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Then junior defensive end No. 94 Phillip Merling sacks Auburn senior quarterback No. 12 Brandon Cox during the Chik-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta on New Year's Eve. Merling chose to forgo his senior season and enter the NFL draft.
Posted on Thu, Apr. 24, 2008
Phillip Merling: Seeing is believing
By PAUL STRELOW - pstrelow@thestate.com
CLEMSON — Sweating from one of his first conditioning workouts in weeks, Phillip Merling took a chair recently in Clemson's football offices opposite his uncle and former position coach, Chris Rumph.
For years, the two have engaged in a machismo debate about who is the superior wrestler.
So as Rumph sets the scene for Saturday afternoon in St. Matthews — where the family expects to convene and watch Merling become an NFL first-round draft pick — he foretells taking Merling out in the yard for one definitive grapple in which Rumph's superiority is forever enshrined.
"Yeah, catch me when I'm down," Merling fires back. "Wait until I have two months in an NFL training room."
As defensive coordinator Vic Koenning says of Merling: "If they'll bite as a puppy, they'll bite as a dog. And he obviously has some bite to him."
Merling's bite is certainly worse than his bark — evidenced by his repeated disregard of media interview requests to his agency, plus the fact he did not contribute a quote to the press release about entering the draft after his junior season.
He has not needed to market himself, although his days living with a low profile are numbered.
The 6-foot-4, 276-pound defensive lineman is holding a limited pro day workout on campus late this morning with the goal of ensuring he does not slip from the first-round range.
Considering the NFL's underclassmen advisory committee projected him to go as high as the second round, Merling's mild gamble appears destined to pay off.
"I have no regrets," Merling said. "I felt like it was getting a little easier to play out there in college. I felt like I was making plays and could handle myself strength-wise.
"It was the best thing for me to do. It's my dream to play in the league, and I have the chance to go pursue it."
Since declaring for the draft in January, Merling has gotten engaged to the USC student who is the mother of his 1-year-old daughter, Justice.
Merling said he made the jump in part to support his family, a statement Koenning believes is proof of the maturity Merling lacked not long ago.
He lacked a steady disciplinary influence throughout his upbringing, living with relatives with his father out of the picture and his mom in Virginia.
So it came as little surprise when Merling frequently was involved in practice fights early in his career. The same path was followed by former Clemson linebacker Anthony Waters, who developed into the team's unquestioned leader by his senior season.
"Over the last couple of years now, Phillip's shown a great deal of resolve in not letting situations getting out of hand because people have tried him knowing he's got a little bit of a hot trigger," Koenning said.
That trigger, Koenning quickly added, remains perhaps Merling's greatest asset on the field.
Despite not working out for teams because of a sports hernia that required surgery immediately after the February NFL Combine, Merling's rare combination of size and athleticism for someone at his position has appeared to sustain his value.
He has visited four teams: Minnesota (which reportedly has traded the No. 17 overall pick), Tampa Bay (No. 20), Washington (No. 21) and San Francisco (No. 29).
However, Cincinnati (No. 9) and Detroit (No. 15) and Jacksonville (No. 26) have also quietly expressed significant interest — a validation of his versatility because of those teams’ varied defensive schemes.
Pro scouts view him as a fit at strongside end in a conventional 4-3 defense, an outside tackle in a 3-4 defense or even an inside tackle in the Tampa 2.
"To me, he's a top-15 player in this draft," NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock said. "If he falls into the 20s, I think it's directly attributable to the fact teams are nervous because they can't test him.
"Phillip Merling to me is one of the most intriguing questions in this year's draft. And the reason is, he's going to be healthy for the season. Matter of fact, he's going to be healthy for training camp. So all 32 teams know they're going to get a healthy player despite the fact he just had surgery. The problem is, all 32 teams are so heavily dependent on the measurables the 40, the vertical jump, all that stuff — and they're not going to get the chance to test this kid.
"A couple of years ago, we had the same thing happen to Heath Miller.
“I remember talking to Bill Cowher immediately after that, he was giggling and laughing and said, ‘Can you believe he fell all the way to us?’ "
Merling said he would have reservations about an injured player, too, which is why he is holding today's workout so close to this weekend's draft.
Roughly 15 teams are expected to have representatives in attendance.
He will not run the 40-yard dash or do the 225-pound bench press because he just returned to training last week. But he will do position-specific drills with the hope of demonstrating he is not far from full health.
"When they see that, maybe they can jump back on board," Merling said.
"Everything is looking on the up and up, and I'm feeling good again."
