place with the Atlanta Falcons before the draft even started.  Tommy Saunders got invited to tryout with the Bucs after impressive pro-days that included benching Ziggy Hood 20 times.   That dude is all muscle – and he can catch the ball too. 

While the drafted and Chase Tigers have lit up the google alerts this past week, Brock has been oh so silent.   Probably not a good sign, but really, what are you going to write?

Clearly the Falcons were impressed enough for Christopher to have him practically inked before the draft.  They weren’t impressed enough to spend a draft pick on him, of course, and were confident the rest of the NFL would feel the same….  The Falcons lost two good LBs to free agency this offseason, so this might be a good place for Brock to go.  Here are the middle linebackers on the Falcons depth chart.

• Curtis Lofton, second year guy out the School That Must Not Be Named.  This guy was better than every player Mizzou had in ‘07, so let’s just assume for the sake of argument that Brock isn’t going to beat him out.
• Tony Gilbert, seventh year guy out of UGA.  He hasn’t played in an NFL game since 2006 and didn’t play all that much from ‘03 to ‘06.  He has 43 career tackles. 

The Falcons drafted one LB, Spencer Adkins, out of Miami in the sixth round.  He’s 5-11, 230 and fast – looked at as help for special teams.   Brock is listed on the Falcons’ roster at 6-2, 235.  We know he’s not all that fast.

During pro-days Brock showed of his long snapping skills.  He did not do this for the Tigers as he was a starting LB and the Tigers had others to snap long, but it’s reasonable to think the Falcons are interested in Brock for this reason.  Brock was a good college linebacker and sure tackler, but he probably lacks the speed to make it in the NFL at the position.  Still, the Falcons are not overflowing with LBs and Brock’s got special team skills.  He’s got a chance.

Tommy Saunders, a man Tiger fans just never got tired of hearing about.  The man who did 100,000 pushups in one year.  The man who benched 225 31 times.  Think about that.  That would have lead all WRs at the combine – and most everyone else too.  He’s a gym rat.  One wonder if he wasn’t playing football how he’d spend all his time. 

With the Bucs, hopefully, we won’t have to find out.  The team has 10 WRs on the depth chart and I’m not going to bother listing them all.  Chances are every one of them is faster than Tommy.  He’s used to that.  Chances also are that not one of those guys is going to work harder than Tommy.   

The pass is on the money, so we can assume Josh Freeman didn’t throw it.

The Bucs’ website features a nice piece on Tommy Saunders.  He says a lot of the normal “going to work hard” “trying to make it to August” kind of stuff, so it doesn’t add a whole lot, but it’s not like the website did a story on all the tryout guys. 

Another website, that bills itself as “The Best NFL Analysis and Commentary on the Planet,” had this to say about Tommy Saunders, hidden treasure:

Tommy Saunders WR/Mizzou - I like this addition. He was pretty underrated and overshadowed by Jeremy Maclin and Chase Coffman, but was really the #2 WR and 3rd option. He ran ALL the routes. He is tough, quick and smart. Not to mention, what makes him the most valuable as an UDFA is his blocking ability. I think we may see this guy on special teams. Chances: 35%. He’ll be cheap at the rookie minimum of 310K and will give us room to cut other WR at this inflated spot on our roster.

Hopefully, that site is right about being the best on the planet, because a 35% chance is fairly awesome for a slow WR with no contract.  One thing Tommy does really well is being the holder on FG/PAT attempts.  Hey, it’s something.  Put him in.

We will probably find out soon whether Tommy gets a chance to hang out until August.  I wouldn’t bet against him, but the shot is long. 

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There are other ‘08 Tigers trying to latch on to an NFL team via the tryout route.  I don’t plan on writing about them individually until I actually hear something about them.  They are:  Justin Garrett (Cincy), Ryan Madison (Cincy), and Jeff Wolfert (Chicago).  Pig Brown is trying out with the Pack.