Combine to introduce live timing … Long-time combine watchers will notice one huge change in the way the 40 is presented when the offensive linemen start lumbering down the straightaway tomorrow. As reported by this CBS Sports article, in recent years every player was actually credited with two 40-times. The first was an unofficial time that was posted immediately after each run and was a hand-timed clocking made by former NFL exec Charlie Casserley who was actually just sitting in the stands. Then after everyone in a group had completed both their runs, electronic times, which were deemed as official, were released collectively by combine officials. The problem was that the initial hand clockings tended to be up to a tenth or more slower than the so-called official electronic time and needless to say led to a certain amount of confusion, especially because news agencies tended to jump on really good initial times, which then would be factored lower later on. Starting this year, though, the NFL network will be showing real time 40 clocking, including things like the 10-yard splits, which many teams in fact consider to be more valuable for positions like the offensive linemen than the full 40 time. Should be interesting.
