Corners making impact
Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie chats with his cousin, Pro Bowler Antonio Cromartie. Leodis McKelvin talks with another Pro Bowler, former teammate DeMarcus Ware.
The big-time isn’t far away for these two cornerbacks from small schools.
Rodgers-Cromartie and McKelvin are the reasons Tennessee State and Troy could be called out early in April’s NFL draft along with the likes of Southern Cal and LSU.
Troy, where McKelvin starred, is at least in the Football Bowl Subdivision, formerly known as Division I-A. Tennessee State is in the Football Championship Subdivision (the old Division I-AA).
Rodgers-Cromartie is 6-foot-2 and the reigning Ohio Valley Conference indoor track champion in the 60-yard dash, long jump and high jump. That helps explain why he could be picked before anybody from a slightly better-known football program in the same state, the University of Tennessee.
Tennessee State was the only college to recruit Rodgers-Cromartie after he attended four high schools in four years. He started at a public school in Atlanta. Then his father decided to send him to a private school for 10th grade. But when that institution stopped offering scholarships, he was back to a public school. As a senior, he moved to live with his mother in Bradenton, Fla.
His father kept telling him he had a cousin who played at Florida State, but Rodgers-Cromartie never thought much of it until he got to know Antonio Cromartie in the past year. The second-year San Diego Chargers cornerback led the NFL with 10 interceptions this past season.
Rodgers-Cromartie had another connection to cornerback greatness through his father. One of his dad’s friends knew future Hall-of-Famer Darrell Green, who invited Rodgers-Cromartie to work out with him this past summer.
Green taught him how to come out of his break faster. “Basically he changed my whole style of game,” Rodgers-Cromartie said Sunday at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis.
What could attract NFL clubs to Rodgers-Cromartie and McKelvin beyond their cornerback abilities is their special teams skills.
Rodgers-Cromartie averaged 24.4 yards on kickoff returns. McKelvin averaged 23.2 yards, as well as 17.4 yards on punt returns.
McKelvin said he hopes to make the kind of impact on special teams as a rookie that Devin Hester did.
With McKelvin, NFL teams have the opportunity to watch game film and see him against elite competition. Troy faced Arkansas, Florida, Oklahoma State and Georgia this past season.
Scouts also know that players from the school have thrived in the league in recent years.
“We had two this year win the Super Bowl; we had two in the Pro Bowl,” McKelvin said proudly.
Around the league
The Chicago Bears and tight end Desmond Clark agreed to a two-year contract extension through the 2010 season. … Derek Smith, released Tuesday by the San Francisco 49ers, agreed to a two-year deal with the San Diego Chargers. Smith will bolster the team’s inside linebackers group. … Minnesota Vikings tackle Bryant McKinnie was arrested for aggravated battery after a street brawl outside a nightclub in Miami early Sunday. McKinnie also was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest without violence, according to a police report.