Bears on hand to watch safety run blazing time

There wasn’t much down time between the end of the scouting combine last week and the beginning of the pro day circuit at colleges across the country.

Miami is the first major school to have its event last Thursday, although the Hurricanes don’t have much in the way of pro prospects for this draft. Ball State also conducted its pro day on Friday although quarterback Nate Davis did not work out after participating at the combine. You can pick up bits and pieces here and there when it comes to news from these pro day sessions.

The Bears were definitely at the Florida Atlantic workout, which was held Feb. 26. We’ve found visual proof here with Southeast scout Mark Sadowski armed with a stop watch and decked out in team apparel. Sixteen teams showed up for the workout and FAU linebacker Frantz Joseph might have been the headliner. He’s been among the nation’s leading tacklers the last two seasons but is a little slow and projects purely as a middle linebacker. The hope is, at least at FAU, that Joseph will be the first player from the school drafted.

But here’s an interesting guy–safety Carldayle Brantley, who reportedly ran a 4.45 40-yard dash. To put that in perspective, that time would have put him among the fastest safeties at the combine. He also had a 38 1/2-inch vertical jump. The time alone in the 40 had to catch the attention of those in attendance. It’s hard to say how much experience the guy has. He made 44 tackles and had three interceptions last season but had just 35 stops in his first three seasons.

There’s no way of telling of Brantley could find himself on the Bears’ radar. He might project as an undrafted free agent. The Bears will canvas the majority of the pro days so that Sadowski was present doesn’t mean anything in itself. It could have been just another day at the office for him making sure he didn’t miss anything in his territory. Stay tuned.