Associated Press

West tight end Dennis Pitta (32), of BYU, has his helmet knocked off from a hit by Kam Chancellor, of Virginia Tech, during the East-West Shrine game.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Kam Chancellor can play. And Chancellor, if you believe anybody who knows or has evaluated him, will play in the NFL.

Now, where he'll play on the actual football field, well, somebody will figure that out eventually.

Presently, Norfolk, Va.'s Chancellor is a potential mid- to high-round draft pick nearly on physical stature -- a 6-foot-3, 231-pound oak-like frame -- and athletic gifts alone, and that has to be nice.

"I'm bringing more to the table; I look at it like that," said Chancellor, who played free safety the last two seasons at Virginia Tech. "As long as I get a fair shot at playing safety, I wouldn't mind playing linebacker. I just want to get a fair shot at playing safety, though."

It's a legitimate quandary floating around about him -- safety, and which kind, or linebacker? But it's a proverbial "good" problem for Chancellor's potential employers.

Free safeties, they're more involved in pass coverage. And while coverage was a problem area for Chancellor this season, he recovered some lost esteem with a strong week at January's East-West Shrine Game, which he led with seven tackles and a broken-up pass.

Strong safeties are nearer the line to play more run -- a Chancellor strength -- while linebackers are even more involved in mixing it up with blockers and runners. And if there's something Chancellor, an icon at Maury High, enjoys more than fresh cookies from a friend's family in Larchmont, it's mixing it up.

"Guys weren't timid, really, but they were kind of 'respecting' each other," at the Shrine practices, said George Mavrikes, Chancellor's Washington, D.C.-based agent. "Suddenly, out of nowhere, Kam just blew somebody up, and he did that a few times.

"He did it in the game, too, knocked a kid's helmet off. He helped himself a lot there, and I think he'll help himself more at the [NFL] Combine, because I don't think they realize how fast he is."

Chancellor will run 40 yards for NFL scouts today, and he hopes to clock something below 4.5. That would further delight at least one NFL scouting director who'd be fine with having Chancellor on his defense, glaring in at a quarterback.

"He shows the range to be a free safety, and he certainly has the temperament to be a strong safety," said the scouting director, who spoke not for attribution. "He's not afraid of contact, and he did a good enough job at the Shrine Bowl to say he has good coverage skills. And I know he's a great kid."

That's the huge thing about combine week, letting teams know you're worth their time and money on a personal level. Chancellor, who plans to graduate from Tech in May, has a hammer there, because he's impossible not to like.

"A lot of teams told me I did good on my interviews at the Shrine Bowl," Chancellor said, "which I do think I'm great at doing interview sessions.

"You just have to be straight forward and don't lie about anything, because they know everything about you before they ask anyway."

They know, then, that Chancellor is hungry for NFL cash to move his single mother out of Park Place and into "a nice house." Hungry to re-open a Norfolk Boys and Girls Club, "the one that's shut down on Colonial Avenue," to help calm the roiling neighborhood undercurrent that Chancellor said has put friends in jail, and in coffins.

"A lot of people have reached out to me," Chancellor said, "saying when I get a chance and want to do it, they'll help me out."

Chancellor's chance? That comes soon, from somewhere on an NFL field.