Welcome to Indianapolis … Draft hopefuls have begun arriving in Indianapolis for the start of the NFL’s annual scouting combine on Tuesday in what is arguably the most important week of the pre-draft testing period. A total of 330 college prospects will be poked and prodded, as well as tested both mentally and physically as they go through what amounts to a pressure cooker job interview.
Players are broken into 4 groups each of which which will undergo 4 days of testing. The week will be lead off with the offensive lineman and TEs who start their week in Indianapolis later today, followed by Group 2, which includes the QBs, WRs and RBs, which goes from Wednesday through Saturday; Group 3, which includes the LBs and defensive linemen and runs from Thursday through Sunday; and lastly, Group 4, which includes the corners and safeties and runs Friday through Monday.
The first day for each group involves registration and orientation with the players also undergoing preliminary medical tests and getting basic x-rays. The second day involves the weigh-in, more medical tests, as well as some psychological testing. On the third day, players meet the players association and undergo further psychological testing; they also undergo strength testing including the bench press. Finally on the fourth day players hit the field for physical skills testing as well as positional drills. The physical tests include running the 40 – the gold standard for draft prospects – as well as the 3-cone drill, 20- and 60-yard shuttles, broad jump and vertical leap.
The offensive linemen and TEs will be the first to hit the field on Friday, followed by the offensive skill positions on Saturday, the defensive linemen and LBs on Sunday and the DBs on Monday. The NFL Network will provide live coverage of the on-field drills for all 4 groups starting on Friday at 9 AM ET.
Of course, not all players will do a full workout, as over the years many of the very top prospects have opted to wait until their own school’s pro day or a private workout to run the 40 and participate in position drills, although as of right now just about all of this year’s top QB prospects have committed to full participation positional drills including throwing drills. As well, on each of the first three days players can be interviewed by individual teams. However, every team is limited to interviewing just 60 player and have to submit a list in advance of the players they wish to interview. As well, each interview is limited to only 15 minutes meaning the players are under immense pressure as it may be the first and possibly only time they have direct contact with NFL coaches and general managers. In particular, during the interviews, players will be asked to explain any past off-field indiscretions and/or questions about work ethic and motor; teams will also put them in front of a chalk board and test their football acumen. In fact, there are a number of players with some real ‘splaning’ during interviews this week starting with QBs Josh Rosen of UCLA, whose commitment to the game has been questioned; Oklahoma QB Baker Mayfield, who – fairly or unfairly – has been compared to that ‘other’ enigmatic QB named Manziel; and LSU DE Arden Key, a one-time leading candidate to be the top pick overall, who left the team for a while last spring for undisclosed personal reasons.
While the physical testing, especially the 40-yard dashes, get most of the national headlines, the heart-and-soul of the combine are the medical exams. Indeed, the combine came about in the early 1980s as an effort to centralize the medical tests so players wouldn’t have to undergo the same procedure for 32 different teams. In fact, every NFL team will have their entire medical and training staffs in Indianapolis going over the medical history, X-rays and MRI results of the prospects. As well, players who have had a surgery in college or high school will be asked to go for additional tests. And players with serious medical concerns may be recalled in early April for further testing. In fact, though, it appears that there are actually fewer top prospects with injury concerns than in recent years, although players like Florida State safety Derwin James, Texas OT Connor Williams and Boston College ER Harold Landry, who had major injury issues in the recent past will likely be among those getting extra looks from league medical personnel.
Its also important to keep the combine in perspective. No question it’s important part of the process, but the fact is that is part of a process. Indeed, most NFL teams already have put together their preliminary boards for the 2018 draft based on the grades that their scouts have produced based on game tape and other related analysis. Teams will then tweak those grades based on what happens at the combine and pro days. However, the notion that teams go out and draft players who blow up the combine with out-of-this-world athletic performances is more myth than reality. In fact, while 4.2 40 times and the like make great headlines, the reality is that most teams use indicators like the 40 to check off boxes. Teams will have minimum size/speed ratios for every position and are really most interested in getting players within those particular parameters. And when a player does go out and post unexpectedly good combine numbers, what most teams do is go back to the tape and try and figure why that player’s productivity didn’t match their athleticism.
