Combine workouts start Thursday … The first group of players at the scouting combine in Indianapolis will hit the field tomorrow for their on-field physical testing and positional drills. The first group includes the defensive linemen and LBs with the on-field session getting underway around 3 PM ET. That represents a major change from earlier years when the… Read More »
Top QB Williams cool with Bears or wherever … One of the underlying questions regarding the 2024 draft was whether USC QB Caleb Williams, the consensus top-prospect overall for this year’s draft, might try and force a trade if he didn’t want to play for the team that had the #1 pick. Williams appears to have cleared that… Read More »
Where is JJ? And other combine notes … Actually JJ – aka JJ McCarthy, QB of the national champion Michigan Wolverines – is Indianapolis with the rest of the leading prospects for the 2024 draft at the NFL’s annual scouting combine. McCarthy, though, may be the most interesting prospect in Indianapolis; certainly, he is the most polarizing. Indeed,… Read More »
Bears, Pats top personnel execs talk draft … The most popular guy at the scouting combine in Indianapolis so far this week has been Chicago GM Ryan Poles, whose Bears have the #1 pick overall. In particular, there has been some buzz around the league of late that the Bears might consider trading from the top pick. However,… Read More »
UNC QB Maye won’t throw at combine … North Carolina QB Drake Maye has announced, that like fellow top prospects at the position Caleb Williams of USC and LSU’s Jayden Daniels, he will not be participating in the passing drills at the scouting combine on Saturday.
WR Odunze to work out; WR Nabers won’t … After Ohio State’s Marvin Harrison announced earlier this morning that he would not be working out at this week’s scouting combine, the other two of the big 3 receivers in this year’s draft also chimed in with Washington’s Rome Odunze saying that he will in fact be a full… Read More »
Second tier QBs to throw; WR Harrison won’t run at combine … Just a quick update to today’s earlier report on the combine. While star QBs Caleb Williams of Southern Cal and LSU’s Jayden Daniels will not throw at the combine on Saturday, J J McCarthy, Michael Penix and Bo Nix have indicated that they will. At the… Read More »
QBs Williams, Daniels won’t throw at combine … Saturday’s on-field testing and positional drills session at the combine lost some of its luster as both of star QBs Caleb Williams of Southern Cal and LSU’s Jayden Daniels have confirmed that they will not participate in the throwing drills for the position weekend. Williams, the consensus top prospect for… Read More »
Combine set to start … Players have begun to arrive as we speak in Indianapolis for the start of the annual scouting combine which just may be the mot important phase of the whole pre-draft process. And we say ‘may be the most important’ part of the draft process because the large majority of players who are ultimately… Read More »
QB Richard, ER Hayes star in HBCU bowl … The post-season all-star game schedule actually just wrapped up yesterday with the 3rd annual HBCU Heritage Classic in New Orleans. North Carolina Central QB Davius Richard was named the game’s offensive MVP despite only playing one series. Richard is an intriguing dual-threat type QB with decent size (6-3, 220)… Read More »
CFL combine list announced … While most of the football world is focused on the NFL combine which gets underway in Indianapolis tomorrow, the Canadian league has announced its initial invite list to the annual CFL scouting for combine. A total of 71 players have been invited to the CFL combine, including 11 international prospects, which is scheduled… Read More »
Bengals to tag WR Higgins … Cincinnati reportedly will designate free agent to be WR Tee Higgins as a franchise player. If he signs the tag Higgins will get just under $22M in 2024, although it is also still possible that the Bengals could trade him now that he has been tagged. NFL teams have until the end… Read More »
Cap rockets up to $255M … The NFL announced earlier today that the salary cap for the 2024 season will be a record $255.4M. That’s up a whopping $30.6M or 13.6% over last year’s cap of$225M.This year’s final figure is also as much as $12M more per team than most teams were expecting. Teams can begin spending that… Read More »
Pre-combine projection posted … With the combine looming on the draft horizon next week, not to mention the fact that we also revised The GBN Big Board last week, it seemed like a good time to also give another shot at a 3-round mock. And once again we caution that we have no idea, at least maybe past… Read More »
Cards part ways with top personnel exec … Arizona VP of player personnel Quentin Harris is reportedly no longer with the team after a 20-year stint with the team that included fur as a safety just after the turn of the century. Harris then returned to the organization as a pro scout in 2008 and slowly worked his… Read More »
New CFP playoff format approved … The CFP management board has approved the new 5+7 playoff format that will begin next fall. Under the new model, the playoff field will include the 5 highest ranked conference champions along with the next 7 highest ranked teams. Under the new format, the four highest ranked teams will get first-round byes,… Read More »
Tag day in NFL … The new NFL football year doesn’t officially get under for another three weeks, but it really begins today which is the first day that teams can apply a franchise or transition tag to impending free agents. Franchised players are tagged either with an exclusive or non-exclusive designation. Most get the non-exclusive version which… Read More »
There’s a kind of hush all over the league … With the Super Bowl in the books it has been kind of quiet around the NFL the past week. However, don’t be confused by the apparent calm as there is a lot going on behind closed doors. In fact, most teams would have taken the week before the… Read More »
Path to the draft runs thru Indy … Every year we make that statement referring to the fact that the scouting combine in Indianapolis is an indisputably a key element of the pre-draft process. Last year, for example, 86% of the 259 players selected at the 2023 draft participated in some way at last February’s event in Indianapolis.… Read More »
Tua II heads list of top combine snubs … Every year one of the big questions surrounding the scouting combine is who didn’t get invited. Interesting this year, though, that it doesn’t appear if there are any real huge surprises in the players not invited to the combine. Among those who won’t be in Indianapolis at the end… Read More »
Lions sign Lions’ CFL DPOY … Detroit has signed B.C. Lions DE Mathieu Betts, the CFL’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2023, to a futures contract. Betts, who played collegiately for Canadian power Laval, had a breakout year last fall when he led the CFL with 18 sacks. He was originally signed as an undrafted rookie by… Read More »
Combine list announced … The NFL just released the list of 321 players that have been invited to this year’s scouting combine in Indianapolis which gets underway on February 26th. And the actual list is important because the players chosen are the ones that NFL teams want to see and historically combine participants have made up around 85%… Read More »
Super Bowl to decide final two picks … The 2023 season wraps up later this evening with the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs facing the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl in Las Vegas. And that means the final two picks in the 2024 draft – now less than 75 days away – selection order will be… Read More »
Pats tweak front office … It appears New England has settled on a front office structure, at least for the short term, following the departure of Bill Belichik last month. Eliot Wolf, the son of almost legendary long-time Packers GM Ron Wolf, who has been the Patriots director of scouting, will become the team’s de facto G.M., although… Read More »
Big Board updated … With all the new information, the GBN Big Board ranking the top 200+ prospects overall for the 2024 draft has been updated. And as we have noted previously, our board reflects less how we have the players rated ourselves, but as best as we can figure how NFL teams have them ranked on their… Read More »
