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"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 John Thornton was making conversation on a sofa on the second floor of the JW Marriott when a bald, 40-something gentleman took a seat 10 feet away. \u201CHey, coach,\u201D said Thornton to Jaguars head man Gus Bradley, who smiled and returned the greeting. Bradley, as it happens, has lately been on the mind of Thornton, a 10-year NFL veteran who is now the director of client management for Octagon Football. Thornton\u2019s highest-profile client at this year\u2019s combine is UCLA linebacker Myles Jack, with whom Bradley and the Jaguars personnel types are very familiar.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As an early architect of Seattle\u2019s Legion of Boom secondary, Bradley made creative use of the shape-shifting and linebacker-sized safety Kam Chancellor. An hour earlier, over at Lucas Oil Stadium, the shape-shifting Jack, a safety-linebacker hybrid, who also happens to be a terrific running back, had shared with reporters that, while he enjoyed playing off the ball \u201Cas a Mike, Will, Sam [linebacker], I think I could play strong safety as kind of a Kam Chancellor type.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So it wouldn\u2019t be remotely surprising to see the Jaguars pluck Jack with the fifth pick\u2014if he\u2019s still around, that is. Dallas could well snatch him at No. 4. Neither of those scenarios would be plausible if it weren\u2019t for the fact that Jack had a very good day at the combine on Friday without so much as breaking a sweat.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;After tearing cartilage in his right knee last September, Jack withdrew from UCLA to focus on his rehab, a chance to better prepare for the combine. While Jack is still skipping most of the drills here, holding his fire until UCLA\u2019s March 13 Pro Day, he did submit to the probings and proddings, the yankings and torquings of a small army of team doctors, who were, he said, \u201Cpretty up front as far as moving my knee, twisting it.\u201D Thornton had warned him, said Jack, \u201Cthat they would be really aggressive with it\u201D and \u201Ckind of make it hurt to see if it was hurt. But it was fine.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And so Jack\u2019s stock soared on a day when he didn\u2019t take a single pass drop or sniff a three-cone drill. On a day devoted to running backs and offensive linemen, no one fared better than the hybrid defender from Bellevue, Wash. A few minutes after Gus Bradley had relocated to a nearby settee, a coach from an NFC East team walked past Thornton while practically shouting, \u201CYour boy is &lt;em&gt;killin\u2019 &lt;/em&gt;it!\u201D In addition to passing his physical on Friday with flying colors, Jack had allayed concerns about his size. Clearly, the guy could cover: he took significant snaps as a slot corner at UCLA. Did he have the heft to play the run? Doubts persisted. When his height and weight were announced\u2014Jack goes 6' 1\", 245\u2014a cheer went up among coaches and personnel types.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Jack\u2019s vast appeal is explained by ex-NFL assistant coach Pat Kirwan, now host of a Sirius radio show. \u201CHe could play a lot of positions, but what he is to me is Will \u2019backer in a 4\u20133. When I was with Pete Carroll and Monte Kiffin, one of our priorities was finding a Will \u2019backer who could play with aggression, play sideline to sideline.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CThat\u2019s still important, but since then, the Belichick-type offenses have been causing nightmares. He sends out two tight ends and a running back. It\u2019s first down, so you send out your base defense. Tom Brady sees that and hits an \u2018explode\u2019 button, now his tight ends turn into wideouts. When you have Myles Jack, you\u2019re not panicking over that. You have your hybrid player, your Lavonte David.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;You also have an emergency running back, should your No. 1 and No. 2 ballcarriers go down. \u201CYou probably don\u2019t &lt;em&gt;want&lt;/em&gt; to use him that way,\u201D adds Kirwan, \u201Cbut you can get through a game with him. Or, you could Deion Sanders the guy, make him a wide receiver every so often.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Jack seems slightly conflicted about these possible dual roles. On the one hand, he prefers linebacker to running back. It\u2019s a cold fact of NFL life that guys playing the latter position have significantly shorter careers. \u201CThat\u2019s why I came into college playing linebacker,\u201D he explained, following his Friday presser. \u201CIt\u2019s tough to be a running back. It\u2019s not a long career. You get beat up, you got guys hitting you at all different angles.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, he understands there\u2019s a special mystique to two-way stars like Deion Sanders, Bo Jackson and Charles Woodson. So does Under Armour, which made Jack the first\u2014and so far only\u2014prospect from this year\u2019s draft class to sign a major apparel and footwear deal. Explaining Jack\u2019s appeal to the company, VP of marketing Ryan Kuehl mentioned both his \u201Celectrifying\u201D style of play and the work ethic he\u2019s displayed during his comeback.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;During a meeting with members of the company\u2019s design team Thursday evening, Jack recalled, \u201CThey said, \u2018What do you want in a shoe?\u2019\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As it happened, he\u2019d given the matter some thought: \u201CHow about something with the [playing] card, \u2018jack\u2019? He also greenlit the idea of a shoe featuring the names of his mother, La Sonjia; and his brother, Jahlen.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CBoom! Literally &lt;em&gt;mid-conversation&lt;/em&gt;,\u201D he recalled, \u201Cthey turned around and started working on it.\u201D Within 90 minutes, he was presented with two technicolored, personalized shoes, one featuring the names of his mother and brother; the other bearing the legend, \u201CJack of All Trades.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI was amazed,\u201D says Jack, who could play any number of positions and be amazing at all of them.\r\n&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.si.com/nfl/2016/02/27/nfl-combine-myles-jack-draft-stock>