Exam Time: NFL Taking A Measure of TE Cramer
HANOVER – Shirt off, face contorted with effort, 6-foot-2, 245-pound Casey Cramer is a cement mixer barreling between the white lines of the Leverone Field House track.
With no runaway truck ramp to stop him, Cramer grinds to a halt, seemingly inches from crashing through Leverone’s glass back wall and onto Memorial Field, where he was the most prolific tight end ever to wear a Dartmouth uniform, and where he became a potential NFL draft pick.
Cramer hesitates for a second at the end of his run. Then, almost reluctantly, he turns around.
Suddenly he is the nervous little boy walking to the front of the class to collect his report card.
Standing back at the finish line, scribbling Cramer's 40-yard dash time into a white notebook while college workers tear down the remnants of last weekend's Upper Valley Home/Life Show, is Kyle O'Brien, a scout for the New England Patriots.
“The 40 is my biggest nemesis,” Cramer says after his second NFL workout in a week. “Walking back after finishing is the longest walk imaginable. The whole way you are worrying about how you did.”
The walk, like the run, is worth it. Cramer has clocked 4.73, not far off from the 4.69 he ran in a group workout before 50 scouts last month back home at the University of Wisconsin.
 |
| Courtesy Dartmouth |
As will be the case throughout this two-hour workout, O'Brien wears a poker face when Cramer gets back to him. Ask the scout later how the Ivy Leaguer stacks up and he will apologize politely as he says he is contractually forbidden from talking about his scouting assignments.
Rob Talley, Dartmouth defensive coordinator and NFL liaison, tries to fill in the blanks late in the two hour workout.
"Because they are looking at Casey as a fullback/H-back, I think his 40 is average to slightly above average for the league," whispers Talley. "That time definitely puts him in the mix. It's not a situation where he is running 4.9's, and they don't think he's fast enough.”
After resting up from his second 40, changing shoes and taking a drink or two from the gallon container of blue fruit punch Gatorade he will lug with him throughout the workout, Cramer is set for the pro shuttle drill. As O'Brien starts his watch, Cramer bolts for an adhesive-taped line to his right, where he touches the synthetic turf with his hand and a grunt that echoes through the building. Then he bolts to his left and another temporary line, where he touches and grunts again. Then it's back through the start line and a click of the stopwatch.
O'Brien: "That feel good?"
Cramer: "Yeah. What was it?"
O’Brien: "4.25."
Cramer: "I can do better."
O'Brien: "Want to do another one?"
Cramer: "Yeah."
This time Cramer is clocked in 4.22.
"His time there was in the ballpark," says Talley. "It was average, but it's a good test for him because it tests change of direction."
Another rest, another swig of blue juice, sweatpants on and sweatpants off, and Cramer is ready for another test: the three-cone drill. He will run from one cone to another a short distance away, and then back. Then it's back around the second cone and the third in a figure eight before sprinting back to the start.
The cement mixer tries a test run, but the tires won't hold. Cramer switches to sneakers before going full out. "Push, push, push," O'Brien says as Cramer strains for the finish. "I'll let you do one more."
Cramer will get two more after he misses a cone the second time.
"His time there was actually pretty good," says Talley. "Slightly above average, which could mean a lot or nothing."
Another rest and it's onto the standing long jump. Back in his lighter shoes, Cramer rocks heel to toe, obeying the warning not to shuffle his feet, and then leaps alongside a measuring tape O’Brien has unwound on the turf. The Patriots’ scout grabs Cramer by the heels as he lands, freezing him in place for an accurate measurement. Another jump and Cramer, who grins easily and often, is smiling for the first time.
"He was right around nine feet, his best to date," says Talley "so he's happy about that.”
Cramer is finally able to relax.
"The worst part is over. The rest is just fun," he says, taking a long swig of the Gatorade. “Got to gain some weight."
The next stop is Davis Varsity House, home of the Dartmouth football offices. Cramer's vertical leap is measured at 31.5 inches. "That 32 is just taunting me," he tells O'Brien and Talley, smiling again.
In the weight room in the eaves of Davis, O'Brien weighs one of the steel plates to make sure it is accurate while Cramer yanks open the pull top on a Sobe Adrenaline Rush and downs the energy drink. He leaves a half eaten Rice Crispy Treat next to the empty can and strides into an adjacent room to change the music filling the air. On a stationary bicycle nearby, Dartmouth head coach John Lyons pedals away.
With Talley spotting him and shouting, "Come on, come on," Cramer lifts to exhaustion. Soon, O'Brien is measuring the size of his hand and the length of his arms, writing the numbers in his white notebook. Three times the scout will measure Cramer's height against a chart he’d previously taped to the wall. He had measured how high he taped the chart just one time, but no one tells him.
Before returning to Leverone, Cramer switches the music to something a little more in tune with Lyons’ taste. Then it's back to Leveone where O'Brien breaks out a football for the first time.
After a few patterns, he has Cramer run down the field and try to grab high-arcing passes over his head, a la Willie Mayes robbing Vic Wertz in the 1954 World Series.
"He said he knows I can catch," Cramer relates a few minutes later. "He said he just wanted to see me do some stuff, take some handoffs, and try some things I'm unfamiliar with."
Cramer – honestly, if a little mischievously – told his professor he was missing his first class because he had a job interview, and is satisfied with how it went.
"The nice thing was that, this time, my times were pretty much comparable to Wisconsin, which was nice," he says. "I did a lot better than I did with the Jets. I needed this."
From what Talley was able to glean when the Jets were in town, Cramer is probably being a little hard on himself.
"The biggest thing a scout from the Jets related to us is that he doesn't have any minuses, where you say he can't do something," Talley says. "He's going to be average in some and good in others. But there's no drill where you look at him and say he just can't do it."
By Talley’s count, virtually all NFL teams have sent a scout to Hanover to watch film and talk with the coaches about Cramer. Although there are no other visits planned, it wouldn't surprise Talley if teams call on the spur of the moment, or fly Cramer in as they gear up for the April 24-25 draft.
What it all means, whether Cramer will hear his named called, Talley is uncertain.
"It's a crazy deal," he says. "You just never know until all is set and done. I just tried to give Casey as much information as I can about what to expect."
Cramer appreciates the feedback from Talley because, other than what he hears from his agent, it is about his only barometer.
"It's like pulling teeth,” he says of ferreting information from the scouts. "They'll say I did well, which is good. They say I have a good chance of getting drafted, but everybody says that.”
"I was talking with my agent yesterday and he said, 'Well, Casey, to be quite honest with you, I'm kind of worried.’ I asked why, and he said pretty much everyone was saying I was going to get drafted, but none of them were saying they wanted me for sure. They are all saying what we want to hear, but they aren't the ones biting."
Editor's Note: Cramer was taken by the Tampa Bay Bucs in the seventh round with the 228th pick of the 2004 draft. He stuck around the NFL until 2008 with the bulk of his playing time coming with the Tennessee Titans. He also spent time with the Bucs, Jets, Panthers and Dolphins.
After a stint as team chaplain for the Tennessee Titans, today he is lead pastor of King's Cross Community Church in Springboro, Ohio (LINK).
#
The temperature here could hit 40 degrees today, a number we've reached just two times since before Christmas. Works for me!
