They can be ruthless at times, these NFL scouts. They don’t care how you’ve done in the past, because the past is just that.

Take Ennis Haywood. He’s led the Big 12 Conference in rushing the past two years. He’s won all-conference honors twice.

Scouts told him at the NFL Combine Feb. 28-March 4 (the combine is the athletic audition for the NFL) that he lacks open-field speed. Pro Football Weekly, a premiere-scouting magazine, describes Haywood as lacking “a real second gear.”

Haywood’s known this.

In the months after he left Iowa State last semester, Haywood’s spent time in Chicago working out with five other former college football players and a “speed trainer” who tried to remedy his lack of open field speed.

Still, he was disappointed with his 4.67 seconds 40-yard dash time – the purest test of pure speed – at the combine.

But not everything disappoints. The NFL likes his speed between tackles. His vision. Pro Football Weekly likes his durability. Everyone likes his size.

If he’s drafted, Haywood will play at or around 220 pounds, 16 above what he played at as a junior at Iowa State.

Haywood has been judged in every athletic way known to football and this weekend, the NFL will make its decision on him and possibly three other former Cyclones at the NFL draft.

Haywood’s excited.

“I’m hoping just to go anywhere,” he says when first asked.

But pry deeper and he’ll tell you he’d love nothing more than to stay in Dallas, his hometown, playing “with the `Boys.”

Or nearer the Gulf of Mexico, suiting up for the newly formed Houston Texans.

He says he hasn’t lost sleep over this weekend. He says he’ll watch it at his mother’s house, paying attention when the third round begins – the round scouts told him he might be picked.

“I can’t worry about anything I can’t change,” he says.

So he’s spent his time “chillin,'” happy to be away from school, concentrating on “playing football and football only.”

That’s something Mike Banks would like to do as well.

Banks is a tight end who would take a job in the NFL “anywhere.”

“I’ll live anywhere. I’ll go anywhere,” he says.

He won’t worry about moving until Sunday though.

Banks will watch the Cyclones spring game Saturday instead.

Then on Sunday, the more realistic of the two days in which Banks will be drafted – he’s described as being “a very average athlete,” by Pro Football Weekly – he’ll watch Sunday’s rounds until conclusion.

And if his name isn’t called, he’ll wait by the phone, waiting for a team to call and invite him to try out as a free agent.

Some teams might ask him to try out as a special team player, at least that’s what a lot of them have said to Banks.

He has no problem with this.

“Even if I was a starter [in the NFL], I’d want to play special teams,” he says.

And for the past four years at Iowa State, he has.

Like Banks, defensive lineman Kevin DeRonde’s played in every game the past four years at Iowa State.

Like Banks, DeRonde will pay attention only to the final rounds of the draft.

“A few teams” have called DeRonde, interested.

“All it is right now is a waiting game,” he says.

DeRonde has spent his time working out in Ames and working on his Masters degree. If football falls through, he will become an optometrist.

But that’s at least a weekend away.

“I’m hoping a lot of d-lineman go early so that can open up the draft for later,” he says. “There’s not a lot of talented defensive lineman.”

But if he isn’t among the talented ones by Sunday’s end, he too will wait for a call, asking him to try out as a free agent.

Offensive lineman Marcel Howard is the fourth ISU prospect. Pro Football Weekly calls his size his largest asset. He “uses his size to engulf and bury defenders,” the magazine says.

His weaknesses, according to Pro Football Weekly, are many. And they read like a police report. “Lacks the athleticism and feet to play left tackle on the next level. Is not very quick out of his stance. Tends to play without much knee-bend or flexibility .”

Howard could not be reached for comment.

The draft starts at noon on Saturday with rounds one through three. Rounds four through seven are continued on Sunday.