Greene has learned hard lessons

02.28.2009

What really made Shonn Greene know that he wanted to move through piles of people for a living was the way he spent the football season of 2007.

Moving furniture.

Academic struggles forced Greene away from the Iowa football program, into classes at Kirkwood Community College and in need of a way to pay the bills. So he worked at a furniture store while getting his grades in order and preparing for another shot at playing football for the Hawkeyes.

He's now just a few months away from buying some nice furniture.

"It was pretty crazy," Greene said of his experience in the working world. "I matured a lot as a man. Not being able to play football for a year kind of set me back and made me understand I had to take care of business and my responsibilities."

Greene was so good in his return to Iowa football last fall that he won the Doak Walker Award as college football's top running back. He was the only back in the country to rush more than 100 yards in all of his team's games, and he finished the season with 20 touchdowns and a better than 6 yard per carry average.

Now, how does he fit into the NFL? At the Combine, Greene said teams will like "my ability to run between the tackles, to be elusive in the hole. I think as an inside runner, I am one of the best backs here."

He was 5-foot-10, 227 at the Combine. He's certainly not the fastest of this group of backs, but not everybody can (or wants to) fight for those tough and important yards in the trenches.

Exactly where Greene fits in the 2009 NFL Draft remains to be seen, but he's part (probably on the bottom half) of a group of underclassmen that figure to be taken first. A quick look at the others is below...

Donald Brown, UConn

Brown was the only back in college football to average more than 150 yards per game last fall, and the only one to go over 2,000 yards for the season. He's not the biggest back, but he's big enough at 5-foot-10, 210, and the tape shows he's as fast or close to as fast as the other top backs in this class. He needs some polish - as they all do - but he's pretty well rounded and explosive.

LeSean McCoy, Pitt

He was sick during the Combine -- he lost around 10 pounds in a week -- so his participation was limited, but in two years at Pitt McCoy was a home-run hitter who also showed he can run between the tackles and catch the ball out of the backfield. He played his best football last October when he ran for 631 yards and 10 touchdowns in a four-game span; he also burned West Virginia for 183 and 2 scores in the Backyard Brawl the day after Thanksgiving.

Knowshon Moreno, Georgia

Maybe the best of the bunch, Moreno is a physical, fearless runner who doesn't mind contact but could also break away at the college level. He weighed 217 at the combine, up at least 10 pounds from his playing weight last fall. It will be interesting to see if the added muscle is something he needs to absorb the pounding he'll take at the NFL level, or if he drops the weight to reach top speed. He ran for 1,334 yards as a redshirt freshman in 2007 and 1,400 last year.

Chris Wells, Ohio State

At 6-foot-1, 235 he fits the power back mold. But "Beanie" at his best could also take it the distance, and in three years at Ohio State he was mostly dominating when he was healthy. His ability to stay on the field is probably the NFL's biggest concern, because when he's at 100 percent he's capable of stepping into just about any offensive situation and making an immediate impact.