Height hurts Leak's draft status



GAINESVILLE — Curtis Leak insists this weekend is going to be just like so many late April weekends from years past.

He'll gather his family - including sons Chris and C.J. and "a bunch" of grandkids - at his home in Charlotte, N.C., and tune two televisions to the NFL Draft.

And just like every year for as long as he can remember, they'll watch closely to see where their favorite players end up.

But for as much as the Leaks don't want to play up the 2007 draft, they can't ignore that this weekend will be far different than any before.

"The only other element is that now it's your kid that has been getting calls from the NFL teams," Curtis Leak said Thursday. "He's on a lot of people's draft boards."

At some point, Chris Leak's phone should ring and an NFL team official will tell him he has been drafted. Then it will be Chris Leak's name read aloud on TV.

Yet he will likely have some waiting to do.

Just three months from removed from his coronation as MVP of the Gators' national championship win against Ohio State, Chris Leak has seen his status fall from the toast of the college football stratosphere to an NFL Draft question mark.

"Certainly there's interest, we're confident about that," said Terence Patterson, one of Chris Leak's agents at CSMG Sports. "The thing that is up in the air is what point in the draft."

Chris Leak will likely be one of the final quarterbacks picked, well behind first-rounders JaMarcus Russell of Louisiana State and Notre Dame's Brady Quinn and after players like Stanford's Trent Edwards, Michigan State's Drew Stanton, BYU's John Beck, Houston's Kevin Kolb and Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith of Ohio State.

Few if any draft analysts place Chris Leak in the draft's top 150 players and, depending on which guru you ask, Chris Leak could go as high as the fourth round or not be drafted at all.

Chris Leak's main shortcoming is just that: He is too short.

Officially listed at 5-feet-117/8, Chris Leak is just a fraction of an inch under that 6-foot cutoff. And at 209 pounds, he's not viewed as being bulky enough either.

His size was fine for college, experts said, but not good enough to cut it in the NFL, where offensive linemen are bigger and defenses are faster.

"There was a point in time, when you would say, I'll take a 6-footer ... and you would hope it would work," said Floyd Reese, who resigned in January after 13 years as general manager of the Tennessee Titans and now works for ESPN. "But it very seldom works. We've gone away from that."

Frank Coyle, a veteran analyst and publisher of www.draftinsiders.com, said he believes Chris Leak will likely be a sixth- or seventh-round pick, because NFL teams may be biased against a quarterback of Chris Leak's size.

"He's in a tough spot," Coyle said. "He's type of kid, that you know he's got a place in Canada or Arena Football. ... It might be better for him if he's not drafted, then his agent can find the right situation."

But Chris Leak's supporters point to a number of other factors they believe will convince an NFL team to pick a guy who might not fit the stereotypical professional quarterback body.

Chris Leak was a four-year starter at Florida and has more collegiate wins (35) than any other quarterback in the draft. He is UF's career leader in several passing categories including attempts, completions and yardage, and is second in passing touchdowns.

And of course, there was his MVP performance in the national championship game in January, when he completed 25 of 36 passes for 213 yards and a touchdown in the Gators' 41-14 win against Ohio State.

"You have to look at his body of work at the University of Florida," Patterson said. "He's a proven winner and he has all of the intangibles."

Yet no one knows exactly how the weekend will play out for Chris Leak .

Patterson said he's hopeful Chris Leak could go as early as the third round.

"At every level he's played at, he's done well for himself and kept his work ethic. He's the same guy, just a hard worker, and he'll take that to the next level," Curtis Leak said. "He just wants his shot."

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