NFL
By: Greg Rector
The annual NFL Combine is taking place in Indianapolis this week. The combine is a piece of the puzzle that far too often doesn’t translate into on-the-field success at the NFL level. Its real importance for the 32 teams in the interview process with players along with the medicals. Although for a lot of folks it takes on a level of importance that isn’t worth it. The list of combine standouts that didn’t pan out as NFL players is huge. No matter the position you want to look at players who stood out at the combine have been total busts or never reached the hype that surrounded them after bench-pressing, running a 40-yard dash without pads on, or had a huge vertical leap. The obvious culprit is the 40-yard dash. Think about this folks, how often does a player run 40 yards in a straight line during a game? Jerry Rice and Anquan Boldin as two examples both ran times in the 4.7 range, not overly impressive to say the least. Both went on to have long and successful NFL careers. Good thing that was before the NFL Network wall-to-wall coverage of the event. Also, a good thing that scouts understand what the combine is really about. If they were running those times today the “Mock Draft,” community would be dropping the stock of both Rice and Boldin in a heartbeat.
Here are a few names and their impressive 40 yard dash times. Josh Robinson (2012) 4.33, Demarcus Van Dyke (2011) 4.28, Chris Johnson (2008) 4.24, lastly Jacoby Ford (2010) 4.28. Only Chris Johnson ever went on to make a Pro Bowl. Yes, the 40 also sees guys have impressive times and they do go on to have excellent careers, Deion Sanders, Randy Moss, and many others over the years have indeed been clocked as very fast and that also translated to their NFL careers. It isn’t a perfect measure, however, simply one of the exercises that occur at the combine. My point especially with the 40-yard dash is don’t jump to conclusions about possible success based on something that happens in a controlled environment as is the case in Indianapolis. Many players will skip running them at the combine and instead opt to showcase themselves at their pro day. Instead of the accuracy of the laser timed dash at the combine add .o6 seconds from the time you see at those pro days to get an accurate assessment.
This holds with the bench press, broad jump, vertical jump, and the three-cone drill, all of which are just an opportunity to see players’ explosiveness along with their current strength level. For every lineman that has 35 or more reps as an example on the bench press, there are many who never even take a snap in an NFL game. The combine is really just a sample that can be used mostly to reassure teams that what they’ve seen of a player on game film or in-person is indeed holding true. The far more important parts as I mentioned before are the player interviews (character and football IQ) and the medicals where teams will poke and prod to see if any injuries will have an impact on that player going forward. This year as an example teams will be disappointed that Derek Stingley Jr the draft’s top-ranked cornerback for many won’t be there. He’s recovering from a Lisfranc injury (mid-foot fracture/s) and when it was learned that was his injury issue you better believe a few teams will put a red flag up concerning Stingley Jr. Teams will want to see that his range of motion and the strength of his foot haven’t been impacted too greatly. Everyone will need to wait until April 6th when the LSU pro day takes place. The injury issue along with character issues now surround him and could certainly see Stingley Jr drop on the team’s boards. The combine would have given teams the opportunity to assess his progress after surgery. That’s what the combine really focuses on.
Enjoy the coverage on the NFL Network, but please remember the combine is not and never has been a great predictor of NFL success. It’s a step along the way for what will unfold on April 28th, 29th, and 30th at the draft. Also, don’t forget that Nuts and Bolts Sports will be covering the draft all three days with Jeff Barnes and Bill Carroll on our YouTube channel. Subscribe to the channel for in-depth coverage.
https://www.youtube.com/c/NutsAndBoltsSP
As always you can find me on Twitter @GregCowboys
