Tank Carder 2012 NFL Draft Diary

Tank Carder 2012 NFL Draft Diary: The 2012 NFL Scouting Combine

By Tank Carder, as told to Charlie Campbell - @draftcampbell

WalterFootball.com is proud to introduce our 2012 NFL Draft Diary with TCU linebacker Tank Carder. Throughout the draft process, Tank will be sharing his experience with the readers of WalterFootball.com. Tank will hit on the East-West Shrine Game experience, team interviews, the NFL Scouting Combine, his pro day, pre-draft visits, and of course, his draft day experience.

Carder was the Mountain West Conference Defensive Player of they Year the past two seasons. He also was the Rose Bowl Defensive MVP in TCU's win over Wisconsin at the end of the 2010 season.

Carder totaled 228 tackles with 25 tackles for a loss, 5.5 sacks, 19 passes broken up and four interceptions with three returned for touchdowns in his collegiate career. Carder is a hard-nosed football player who should have an interesting draft experience in 2012. WalterFootball.com would like to thank Tank Carder for his participation. We would also like to thank Tank's agent, Kelli Masters of KMM Sports, for helping to facilitate Tank's draft diary. Carder and Masters are readers of this Web site, so it was a natural fit to approach them about having Tank's draft diary here. We are thrilled to have Tank share his journey with all of you. Now, let's let Tank take over.

The NFL Scouting Combine was a great experience. You've been training for seven or eight weeks for one day. It is one day to show your physical talent and you have to go out there and show what you've got. You spend time talking to teams as well. I felt like I was prepared more than I could ever be entering the Combine. I was definitely nervous, but it was a confidant nervous.

I hit my goal in the 40-yard dash on the hand count at 4.56. I didn't really like my official time that I had I gotten, but what can you do? They add to everybody's times with the official. Everybody's official time is worse than their hand time, so that's how it goes. Overall, I was definitely satisfied with my performance. I stuck with my time and sat on all my times at the Pro Day. I didn't run the 40 or anything, so I stuck with all my times except my vertical jump.

In the field position drills I was definitely happy. I felt like I executed well on that. I was fast and flying around pretty well. I felt like I was quick and my feet were good, so I was confidant about my position drills at the Combine. I felt good about my overall outcome from that. At the Combine, I didn't have any official meetings, but I had tons of unofficial meetings with NFL coaches. I met with the linebacker coaches and defensive coordinators that where there at the unofficial meeting room. It was really interesting talking a lot of football. I didn't get any of the crazy questions from teams that you sometimes hear about. I didn't have any official meetings with teams so I guess they broke those out in the official meeting rooms, but I didn't get any. Mine was all football and talking football with the coaches. I did a lot of official meetings at the East-West Shrine Game, so that was one of the reasons I didn't go into the official meetings. At the Combine, all the early entry guys come and the teams haven't been able to meet with them yet. Myself and a lot of the seniors were able to meet with teams at an All-Star game. It was fun and interesting talking football with the coaches and coordinators.

Tank Carder - listed in Round 3 of our 2012 NFL Mock Draft.

The coach from the Cowboys, Matt Eberflus, was really interesting. I spoke with him a lot. Glenn Pires, the coach from the Falcons, him as well. Everybody I spoke with was real enthusiastic and it just pumped me up having those in depth conversations about football. It was really interesting. You can see the different kind of coaches you talk to and how different it is going from college to the NFL. It was an interesting experience all around.

I talked to a lot of teams, and some teams that run the 3-4, but for the most part I feel like I will be going to a 4-3 scheme. A lot of the teams that I've spoken with and a lot of the people I've talked to have said that I'm a 4-3 middle or outside linebacker. I feel I can play where they want to put me. I can adapt. Overall I feel I'll land in a 4-3 scheme.

Coming from college and playing in a 4-2 defense it was totally different than a 4-3 or a 3-4. We occasionally went to a 4-3, but for the most part we were a 4-2-5 defense, so that was different. Given the variety in my responsibilities as one of those two linebackers, I know that I can adapt to whatever scheme I go to in the NFL.

I've put on weight since the end of the college season and I really don't want to go over 240 at this point. That being said, if a team were to draft me and tell me to put on weight I definitely would. I can move around from different spots and did that at TCU, 3-4 or a 4-3, either way I just want to go play some ball.