INDIANAPOLIS -- North Carolina tight end Eric Ebron was one of the most confident prospects to swing through the media center Thursday at the NFL Scouting Combine, and he had reason to be.
Ebron is widely considered the best player at his position in this year's draft.
Here are a couple highlights from his exchange with reporters.
On how he'll prove to teams that he can beat press coverage after not facing it much in college:
"I think why teams don't press me is because they can't. I will not be pressed at the line of scrimmage. ... They'd be best to play a couple yards back."
On the draft advice he received from his former North Carolina teammate Gio Bernard, now a running back with the Cincinnati Bengals:
"Gio just told me to get as much rest as I can. I just got done texting him. I'm going to run a faster 40 than he did, I'm just going to put it like that." (Bernard ran a 4.53 last year.)
Ebron's rare combination of size and speed -- which, Ebron has joked, is so good it should be "illegal" -- is unquestioned, but he has room to improve as a blocker. Whether he can excel in that area is among the top questions he's getting from NFL teams.
The 6-foot-4, 250-pound tight end said don't underestimate his ability in that facet of the game, either.
"Every team wants a complete tight end, an all-purpose tight end, not one that can just run down the seam and catch passes," Ebron said. "They want a guy that can block, too. I tell them that I've been working hard on it, which I have, but I'm not bad at it, which everyone thinks. We'll see."
Ebron will go through drills in Indianapolis on Saturday, and it will be a surprise if he doesn't put on quite a show.
