We heard yesterday that Ohio State cornerback Kendall Sheffield had suffered a torn left pectoral while bench pressing at the NFL scouting combine, and now we have an update. Sheffield has a partially torn pec, but he won’t need surgery for the injury, he told Kimberly Jones of NFL Network (Twitter link).
Sheffield is apparently in good spirits, and remained at the combine to support the other cornerbacks participating in drills. While it’s still a tough blow, it’s not as quite as serious as it initially seemed, and he’s lucky to dodge surgery. Fellow Buckeye Billy Price tore his pec doing the bench press at last year’s combine and ended up having to have surgery and miss the entire offseason program.
It’s still unclear how long Sheffield will be sidelined, but it doesn’t sound like it’ll be a prolonged absence or anything that will impact his draft status too much. It’s a shame Sheffield didn’t get to participate in the 40-yard dash or any of the other drills, because he was expected to test very well. He’s a great athlete, and a source told Josina Anderson of ESPN (Twitter link), that he had been clocking in the 4.2’s during his combine training. Anderson added in a second tweet that the “hope is” it’s just a 4-6 week injury. Most mock drafts projected Sheffield as a middle round pick heading into the combine.
