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Reports early this morning are that Tank Carradine of Florida State could be getting ready to take a free fall today on the second day of the NFL draft. One report compared the state of Carradine’s knee injury to that of Da’Quan Bowers a couple of years ago. Bowers, who was picked 51st overall by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2011, was originally thought of as a top-10 talent before issues with his knee arose. Carradine hurt his knee in November, causing him to miss the last two games of the season.

The story with Carradine is a little bit different. Leading up to the draft, Carradine wasn’t thought of as the best player at his position from his school. That honor went to Bjoern Werner, who was picked last night by the Colts at #24. There was some talk just days before the clock was started by the commissioner though that the Carradine was jumping up on some people’s draft boards, and could possibly even go before his FSU teammate.

In his last two seasons with the Seminoles, Carradine racked up about 16 sacks and 21 tackles for loss. Carradine is also a very intimidating looking player at 6’5” and about 260 pounds; he has the size and strength to play multiple positions. Carradine did not workout at the combine or even at his pro day aside from doing the bench press.

Carradine is a natural pass rusher; he has some great power, good quickness and agility. If his knee checks out, he could be the steal of the draft for the team that decides to take the risk on him. Medical issues like this always come out of the woodwork around this time of the draft, and it is up to the individual teams to decide now if Carradine is worth taking the risk.

With this new information, I’d be surprised to see Tank go anywhere earlier than the very end of the second round, if even then. There are plenty of teams though that could use pass rush help who might take a flier on him, look at a team like the Patriots or Broncos to take the risk on him. Both of those teams are also still in the Freeney/Abraham free agent sweepstakes.