The combine is a waste of development time

[CEH]

Finally, been saying this for years. The combine is a boondoggle for NFL personnel. Outside of interviews and medical , none of the events have anything to do with playing football. Learning how to get an extra millisecond from starting the 40 yard dash will help you how. When will an NFL ever run 40 yards from down position. None of the other sports have something remotely like the combine to judge talent.

Never understood broaddjump, 40 yard dash for DTs even comparing 40 times among the DTs proves what? How about catching a series of lollipop throws across the field with no one there to know the crap out of you.

I'm sure there may be one or two drills of significance but the only thing for sure it will help filter out the really dumb athletes who show up and flunk a drug test.

The title of this post, btw, was from Bill Belicheck

 

[SpringStein]

My #1 concern for the athletes is all the class time they are missing!!

 

[randymon]

Regardless of it's necessity, it does fill some time in at least. There is the potential to see some " Byron Jones " performances as well. I also helps,at least for fans, the opportunity to get more familiar with draft picks as well. It's all about us!

 

[Draft Crazy]

Yeah- I think a lot of it is garbage, look at the film, but the fact is players look forward to it (those who test well), and it does move players up and down.. It also gives teams the ability to meet with players one on one.

 

[Mingo]

Big changes coming to the combine in the not distant furture.

 

[randymon]

Big changes coming to the combine in the not distant furture.

Beside only making the fat boys only run the 10 split, what else ? What big changes? Elaborate.

 

[randymon]

Just to elaborate, the combine for the most part is a spectator/ revenue event. If a NFL team can't evaluate a player by his game film, then their in trouble ( Brown's for example ). By watching film you can decipher many things. Athleticism, motor, talent vs talent ( how they perform vs quality opponents ) leadership during games ( on the sidelines as well ) hustle away from the play ( blkg downfield, staying with blks,etc ) and more. What you don't get by watching film is..work ethic, locker room presence, off field habits, goals,desire to be the best/motivation/character,etc. The latter you only find as much as you can thru researching coaches,teammates,family,friends and personal interviews. I agree the combine is really quite irrelevant for NFL decision making on who you feel will help your team. It's more of a gladiator environment and chest pumping event. If a team likes what they see on film and no serious red flags, their going to put that guy on their draft chart regardless of his combine performance. But...I like it for the obvious reasons...NFL blues, familiarity of players and all the analysis from the " experts ".

 

[SpiritOf77]

I'll remind all you party poopers of this thread when we go and draft some LB on Day 3 who runs a 4.58 and everyone is like

OHHHHHHHHH YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHH !!

 

[SpiritOf77]

.... you want to watch combine stuff, or, you want to see "A Football Life: Joe Theismann" again ??

 

[58crash]

Let's see ?????hmmmmm....

The NFL have conned young college football players to get into NFL shape for Free and now there bitching about it ...lol

Shaq Lawson is badly out of shape you can tell ...he is still a stud ... the work these kids do is very much relevant

 

[58crash]

Most College WR need this time and if you think most still need a year to really get a NFL body

 

[Draft Crazy]

Yeah I think the combine is pretty important for WR's and DB's to separate themself from the cluster of the pack.

 

[cdumler7]

I think there is still a lot a team can figure out from the combine. Such as work ethic of which players actually stay in shape to get ready for this thing. Shows they might care about their future. Obviously you have the medical side of it that will be huge for a lot of these guys. You have the interview part that while it is rehearsed teams can still see who put in the work to be best prepared. Maybe the biggest part thought might not have anything to do with these guys running on the field but the agents and GM's who get a chance to talk about FA whether that be players on your team or players your team is wanting and will unofficially ask what the asking price is for said player. Like we have already seen this week negotiations with Osweiler and Jackson have been going on just in the last couple of days.

Beyond that to me this is just another piece of the puzzle with what you see on the field. You want to see if what shows up on tape also shows up running these drills. It can help either confirm or maybe cast a bit of doubt about what a player is doing. For the small school guys this is the chance to really put a bug in the ear of these teams and show them that maybe they should go watch some film of these guys or watch it more closely. For the Broncos that is what happened with Julius Thomas in he did well at the Combine and got a bit of attention to see his potential.

This also for me at least if I were a GM is looking for those guys that maybe have that great athleticism but just haven't had the coaching to maximize that talent. These are my late round guys that I take a chance on the athleticism and trust my coaching. The early rounds are for finding guys who can contribute early and often if at all possible and late rounds are for development.

 

[Mingo]

Beside only making the fat boys only run the 10 split, what else ? What big changes? Elaborate.

NFL considering changes to scouting combine