COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- Mike Evans didn't need Johnny Manziel to look good on Thursday at his pro-day workout; he did that on his own.
But the SEC's most dynamic quarterback-receiver duo over the last two years couldn't have been more in tune in front of representatives from 30 NFL clubs, and by all accounts, the 6-foot-5, 231-pound wide receiver did nothing to hurt his draft stock.
"The comment I've gotten from a lot of (NFL) people is that he ran faster at the combine than they thought, and he's bigger than they thought," said Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin, "and his video speaks for itself."
Evans declined to speak to the media afterward, but his performance did plenty of talking on its own. Other than a post route, which was surprisingly not a big part of the menu for Manziel's passes, Evans ran all sorts of routes. And it was the shorter ones that NFL scouts wanted to see most. Evans' penchant for catching deep balls in traffic in college couldn't be put on display without defensive backs playing in coverage anyway. And while Evans did run a few deep routes, it was his technique on shorter routes that may require the biggest adjustment at the pro level.
"He showed range, he showed speed, he came in and out of breaks. Then he showed some versatility," said Manziel's quarterback coach George Whitfield, who has had Evans working with Manziel in San Diego earlier this offseason. "We tried to move him inside, get him to both sides. Here at A&M, he only lined up on one side. So even just the subtleties of that, let's get over here, over there. He showed some intermediate stuff. It doesn't always have to be home-run throws. He had just as much to come out and address to his position, just like (Manziel) did."
Evans bobbled one accurate pass as he was going out of bounds that resulted in one of three Manziel incompletions, but on several passes, he was the one who made Manziel look good by making an adjustment to catch passes that were thrown a bit behind him or a bit high. NFL Media senior analyst Gil Brandt had perhaps the highest praise for Evans, likening his hands to those of the NFL's best wide receiver, Calvin Johnson of the Detroit Lions.
Evans is projected as a first-round pick, and one team thought to be strongly interested in him is the Lions, who hold the draft's No. 10 overall choice. In fact, the two men who have the most say in who the Lions will choose came directly from the NFL Annual Meeting in Orlando to College Station. With quarterback Matthew Stafford being a centerpiece of the club's offense, it's no secret which of the two head coach Jim Caldwell and general manager Martin Mayhew were there to see.
Evans, for his part, left the Lions and 29 other clubs with a strong impression.
*Follow Chase Goodbread on Twitter **@ChaseGoodbread.*
