hawaiiansteeler
06-05-2015, 10:10 PM
HAVE STEELERS UNEARTHED A GIANT?
Jun 05, 2015
Jim Wexell
Publisher SteelCityInsider.net
http://imgix.scout.com/153/1538709.jpg?w=600&h=360&fit=max
Massive DE Clifton Geathers is in the best shape of his NFL career and he's climbing the depth chart.
PITTSBURGH -- The Pittsburgh Steelers went looking for long, strong defensive linemen in 2014 and may have drafted the longest and the strongest when they drafted Stephon Tuitt in the second round and Daniel McCullers in the sixth round.
At the previous combine, Tuitt measured 6-5 1/2, 304 with 34 3/4-inch arms and 10-inch hands. That's almost the prototype for a Steelers 3-4 defensive end.
But in McCullers the Steelers drafted someone even bigger. At the combine he measured 6-6 3/4, 352 with a combine-high 36 5/8-inch arms and 11-inch hands.
Hard to believe they found someone even bigger six months later when they signed Clifton Geathers, who at his combine measured 6-7 1/2, 299 with 37 3/4-inch arms and 11 1/8-inch hands. Geathers also ran a 4.98 40 with a vertical jump of 36 inches, an absolute freak of nature.
But Geathers' combine was in 2010, now over five years ago. He was a sixth-round pick by the Cleveland Browns that April and bounced to six other teams before landing in Pittsburgh last December. He didn't play in any of their four games but was signed back by the team on April 2 to a one-year contract.
"I asked for Clifton Geathers," defensive line coach John Mitchell said on draft day, after the team had just chosen another long, tall 3-4 defensive end, L.T. Walton, in the sixth round, "so I’m really happy right now. I have some guys with athletic ability. I have some guys that can do the things we are going to require them to do and they should be better at."
Much has been made this spring of McCullers losing 15 pounds, but Geathers has more than tripled that effort. He said he's lost 50 pounds, per Mitchell's request at the end of last season. He's now a long, strong 306-pounder. He hasn't been so close to this weight since he was a 4-3 end at South Carolina five years ago. And he's moved up the Steelers' pecking order: Geathers has been working with the second-team line of Walton and McCullers this spring, and appears to have passed the out-of-shape Cam Thomas on the depth chart.
to read rest of article:
http://www.scout.com/nfl/steelers/story/1552375-have-steelers-unearthed-a-giant
Jun 05, 2015
Jim Wexell
Publisher SteelCityInsider.net
http://imgix.scout.com/153/1538709.jpg?w=600&h=360&fit=max
Massive DE Clifton Geathers is in the best shape of his NFL career and he's climbing the depth chart.
PITTSBURGH -- The Pittsburgh Steelers went looking for long, strong defensive linemen in 2014 and may have drafted the longest and the strongest when they drafted Stephon Tuitt in the second round and Daniel McCullers in the sixth round.
At the previous combine, Tuitt measured 6-5 1/2, 304 with 34 3/4-inch arms and 10-inch hands. That's almost the prototype for a Steelers 3-4 defensive end.
But in McCullers the Steelers drafted someone even bigger. At the combine he measured 6-6 3/4, 352 with a combine-high 36 5/8-inch arms and 11-inch hands.
Hard to believe they found someone even bigger six months later when they signed Clifton Geathers, who at his combine measured 6-7 1/2, 299 with 37 3/4-inch arms and 11 1/8-inch hands. Geathers also ran a 4.98 40 with a vertical jump of 36 inches, an absolute freak of nature.
But Geathers' combine was in 2010, now over five years ago. He was a sixth-round pick by the Cleveland Browns that April and bounced to six other teams before landing in Pittsburgh last December. He didn't play in any of their four games but was signed back by the team on April 2 to a one-year contract.
"I asked for Clifton Geathers," defensive line coach John Mitchell said on draft day, after the team had just chosen another long, tall 3-4 defensive end, L.T. Walton, in the sixth round, "so I’m really happy right now. I have some guys with athletic ability. I have some guys that can do the things we are going to require them to do and they should be better at."
Much has been made this spring of McCullers losing 15 pounds, but Geathers has more than tripled that effort. He said he's lost 50 pounds, per Mitchell's request at the end of last season. He's now a long, strong 306-pounder. He hasn't been so close to this weight since he was a 4-3 end at South Carolina five years ago. And he's moved up the Steelers' pecking order: Geathers has been working with the second-team line of Walton and McCullers this spring, and appears to have passed the out-of-shape Cam Thomas on the depth chart.
to read rest of article:
http://www.scout.com/nfl/steelers/story/1552375-have-steelers-unearthed-a-giant