Speaking of Barron, I'd like to bring up his workout numbers. The guy is fast as hell for a man his size and can fly for a dude with his physique. These numbers are what allowed him to shoot up the charts. Seriously though, how does this help him in a game. Does he ever need to jump? Unless he scores a TD and wants to slam the ball over the cross bar, I dont see how the vertical helps him. Anyways, back to my point. I was looking at the major component of his workout numbers. The one that gives us some insight as to how strong he is. The event: Bench Press. He was able to do 19 reps at 225. 19? Are you kidding? Now, Im not saying that he cant improve on that, but come on. For someone who is 320 lbs, thats weak. The "other" 2 top tackle prospects Khalif Barnes (LT) 26 reps Jammal Brown (LT) 26 reps Sorry, just another reason to not take Barron. He just doesnt deserve the respect he is getting, IMO. Unless, of course, playing the LT position requires great leaping ability as well as the abilitly to run 3 miles in under 22 minutes. In that case, Barron would be my number one choice.
Not really. Jumping is more of a result of calf strength with the quads/hammys being the secondary muscle. The "explosive strength" an Olineman uses, such as when they are attacking a defender, results from the quads/hamstrings being used as the primary muscle group with the calves being the secondary muscle group. Therefore, the two can be related, but they are definitely not substitutes. Squats would be a better indicator of strength for OLineman. *edit* Also, how high you jump is directly related to length of your achilles tendon. Therefore, people who want to jump higher, do workouts that stretch the tendon in order to maximize their vertical leap. Stretching the tendon and building calf muscle are the 2 most important things in "jumping high". Yes, this is a measure of explosiveness, but not really the explosiveness that an OLineman needs.
