Mel Kiper Jr. can take some time to adjust his hair. Mike Mamula won’t have another interview request for at least a year. Millions of NFL fans can adjust their team’s offseason priorities.
The NFL Scouting Combine, held this year in Indianapolis, completed its four-day tour de force yesterday. With the 40-yard dashes run, the 225-pound bar lifted as many times as physically possible, and the hundreds of questions asked about a combine attendee’s past, the 32 teams and the general public are left to ask themselves what it all means.
You know the combine is so appealing when its description renders you embarrassed: It’s basically an extensive workout and interview session in advance of April’s NFL Draft, with the workouts being taped and broadcast over the Internet and on television. The entertainment value in that is what, exactly? Well, these guys might be future starters, or future faces of the franchise, on your favorite team, and the emotional stake you have in your favorite team is too great not to undervalue anything like this.
The irony of the whole situation is that the combine isn’t an automatic determinant of your NFL future. While more than 300 players worked out for NFL teams over the last four days at the Colts’ Lucas Oil Field, around 250 players will actually be drafted, and it’s entirely likely that a couple of them won’t have participated in the Combine. Ex-Wyoming running back Devin Moore, an Indianapolis native, was spurned by the combine and decided to hold a private workout of his own in his hometown, which was attended by 14 NFL teams. He clocked a 40-yard dash time of 4.43 seconds, which would’ve been the second-best by any running back at the combine.
Still, there are a few basic truths we can glean from the Combine that appeal to the common-sense football fan:
? Teams want to know how players handle pressure, and this is the perfect environment for that. Or, as a subtitle: Do not do what ex-Alabama offensive tackle Andre Smith did. Smith, who was suspended in Alabama’s loss to Utah in the 2009 Sugar Bowl for what was allegedly contact with an agent, opted against working out in Indianapolis at the very last possible second and tried to leave the city inconspicuously. That doesn’t exactly happen for players in the conversation as the 2009 NFL Draft’s first overall pick, which Smith certainly will not be now thanks to an eyebrow-raising display of unprofessionalism. Questions about weight gain and functional bulk had surrounded Smith prior to the combine; he left Indianapolis under the scrutiny of a whole new series of questions.
? Basic positional truths hold true in this setting. If you are an interior lineman and you bench-press 20 repetitions of 225 pounds (the combine standard), you’ll likely have trouble with current NFL linemen. In the same vein, wide receivers with slow 10-yard splits on their 40-yard dash times will struggle to gain separation from NFL cornerbacks. Those same aspiring cornerbacks, with poor performances in the agility drills, will likely have trouble against some of the freakishly athletic NFL wide receivers. And then there’s the infamous Wonderlic intelligence test, the 12-minute, 50-question trial by fire. The last person to receive a perfect score of 50 on the Wonderlic? Cincinnati Bengals QB Ryan Fitzpatrick, a seventh-round pick of the St. Louis Rams in 2005 out of Harvard University. If you’re smart, you’re smart. If you’re not, you’re not. The Wonderlic won’t pull punches.
(Incidentally, the top four positions historically in terms of average Wonderlic score are offensive tackle, quarterback, center and offensive guard, in that order. The correlation between attention sought and Wonderlic score clearly doesn’t exist.)
? We love seeing freakish athletes do freakishly athletic things. This year’s eye-popping measurement of choice comes courtesy of wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, who entered the draft after his junior year at Maryland. Heyward-Bey, who is 6-foot-2, ran a 4.30 40, practically unheard of for a taller person not named Usain Bolt.
? We love a good story off the gridiron. California defensive end Rulon Davis, a 25-year-old senior, could be the oldest player selected in April’s draft. Davis spent three years in the Marines after graduating from high school (he didn’t receive a single football scholarship), including six months in Iraq, before returning stateside to play football. He spent his freshman year at Mt. San Antonio College before transferring as a four-to-play-three defensive end.
That he’s even walking is the greater story. In July 2005, Davis was rear-ended by a semi on a California highway while riding a motorcycle, throwing him off the bike. The semi ran over both of Davis’ legs. Somehow, his bones weren’t broken and his ligaments weren’t damaged, but it took Davis a month to relearn how to walk.
In terms of draft stock, Davis is probably a late-round pick, but isn’t it nice that that’s all he has to worry about?
? The draft matters to NFL fans more than ever, and they want their teams to go deep. The New England Patriots didn’t believe they were getting a superstar when they drafted Tom Brady with the 199th overall pick in the 2000 draft. But Brady developed his game, worked hard and saw those results pay off with three Super Bowl victories. Fans are becoming more intelligent, recognizing that teams don’t have to find the next Tom Brady but should be able to find contributors in the later rounds of the draft. David Vobora, a linebacker for the Rams and a Eugene native, was selected with the 252nd (and last) pick in the 2008 draft. Vobora, who attended Idaho, saw action in eight games this past season, including one start. Seventh-rounders have been getting their due lately; New York Giants running back Ahmad Bradshaw is arguably the most notable name, averaging 6.1 yards per carry in his two seasons with the team.
The 2009 NFL Draft can’t start soon enough.
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