University of Alabama running back Eddie Lacy will miss the combine because of a minor tear in tissue around his hamstring, forcing him to put all his chips on the table at the team’s pro day on March 13th. It’s unclear exactly how he sustained the injury and nobody appears to be too worried about it, but tissue tears can linger due to the nature of the injury.

USC’s quarterback Matt Barkley will attend the combine, but won’t be doing any throwing drills. He is still recovering from an shoulder sprain and wasn’t even cleared by his doctors to start throwing until last week. He has some work to do so that he can get it back up to full strength again and says he will be ready for USC’s pro day on March 17th.

Barkley had gotten injured in November and barely avoided surgery. Lacy has a history of lingering injuries in his career at Alabama so this most recent “minor” setback can’t help things there.

I’ll keep my ear to the railroad with their conditions, monitor the pro days as they occur, and relay the relevant information right here on Catcrave.com. That way, my readers won’t have to sort through the clutter at the gazillions of sites that report on everything from the NBA down to women’s rowing.

No offense to the women’s rowers, but Panthers’ fans may be more interested in a defensive tackle or wide receiver that might make a splash somewhere with their 40-time or bench reps. Some are just more interested in the draft process these days and want to hear about that. I’m one of those guys.

Dec 31, 2012; El Paso, TX, USA; Southern California Trojans quarterback Matt Barkley (middle) speaks to head coach Lane Kiffin before the Sun Bowl against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at Sun Bowl stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ivan Pierre Aguirre-USA TODAY Sports

Will missing the NFL combine hurt either player? Yes, in a way. It puts that much more pressure on them at their respective pro days to perform. A number of times in the past, a player has had a little slower 40-time in particular and improved that time at their pro day.

Cam Newton threw just horribly at the combine but threw well at his pro day at Auburn and the rest is history. What if Eddie Lacy’s “minor tear” lingers just long enough to make him run a slower 40 than a healthy Montee Ball? It could kick him out of the first round quite possibly.

Guys like Montee that have the combine can go through that combine and “stand on their times” as it’s put, foregoing doing any running at their pro days. Sometimes a player doesn’t run so well at the combine but improves upon it with a good showing at his pro day.

Same thing with the passing drills with a particularly good combine performance. However, sometimes a QB will do drills at both even with a good combine if they want to show off a particular skill they have. The QB and his coaches have a lot more control on a team’s pro day since the school is running the show and not the NFL.

A good collegiate coaching staff (oh, like say, Nick Saban and his crew) knows all about it and does all it can to help their exiting players shine, but only as far as the participant is as healthy as possible.

Participating in the combine gives them options.

Ultimately, both Matt Barkley and Eddie Lacy have a lot of history and game tape on them – not to mention Montee Ball with all of his carries up in Wisconsin, for example – so that missing the combine shouldn’t really hurt their stock in the upcoming NFL draft if they come back with a decent pro day.

Miss the combine and have a poor pro day and THEN we’ll have us a big story, folks. It could wind up that Lacy falls out of the first round and Barkley vaults into it, probably due to the effect of positional value at this point than anything, but Lacy’s the more vulnerable of the two.

Stay tuned.

Follow me on Twitter @Ken_Dye

1 5 Justin Blackmon WR Oklahoma State
2 38 Andre Branch DE Clemson
3 70 Bryan Anger P California
5 142 Brandon Marshall LB Nevada-Reno
6 176 Mike Harris CB Florida State
7 228 Jeris Pendleton DT Ashland

First, the good.

The Jaguars have had little to no luck in recent years in drafting or otherwise acquiring any talent at the WR position. Last year, the Dallas Cowboys’ Laurent Robinson had a breakout season and the Jaguars added him in free agency, giving them an apparently good target for second-year QB Blaine Gabbert. They followed that up with trading up two spots in the 2012 draft to land top-rated college phenom WR Justin Blackmon to play on the other side of Robinson.

This is great news for Gabbert, who finished dead last in the NFL QB rankings last season in just about every meaningful category. He looked like a high school Freshman playing in the NFL pretty much all year, and that play concerned the Jaguars enough that they signed Miami Dolphin cast-off QB Chad Henne. Given what I know about both players so far, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Henne starting opening day.

Neither QB showed that much in their first preseason game, however. Gabbert may have slightly out-played Henne against the Giants in their 32-31 victory over the defending champs as he led an opening-possession TD drive and did have a couple of nice passes, including a perfectly-placed short TD pass, lofting the ball over several defenders to put it where second-year WR Cecil Shorts went up and hauled it in. Gabbert didn’t do much after that, but Henne went 4/9 with their second team for 28 yards and a TD of his own.

The biggest concern is the team’s star player, RB Maurice Jones-Drew, is holding out. “Pocket Hercules” has two years remaining on a 5-year $31 million contract but is underpaid by league standards. He was the NFL’s rushing leader last season and the only bright spot for an otherwise dreary offense. If the Jaguars won’t pay him more than the $6 million a year he’s making, it brings their dedication to building a winner into question. He has 6,800+ yards rushing in his first 6 years and his last three seasons have seen him eclipse the 1,000-yard mark and 2011 was the best of his career. He’s only 27 years old, so he’s still in his prime and should be for another 3 or 4 seasons.

Injuries have already taken their toll on the offensive line, with guards Jason Spitz and Will Rackley likely to miss most if not all of the preseason. Cameron Bradfield has been inserted at the right tackle position while Eben Britton is kicked inside to guard. Britton finished last season on injured reserve. LT Eugene Monroe appears to be the only solid player in his “natural” position other than 34 year old center Brad Meester and they’re only one game into the preseason. They have an average line at best so it’s unclear at this point if the shuffling will help or hurt in the long run.

On the one hand, it’s good to get the reserves some experience. On the other hand, shuffling linemen won’t help a struggling quarterback improve.

Things are not looking good for the offense, despite the 32 points they put up against the Giants. Preseason games have never been a reliable barometer of how well or poorly a team will do in the regular season since coaches rightly use the preseason for settling position battles and roster spots while only showing perhaps 20% of their playbook.

Defensively, the Jaguars once again look to have the better unit overall. Former Head Coach Jack Del Rio, now the Defensive Coordinator for the Denver Broncos, had an above-average defense for years but couldn’t overcome the offensive woes to become much of a threat to anyone. So far, the status quo is holding.

DT Tyson Alualu is the best and most-seasoned lineman they have and Terrance Knighton should be starting at the other tackle position. Rookie Andre Branch from Clemson looks to start at the right DE spot while Jeremy Mincey brings a career-high 8 sacks with him from last season to the LDE spot so their starting DL looks to be solid again in 2012, pending Branch’s play.

The starting linebackers in their 4-3 defense look to be Daryl Smith at the strong-side LB (SAM) spot, Clint Session at the weakside (WILL), and veteran Paul Posluszny holds down the MLB (MIKE) position and will be calling the defensive signals once again.

Smith is the most durable of the group, having missed just 4 games in his 8-year career and is an active guy who can make a lot of plays. Posluszny is a steady if unspectacular MLB coming off a sub-par season in 2011, and Clint Session has only played a full slate of games once in his five years in the league. He’s also no pass-rusher, but that’s not that big an issue in the 4-3 as it would be if he were the rush/WILL linebacker in a 3-4.

Cornerback Rashean Mathis is coming off an injury but is a very good corner when healthy. However, he turns 32 later this month so he’s probably not going to play at a high level for too many more seasons. Right now, the Jaguars are just happy he’s getting healthy after tearing his ACL last November.

Derek Cox is slated to start at the other CB position but he left the Giants’ game with an injury after winding up on IR last season. Team officials say he’s got a hamstring injury and should miss most of the rest of the preseason, so things are not encouraging after the big rash of injuries the team suffered through last season. Hamstrings can be nagging over time if not allowed to properly heal, so they could just be using extra caution.

Dwight Lowery appears to be atop the depth chart at the FS position while former Baltimore Raven DaWan Landry mans the other spot. With the linebacking corps having some instability in the past with injuries and the same problems at corner last season, the safeties would seem to be the strength of the back seven along with LB Smith.

After the top 3 draft picks, there doesn’t appear to be much help from the 2012 draft. Of course, when they announced a punter with their third-round pick, I figured it made perfect sense despite the baffled pundits’ reactions. With a horrible offense and an unsettled defense, I had said that their punter may be their best weapon on the team – especially if Pocket Hercules holds out into the regular season, which it appears he’s ready to do.

With all that’s going on with the team in mind since last year, and their 5-11 finish last season, I think the Jaguars are….

standing still at best. While they appear to have finally gotten the receiving help that they need, the injury bug is still affecting the squad. Shuffling the offensive line and MJD’s holdout negate anything positive they added at the WR spots in the offseason, and trading up for Blackmon meant they gave up some later picks that they might have used to add depth that would help in case of more injuries.

So far, it looks as if the Jags might well end up with the top pick in 2013.

Hello, Matt Barkley!

Next up….the Kansas City Chiefs.