Six Cardinal football players will be at the NFL combine in Indianapolis from Feb. 22 to 28, and several are currently training on campus as they prepare to impress pro scouts.

 

Redshirt junior quarterback Andrew Luck has long been the consensus No. 1 overall pick in the upcoming NFL draft, and his two best offensive linemen, Jonathan Martin and David DeCastro, will join him in Indianapolis as likely first-round picks as well. Tight end Coby Fleener, who caught a team-leading 10 touchdown passes last season, will also be at the combine and has been mentioned as a potential first-round selection as well.

 

Safety Delano Howell is the only defensive player of the group. Despite missing three games due to injury last year, he finished the season with three of the best performances of his career, coming up with seven, eight and seven tackles respectively against the likes of Cal’s Keenan Allen, Notre Dame’s Michael Floyd and Oklahoma State’s Justin Blackmon.

 

The final Stanford player heading to Indianapolis is receiver Chris Owusu, whose medical clearance to continue playing football after a series of concussions was announced by his agent on Thursday. Owusu was carted off the field at Oregon State on Nov. 5 after his third such injury in 13 months and did not return to action last season, besides being inserted on the final play of the game against Notre Dame.

 

Owusu’s playing career on the Farm got off to a speedy start. As a sophomore, the dynamic receiver caught a team-leading five touchdowns and earned first-team All-Pac-10 honors on special teams for his three scores on kickoff returns, which tied a conference record. Even though his injury-plagued career took a turn for the worse in 2010 and never fully restarted in his seven games last season, Owusu still ranks as one of the top kick returners in Stanford history.

 

– Joseph Beyda